Making Waves
by Vimesenthusiast
Summary: After realizing how bored his life is and getting some good advice, Ranma accidentally eats the age reducing mushrooms, after which he is sent through a portal by Gosunkugi screwing up more than usual. Found by the ancient water dragon Typhon and with no way to return he moves on with his life in this strange new land of Earth Land changing quite a lot LOL. Pairings undecided.
1. Chapter 1

Making Waves

Not an artist nor a woman so the originals ain't mine.

Hey all. This is the first chapter of my Fairy Tail X Ranma crossover. This story has been posted over on my patty r on page for some time, up to chapter 6, with chapter 7 coming in the next week or so. I had not intended to post any of it over here on fanfic for a while, but I had three people who said they had recently become mothers who read my fanfiction and wanted to see this story but weren't in a position to actually donate. So here is my belated Mother's Day present to any mothers out there who read fanfiction. I have no idea how many of you there are, but you rock nonetheless.

Realize before you read the FT portion of the chapter, I have not read the series since the end of the Grand Magic Games. When I learned that Fairy Tail had dissolved I was enraged at what I saw as a blatant use of another plot tool, just like the whole time skip that happened on Tenryou Island. I am also not a fan (putting it mildly) of Jellal, let alone the evil that is JERZA. Ugh. That being said, I still haven't decided on the pairings that might show up in this fic; more on that in my endnotes. For now, please enjoy!

This has been betaed by _Michael_ , so please give your thanks to him for his work on it.

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 **Chapter 1: Old People Are Wise, Who Knew?!**

After nearly two years of living here, Ranma knew that there was only one place in the Tendo dojo where he could go for some peace and quiet. He could wish that it was because everyone knew that this was his spot and wouldn't bother him when he was there, but it was more because most people just didn't know he liked it. Regardless, Ranma now sat on the roof of the house leaning his head and back against the house's small chimney and staring out over the Nerima area around them, thinking hard.

The fact of the matter was that of late Ranma was not happy, not happy at all. _Everything should've changed after the wedding fiasco, but it hasn't!_

The rivals had all returned, showing up during the actual wedding to disrupt events for their own reasons and then continuing to show up afterward as if nothing had changed. Oh, Mousse and Ryoga at the very least tended to act warier around Ranma, retreating quicker if it seemed that Ranma was gaining the upper hand. But they and the fiancées all seemed to be under the impression that because nothing had been finalized at the marriage that it didn't count it all. Even Akane was back to normal, though possibly a bit more vicious towards Ranma and a bit less understanding about his curse.

But Ranma, though he didn't show it to anyone, hadn't returned to normal. For one thing, he had for the first time gone into a fight with the intent to kill. That had marked Ranma. Even if Saffron would be able to come back eventually, reborn from his egg, Ranma had still intended to end him.

It wasn't like Ranma had never been in a fight that truly put his life on the line. Living on the road his father had put him into street fights several times, and they had rubbed elbows with the yakuza and triad members more often than Ranma cared to think about. But he had **never** had to kill. Disable, cripple, and in a few cases neuter, but never kill.

 _And no one seems to understand that except for Happosai and Cologne._ Both of them had been treating him differently since then, having noticed the change in Ranma, though in Happy's case it came and went. No one else had. Even his mother, who he had happily reconciled with a few months before the whole Akane kidnapping thing had occurred, hadn't noticed.

 _And the other problem is everything is so boring!_ It seemed as if Ranma had pushed past some kind of internal threshold, pushing his body's abilities far beyond what he could have done a mere few months before. Not even Ryoga was able to keep up with him now in terms of strength, and everyone around him moved so slowly **!** That and the strange sort of sameness his life had fallen into had woken up a desire to head out onto the road again like he was younger.

His odd boredom with the way his life was like right now had forced him to talk with his mother and Kasumi. They were the two most responsible adults in his life, but neither of them had much advice to offer. Kasumi didn't simply because she didn't want to get further involved in the chaos around him.

Something had happened during the wedding ceremony, and now she was distancing herself from everyone involved in the normal chaos of the area. Even Soun had gotten the cold shoulder sometimes, something Ranma had put down to a shrine to her mother having been destroyed during the wedding brawl. He had tried to repair it the day after, which won him a bit of a smile, but that was all. It'd gotten so bad that even the rivals and fiancées had stopped showing up at the Tendos place, even Shampoo!

As for his mother… Ranma sighed, thinking about her. _She wants me to be this manly man guy and sees no reason why I can't be with so many girls, even if the law and their honor and mine says I can't be, even if they would probably kill each other rather than share me. Or, well, okay, they would probably kill me,_ he thought more bitingly. _I always seem to get blamed for it whenever they try to start a fight, and I try to stop them. No, I need someone else to talk to. Someone who knows at least a bit about what's been going on, but who hasn't actually been a part. Someone whose opinion I can trust and that can only mean Dr. Tofu._

The next day at breakfast as Akane was getting up to head to grab her bag for school, Ranma didn't move from the table, instead of helping Kasumi clean up. "Ranma aren't you coming?" Akane asked suspiciously. "And stop trying to butter up my sister, pervert!"

Ranma winced slightly. The amount of vitriol Akane could put into that word was frankly a little disturbing to him these days. "Nah, I'm not going to school," he said, and before anyone could speak up he went on quickly. "I think I'm going to go search for Doctor Tofu. I stopped by his clinic a few days ago, but there was nothing there. I just want to make sure nothing happened to him, you know?"

Akane paused at that and then slowly nodded. Even Soun could see the point of that. Their eyes tracked over to where Kasumi was still placidly picking up plates, and then back to Ranma who nodded slightly, and both of them nodded back. Even Nabiki nodded, her own eyes trailing to her older sister. "That's a good idea," she said aloud. "How long has his office been closed, and have you gone over to his house?"

"He lives above the clinic, Nabs," Ranma said with a shrug, ignoring her growl at the nickname. "I looked inside yesterday; didn't see anything."

Despite his words, Ranma had seen something, or rather a lack of something. All of Doctor Tofu's clothing and much of the furniture was gone, and there was a "For Sale" sign on the door. It wouldn't take long for Nabiki to figure that out once she started to look into the issue, but she hadn't yet, being so busy with her college work.

"That's nice of you, Ranma," Kasumi said, causing the other Tendos to freeze. Even Genma looked at her quickly. "I do have two books that I borrowed from him a while ago, so if you do run into him, could you please return them for me?"

"Sure, Kasumi," Ranma said with a nod as he reached over to pick up the last of the tableware. "Why don't you go get them and I'll finish cleaning up."

Kasumi favored him with a slight smile, the most she ever showed anyone these days, walking upstairs quickly.

Glaring at him, Akane scowled but eventually nodded. "Tell us about it when you get back, and I'll share my school notes with you."

Ranma nodded back, though inwardly he was rolling his eyes in frustration. If Akane at this point hadn't realized that he didn't really care about school, well, that was kind of sad, really.

"You need any help, boy?" Genma asked.

"Nah old man. I got it. I have a few ideas of where he could've gone already," Ranma said hurriedly. The last thing he wanted to do was bring his father along on this trip. "Though if you could stop by Ukyo and Shampoo's restaurants and tell them what I'm doing so they don't come after me for the day?"

"In that case, Ranma, why don't you take Akane with you?" asked Soun happily. "You could make a date of it."

"No way!" Akane said sharply. "There's a play I want to try out for at school this afternoon, and I'm not missing that for anything, not even Doctor Tofu. Ranma can handle anything that Tofu couldn't handle himself."

"Good luck with that," Ranma said almost absentmindedly, not noticing any of the others reactions to that. In his mind, Akane had a lot more passion for acting than she did for the martial arts, and the sooner she realized that the sooner she'd be happier, he thought. _Maybe. Who knows, really? I might be a girl half the time, but I sure don't understand 'em._

A few moments later the two supposed adults in the room had retreated to their traditional game of Anything Goes shogi, and Nabiki and Akane had left for college and school respectively. Ranma was just finishing putting the dishes away when Kasumi came into the kitchen. She held out the two books to him, then asked, "Before you go, Ranma, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Kasumi," Ranma said happy that she was actually initiating a conversation for the first time since the Wedding Disaster. "What's up?"

"Why did everyone look at me so strangely when you mentioned the idea of finding Doctor Tofu?" Kasumi asked innocently.

Ranma coughed in surprise, nearly dropping the plate he was drying, looking away then back at Kasumi. The innocent expression on her face didn't go away, didn't twitch at all, and he realized that she wasn't having him on about this. "Um, well, everyone, that is, Akane, once told me that she thought you kind of sort of liked Doctor Tofu. Er, I guess **everyone** sort of assumed that, really," he said hesitantly.

Kasumi blinked once, then twice, then a third time as a wide smile appeared on her face and she broke out into laughter. Ranma stood there for a moment just staring, happy to once more see a real smile on her face but wondering why.

"That's," Kasumi said, still laughing, "that is so silly! Why does everyone think that?"

"I don't know. It ain't like I'm really knowledgeable about romance," Ranma replied. "I think it's because you always are borrowing books from him, and they think you might have a lot in common? Maybe the fact you go out of your way to go and visit him, bringing him dishes whenever you return books."

"I am an excellent cook. Paying for the rental of his books with food is simply a neighborly thing to do," Kasumi said dryly, regaining control of herself. "He also has an extremely good collection of books, and his office is closer than the public library, so it is not out of my way to visit him. Besides which, he acts so silly when he was around me. At first, I found it amusing, but at the same time it was rather disconcerting, and never seemed to go away."

Ranma had to wince at the disparaging tone of Kasumi's voice there and answered hesitantly. "I think that was kind of…part of it? I mean, Akane pointed it out to me first, and I sort of figured it out after, but he only acts that way around you. Like he's sort of love-struck?" Even as he said it though, the words didn't seem to make sense to him any longer.

"If someone's acting like that around someone it is a sign of silliness, not love," Kasumi replied tartly. "Besides which, while I like maturity, I don't like men who are so much older than me."

"Ouch," Ranma said, actually holding a hand over his heart, knowing that was both directed towards him and the good Doctor. "I'll remember that one."

"See that you do," Kasumi said still tartly then she looked at him closely. "Was that the only reason you're searching for Doctor Tofu?"

"No," Ranma said quickly, shaking his head. "Not really. I just wanted to talk to him about stuff."

Kasumi looked at him closely before nodding and turning away without another word causing Ranma to wince. Before the wedding, she would've asked him if she could give him any advice, but not anymore. The wall between them was back, and Kasumi continued to look away as Ranma turned, exiting the house quickly.

Ranma hopped his way over the rooftops, heading not for Doctor Tofu's clinic, but the house of Tofu's mother. He had been there exactly once, but Ranma would never forget the home of the woman who smacked his female half's hips saying that they were perfect for childbearing… No matter how much he wanted to.

As he hopped along Ranma thought about that moment and his female form in general. S _uppose I'll just have to get used to it, goddammit! No cure I've found has worked out, and frankly looking for them has been more trouble than it's worth every time._

 _I suppose… I mean, it's not as if the form itself bothers me anymore and I sure as hell have used it to my advantage a lot of times. My mind doesn't change, which is the most important thing. The whole monthly monster thing is_ _ **terrifying**_ _,_ _but I can deal with that. It's just everyone else's reactions to it. My mom's in particular._

Looking around, Ranma realized he was close to Mrs. Tofu's house and focused on figuring out which roof belonged to it before landed right in front of it. For some reason, there were a few guards outside dressed in relatively good suits, and they reached into their pockets the instant Ranma landed in front of them. Before they could pull out what were probably guns, Ranma was in their faces, grabbing their hands and pressing them into their chests, pushing the guards backwards.

Holding them against the door several feet off the ground, he said calmly, "I'm just here to talk to Doctor Tofu. I'm going to let you go now, and you're going to pull those hands out of your jackets without anything in them. If you don't, I'm going to get irritated. Are we clear?"

Both men nodded slowly, their eyes wide. One of them did in fact bring his hand out without a weapon as Ranma had requested. The other tried to pull his gun out anyway, despite Ranma now actually being right there in his face.

Ranma broke his wrist with a flick of his hand, grabbed the gun, and after removing the clip, twisted the metal into a tight ball before dropping it at his feet. "You're within a few miles of Nerima, dude," he said calmly to the now kneeling and cursing man. "You should know by now that guns don't really matter around here much."

Ignoring the whimpering man for now, Ranma looked over at the other. "Is the Doctor in? And what the hell are you two doing out here anyway?"

"We're not here to protect Doctor Tofu. We're here to protect our boss, who the doctor's looking after right now," the man said, staring from Ranma down to his friend. "Could you maybe wait until we're leaving?"

Ranma frowned but nodded. "Sure. I'll just be up there," Ranma said, pointing at the nearest rooftop. With that he bounded up, easily clearing the three stories with a single leap, landing easily on the edge before he turned around to look down at the doorway.

"Well, come on," the uninjured guard said to his fellow as he helped him up. "We'll just take you inside for the doctor to look at."

A few moments later the two of them, with the moron's wrist now bandaged, exited the complex escorting an elderly looking gentleman who Ranma instantly recognized as either someone with the government or someone high up in the yakuza. _It's funny. Both types like to run with the same kind of bodyguards and dress the same too._

The old man was talking to the injured guard and looked up as they exited. Seeing Ranma simply sitting there on the edge of the building without a care in the world, he raised a wintry eyebrow, but Ranma shrugged, indicating that he didn't care one way or the other what the older man thought. He saw the older man's lips purse slightly before he turned and headed towards the limo now being pulled up to the front of the complex.

Once the group was gone Ranma hopped down. He found Dr. Tofu waiting for him at the entrance, shaking his head with a faint smile. "Did you have to break that guard's wrist, Ranma? It wasn't all that hard to splint up, but still…"

"He shouldn't've pulled a gun on me," Ranma said with a chuckle, putting his hands behind his head. "That's just asking for trouble. So, did you just move your practice, Doc, or is there some other reason you ran away from Nerima?"

Tofu winced as Ranma's tone suddenly went biting and he looked away. But before he could answer, a female voice interrupted the two of them. "Bring your friend inside, Tofu. I've wanted to meet a real Nerima resident for a while now."

Ranma's eyes narrowed, staring into the house, then down at Tofu's hands, which now that he looked had a gold ring on it. "I see," he said flatly. "This should be interesting."

The woman waiting for them inside was around Tofu's age, slightly shorter than Ranma in his male body, with glasses and long black hair, wearing a trench coat over her normal clothing. Tofu did the introductions. "Ranma, this is Sakura, my wife."

"I gathered," Ranma said with a chuckle, shaking the woman's hands. "Did he act all crazy around you too?"

"A few times early on during our courtship, yes," the woman replied coolly, examining Ranma from head to toe for a moment. "I soon broke him of the habit, though. It wasn't his crazy antics that I liked, after all, but the normal Tofu Ono." She cocked her head thoughtfully, looking at Ranma. "While I'm happy to meet a Nerima resident for the first time and would like to talk to you—after all, Ono told me about some of your adventures—I have to ask why you sought him out."

"I need advice," Ranma said simply. "And when he was around Dr. Tofu was good for that kind of thing, although I don't know now. So, what, Doc? You weren't actually interested in Kasumi? Or realized you weren't compatible or something and sort of gave up on her?"

Tofu winced, and Sakura looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "Kasumi?"

"I mentioned that I had realized what my reaction to you was before you snapped me out of it. There was a girl back in Nerima who I, well, I thought I was in love with her at the time. My father, he reacted to my mother the same way, so…"

"Yes, but he got control of it after a while. I take it you didn't in this case?" Sakura asked.

"No, he didn't," Ranma supplied as he sat down at the small main table of the house after the woman indicated that he could.

"Infatuation can lead to love, but it isn't the same thing," Tofu said softly and with as much dignity as he could. "I was infatuated with Kasumi; she was one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen. But eventually, since my infatuation was not truly returned and I kept on making a fool of myself in her presence, I decided it was time to move on."

"I'm not saying it was a bad thing, Doc," Ranma said, laughing as he remembered Kasumi's conversation with him that morning. "She wasn't actually interested in you either, despite what her family and the rest of us thought. That alone'll come as a shock to a lot of people back home."

"She said that?" Tofu asked then nodded in relief. "I didn't think she was, but it's good to have some closure there."

"You would've gotten that closure sooner if you would've actually talked to her before you moved away," Ranma said sharply. "Just leaving like that, that was kind of cowardly even if you realized you weren't really in love with Kasumi."

"Perhaps," Tofu replied, while to his side Sakura nodded agreement before her husband tried to move the conversation along. "But I doubt you're here to talk about me."

"I need advice, like I said," Ranma shrugged. "But now that I'm here, I don't know where to begin."

"At the beginning. I take it this is not advice about an actual martial art match or a technique or anything of that nature?" Sakura asked.

Ranma shook his head, looking over at Tofu who smiled, gesturing at his wife. "My wife happens to be a psychologist. If it's advice you're seeking, you at least came to the right couple."

"One heals the body; one heals the mind. That's kind of cool," Ranma quipped, winking at them both. Inwardly, though, he didn't really know if he wanted to have his head shrunk for him. Somehow he knew it would be both painful and humiliating. _Come on Ranma, you've come this far, no backing out now._

"Our clients seem to think so," Sakura said dryly. "Now quit stalling young man. I have another client I need to get to in two hours and this seems as if it's going to take a while."

Ranma looked at her, then nodded and began. He talked about what had happened in China, how it had changed him mentally and the threshold that he seemed to have passed physically, something that caught Tofu's interest. He talked about the boredom he was facing and then he talked about all the suitors, rivals, and all the chaos that never seemed to give up while at the same time become less interesting.

Sakura listened, occasionally glancing at her husband with something like anger in her eyes, which seemed to make him wilt slightly. "How long was this going on?" she asked at one point, interrupting Ranma.

"Since the moment I arrived in Nerima for some of it, longer for the rest. I mean, if you're talking about the chaos and everything. Ryoga arrived two months or so after I did, but Kuno was already there, chasing after my female form and try to kill my male form for 'defiling his fierce tigress'." Ranma said, holding up his hands to make air quotes for the last four words. "Shampoo arrived something like two months after that? Maybe more like six weeks. After that, the craziness just sort of continued to pile up."

"And your father, he really is that…" Sakura paused, looking for a direct adjective to use. "Gormless? And so utterly vilely wrong when it comes to matters of emotion?"

"I don't think he could find the word emotion if you actually pointed him to the E section of the dictionary," Ranma said with a laugh. 'Emotions are for the weak, boy!'" he said in a frighteningly accurate portrayal of Genma. "'You don't want to be a weak girl, do you?!'" Ranma continued in his normal tone. "He was saying shit like that long before he smacked me into the Spring of Drowned Girl."

"That is disturbing on many levels," Sakura mused. "Sadly, we're not here to fully psychoanalyze you or attempt to fix the faults in your personality that your father seems to have built into you, let alone those which seem homegrown as it were."

Ranma winced at that but didn't dispute her statement. He knew he was screwed up in the head in many ways. He just didn't care for the most part.

"I think that my husband has already given you some very good advice when he mentioned his own problems with this Kasumi girl." She paused and looked at them both for a moment, her eyes narrowing. "How old was she, might I ask?" she said looking over at her husband.

Tofu winced and tried to signal to Ranma that he probably shouldn't actually mention Kasumi's age, but Ranma missed that entirely. "She is about two and a half years older than me, so she just turned twenty-one."

"I see," Sakura said coldly, and now Ranma realized what he had said and why it was bad. "Really, Ono-kun?"

"It's not like he had much of a choice in Nerima," Ranma said, trying to come to the doc's aid. "I mean, there were married women, girls, and elderly, and there weren't any…"

"Ranma, just stop talking," Tofu said quickly. "Sakura and I will talk about this later. That part of my life is in the past, and we will talk about it like mature adults, I am certain."

"Which doesn't mean you won't end up sleeping on the couch tonight for withholding that bit of information, Ono-kun," Sakura replied dryly, though for some reason she seemed to have mellowed thanks to Tofu's words. Ranma wondered why but decided to put it down as something going on between the two of them relationship-wise.

"But again, let's return to your issues. Just like Ono had to learn, you must understand that love and infatuation are two different things." From there she went on to describe the differences between the two, her voice soft and gentle now rather than biting. "Furthermore, love needs to be built upon mutual understanding of what the future can hold, or perhaps better said, the ability to grow together as people rather than as individuals who merely share a relationship. These women who are after you, who would be most willing to allow you to grow as you want to grow? Who do you think could share your dream for the future or something that is at least compatible with it?"

"None of them, I don't think," Ranma said after a moment. "Not even Akane. I mean, I don't know what she thinks her future could hold, but I know it doesn't include going on the road or learning new martial arts techniques. She hasn't learned much in the past two years as far as I know, despite other girls coming along who are better at martial arts than her."

"And then we come to your own mistakes in this affair…" Sakura said more coldly, cutting Ranma off. "Tell me, why did you think that it was a good thing to talk to a girl like this Akane as you would your own father? Let us," she went on before Ranma could respond, her voice taking on the tone of someone talking to a young child, "talk about what verbal abuse is, and why it is bad. Then we will talk about communication, what empathy means, and why they are important…"

Ranma did a lot of wincing and cringing over the next half hour as Sakura explained everything he had done wrong in his relationship with Akane in as blunt a manner as possible. And boy, were there a lot of things. Not that Akane came off scot-free either, but there it seemed as if Sakura was more worried about the fact that the girl didn't seem to be able to understand why physical abuse was bad than the fact that Ranma had never made the connection between the way he spoke to Akane and the way Genma belittled him.

Sakura finished by saying that their fathers were also to blame to a large degree for pushing the relationship along faster than it should go and that both of the teens had reacted in a childish manner in lashing out at one another. When she talked about the parents, her voice went so ice cold that Ranma thought for a moment that she knew the Soul of Ice technique.

"I think, Ranma," she said after a moment, "you need to sit down and really think these girls. Who can grow with you, rather than simply alongside you? Who can you communicate with? Are you in fact ready for a relationship at all, and if so, what form? Do not think about who has the best claim on you in terms of honor, but who can you see yourself happy with in the future. I know that sounds like a foreign concept, but in the end, if you marry someone only for honor's sake, you might as well be signing a contract to make you both miserable for the rest of your lives."

Ranma slowly nodded, his mind awhirl with all of the mistakes he had made, all of the mistakes Akane had made, all of the mistakes they had both made; as well as what Sakura had said about what the future could be. "This is a lot to take in. I came for some advice, and I think I got a lot more than I bargained for, honestly. But thanks, Docs," he said, looking at them both as he stood up, a smirk appearing on his face at his wordplay. "I really will do that."

"I'll walk you to the back door," Tofu said as Sakura stood up.

Moments later Ranma was bounding across the rooftops again. Stopping and briefly explaining what he had found to Kasumi, he asked her to tell the rest of the family that Tofu was fine, hadn't been kidnapped, and had moved away willingly. Coming from Kasumi it would send another message so she could break the news to them gently that she had never been in love with the older man. Kasumi simply nodded, turning back to her work of cleaning the garden without further conversation, and Ranma once again soon found himself up on the rooftop, leaning back and thinking.

Sakura had done a really good job of not so much deconstructing as imploding the idea that Ranma and Akane could ever have a real relationship, which was the bit occupying Ranma's mind now considering that a few weeks back he would've thought he loved Akane. They were too immature and had fallen into too much of a rut in how they interacted with one another. Maybe if both of them put in a lot of effort they could break out of it, but Ranma wasn't certain if he wanted to. _I need to talk to her, but I don't know where that's going to go._

 _As for the others… I'm going to completely discount Kodachi, of course. Ukyo…she's just a friend; I mean, she's_ _ **always**_ _been just a friend. I've never seen her as anything else, plus our dreams for the future are so different. Sakura said I need to find someone whose dream for the future would work with mine, and I don't think hers would._

 _Plus, I've also seen her looking at me when I'm in my curse form a few times. She's never really seemed…attracted to it. If I'm going to have to live with this curse, that's another big thing: the girl I'm with has to be somewhat understanding of it at least._

 _And that is probably another nail in the coffin of mine and Akane's relationship, dammit,_ Ranma thought, smacking his head against the brick behind him hard enough to actually dent the brick.

Setting that thought aside, he turned his mind to Shampoo. _Okay, she's fucking sexy. I mean she is easily the sexiest girl of the three._ Despite his massive amount of self-control, Ranma was a guy and had no issue with appreciating their bodies. That didn't mean he knew what to do about it or would ever act on it since that would only have made everything even worse. Still, of all of the girls, it was Shampoo's body that he really had to think about as being a major draw when thinking about her at all.

 _But the problem is she's also the one I think I'm the least compatible with 'emotionally' as Sakura put it. I mean, I hate the tricks she kept on trying to pull, and she kept on using magic junk to chase after me. And she went from wanting to kill me in my female form to wanting to kiss me in my male body! I don't care what culture you're from that's fucking weird._

As he cursed in his head, a chibi version of Kasumi appeared in his mind's eye, frowning at him, and he shook it off quickly. _This is my head!_ _I can curse in it if I want to,_ he thought plaintively.

The chibi Kasumi seems to frown at that, but at that moment Ranma's thoughts were interrupted by a bellow from down below. "Boy, where are you! Why aren't you down here spending time with your fiancée and congratulating her for getting the part she wanted in some play?"

"It's not 'some play,'" Akane's voice shouted from inside. "It's Othello; it's a classic! And I don't want that pervert's congratulations. He'll just rub in my face that I got the lead hero's part instead of the heroine's."

Ranma had paused from hopping down when he heard that and nodded to himself. _Yeah, I probably would do that, especially if she insulted me again like that._ Then he pictured himself being catapulted into LEO and decided to wait and see if anyone found him up here before doing anything.

His father bellowed again for his presence, but Ranma didn't react this time, and the voice didn't come any closer. _He's got no idea I'm up here. Is that because he's lazy or just that he doesn't know me all that well?_

"What are you two bellowing for?" said Happosai's voice, and Ranma once again opened his eyes to stare down into the backyard. There he saw Happosai standing atop one of the rocks in the garden, glaring at the two so-called patriarchs, and was once more witness to the completely pathetic sight of his father breaking down and gibbering in front of the old man, complete with Mister Weepy doing the same thing right next to him. "We, we're just trying to find my ungrateful son so that he can spend time with his fiancée, master!"

"I told you I don't want him here!" Akane shouted. "This is supposed to be my night. If Ranma's out somewhere, that's fine by me so long as he isn't with one of those hussies! And if he is, I'll just pound him for it afterwards."

 _You'd pound me for even thinking about it,_ Ranma thought to himself but did not say aloud, actually clamping his hands over his mouth.

Instead, he watched Happosai's eyes flick up towards him for just a brief second, before landing once more on the two older men. "It seems to me that the boy is out somewhere practicing the martial arts like you two should be. He certainly was the last time I saw him a few hours ago. In fact, I think you're both in danger of being left behind. Yes, I think you both need a little bit of a refresher to keep your titles as Masters of Anything Goes."

"Oh master, we don't need to prove that!" Genma said hurriedly, his face whitening. "After all, we have already gone through your training, and…"

"And nothing. The two of you have gotten fat and lazy, always pushing stuff onto the boy. Mind you, that's made him strong, but it's also pushed him to leave the two of you in the dust. Unless you're saying that if he went all out the two of you could beat him? I wouldn't mind seeing that or your beaten bodies once he's finished with you." Happosai retorted.

Genma flinched, and Soun looked almost to be breaking out into another round of weeping. Meanwhile, out of sight of both of them, Ranma's eyebrows had disappeared into his hairline hearing Happosai praise him like that when Ranma wasn't in his female form and didn't have anything the old man wanted. _Then again, he's been treating me somewhat differently since we got back from China, the whole wedding thing aside._

"I'll tell you what," Happosai said, pulling at his pipe for a moment before breathing out a small circle of smoke. "If you can keep away from me for say, three hours, we can ignore the idea of you two needing retraining. But if you can't, I'm going to train you into the ground, then make you come with me tonight to pick up more silky darlings!"

The two middle-aged men exchanged a glance then bolted straight over the wall and away without another word. Neither of them noticed Ranma staring at them from the rooftop of the house. Hopping over the wall after them, Happosai once more sent him a wink before chasing after his apprentices.

"Did that just happen?" Ranma said softly to himself. "Did, did Happosai just do me a favor? Is the sky falling? Where's the freaking apocalypse?"

"While out of character, it wasn't that bad, boy. We both noticed you were thinking hard, son-in-law, and decided we wanted to make certain you could finish thinking before you were interrupted."

Ranma whirled, fist flying out before he could stop himself, only to stop a centimeter away from Cologne's face. "Don't sneak up on me like that, old ghoul!"

"I didn't try to sneak up on you, boy. You just didn't notice," Cologne replied, tapping the fist away from her face with one of her own. The strength of that tap belied her appearance and age, and her narrow-eyed stare hadn't left Ranma's. "That was quite quick. Holding back these days, are we?"

"…Just a bit," Ranma said, moving back to his original position, though he didn't take his eyes off Cologne. Their relationship had changed after Herb, long before the Saffron incident. She had stopped remotely helping Shampoo in her attempts to woo Ranma, though she still called him son-in-law at times. And she had been there numerous times to help him out, most of the time for her own amusement, but still.

"So, what deep thoughts were you thinking now?"

Ranma looked at her thoughtfully, then shrugged. "Just wondering about how my life is going, where I want it to go, that kind of thing."

Cologne sighed. "And that vision doesn't include my great-granddaughter does it?"

Ranma paused, looking at her thoughtfully, then slowly nodded, sitting up, his body language becoming more formal for a moment. "Cologne, I can't thank you enough for your help, whatever the reason behind ya offering it, the martial arts techniques you've helped me learn, the Amiguriken, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, your help with my own ki attacks, even the Soul of Ice have all been a major help. But no, I don't think I'll ever be part of your family or your clan. I don't want to be tied down, and I don't want to be a second-class citizen just because I'm a man."

"And before you ask," Ranma said with a smile as he saw Cologne open her mouth, "I know I would be. I've talked to Mousse a time or two, mostly, admittedly, right after Saffron and that's precisely what he is in your village despite his mastery of the hidden weapons technique. Even in my curse form the majority of your people wouldn't respect me. And I'm afraid Shampoo's one of them."

"She is, and that is true," Cologne said with a sigh. "I had hoped that she would have realized that as a blooded warrior she could no longer pursue you as she had, but she hasn't. Frankly, I'm not exactly pleased with how Shampoo has gone about this hunt from beginning to end. But she won't stand for losing to one of the other girls, Ranma. You know that."

"I know that," Ranma said with a nod. "But if you don't help her, I think I could probably give her the slip if I ran off."

"And are you planning to leave?"

"I don't know yet, not really, but… I'm getting bored here, Cologne."

The old woman guffawed so hard she nearly fell off her cane but caught herself as she realized that Ranma was serious. "Truly?"

"I ain't learnin' anything new; none of my rivals here are really pushing me anymore," Ranma replied, then grinned. "Now if Herb or maybe even Ryu showed up, that'd be different. Unless you want to try a real spar with me?"

Cologne goggled at the idea of Herb showing up once more, nevermind the idea that Ranma wanted him to because it would alleviate the boy's boredom. "Er, no, Ranma. Thank you for the compliment, but these old bones aren't up to such exertions any longer. But you will talk to all the girls before you leave?"

"Yeah, them and my mom, maybe even Kasumi. I'll need to explain to 'em why I'm leaving at least. I want some closure with the girls, though not my old man. Him and Soun, I doubt they'll ever change. But their opinions don't matter as much to me."

Cologne blew out a smoke ring from her long twisted pipe, staring at the boy. "I'll miss you, you know. The last few years have been the most fun I've had in centuries."

"The way you say that so easily is kind of scary, you know that, right?" Ranma quipped. But after a second he bowed respectfully, his tone formal. "It has been fun, but I think I'm gonna move on, whatever my discussions with the girls. I'll be by to talk with Shampoo last, I think. Got to work up to that point, y'know?"

Cologne cackled. She knew that Shampoo would still chase Ranma whatever happened, so leaving her for last was smart. Then she sobered. "What about your mother?"

"My mom…" Ranma paused, then sighed sadly. "My mom isn't what I wanted her to be. In some ways, she's just as crazy as my old man, just a very different kind of crazy. She's obsessed with grandbabies and manliness, and the way she looks at me when I'm in my female form? That worries me a lot. Like half the time she wants ta reach for her sword, the other she wants to dress me up and force me ta act like a real girl."

"And what about your female form?" Cologne asked, frowning internally at Ranma's words about Nodoka, though she couldn't say she disagreed with anything he had said. "Have you decided that it's with you to stay?"

"Nothing we've tried has worked, and now the spring of drowned man is gone. Or mixed up with so many other curses it's not even funny. No, I think a cure just doesn't seem to be in the cards. It's best to get used to living with it," Ranma said, shaking his head.

"Maturity from the pigtailed one, will wonders never cease?" Cologne replied, shaking her head, before bowing back. "It has been a pleasure to know and teach you, boy. If we don't get a chance to speak in private again, I want you to know that."

"Actually," Ranma said, fiddling with his pigtail, "there is one thing you could do to help me tomorrow. I'm going to try to talk to Akane about, about the two of us. And, er, after some advice from Tofu, I know it won't go smoothly, but… Well, do you have any idea what I can do to keep my mouth shut and not insult her?"

"The first step to solving a problem is knowing you have one," Cologne said sententiously, then smirked and pulled out something that Ranma recognized, causing a frown to appear on his face. "I think I've just got just the solution, boy. It's called shock therapy…"

After school the next day, Ranma asked Akane to come with him to the local ice cream shop. "Is that why you're a girl now?" Akane asked crossly, looking at Ranma, who had left and come back after changing, not wanting to be in his female form at school. Despite his best efforts to hide, Ranma had still needed to deal with Kuno in that brief walk.

"Yep," Ranma said with a nod. "Ice cream tastes way better like this; don't ask me why."

"I suppose we can go then, Ranma," Akane said shaking her head. "So long as you don't start anything if P-chan shows up again like what happened two days ago. I won't have you picking on him again!"

Ranma was about to open her mouth when an electric jolt went through her, causing her to stiffen for a moment before it ended. She shook it off lightly while Akane looked at her quizzically. "I won't," she said through slightly gritted teeth. "Come on; let's get this over with."

"Well, excuse me! If spending time with me is such a trial, why did you ask me to come with you? Heck, why don't you just move out, you freeloader!" Akane shouted, moving towards Ranma with the intent of punting her away.

"That's part of what I want to talk to you about," Ranma said, after another jolt from the taser in Cologne's hand. The old ghoul was hiding somewhere nearby with all of the skill of a ninja, so much so that even Ranma had trouble spotting her.

Ranma's words stopped Akane from moving towards the redhead, and she frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Let's go and talk about it over ice cream," Ranma said instead of answering.

To Akane's surprise, Ranma didn't immediately scarf down her ice cream as soon as they sat down, instead eating it slowly and asking her questions about the role in the play she had gotten. That Ranma had never heard of it wasn't a surprise to her, though she despaired of Ranma's ignorance of such things.

"So is that what you want to do with your life?" Ranma asked finally. "Be an actress? Or, in your case…" She paused as another zap went through her, gritting her teeth but quickly changing what she was going to say, "an action heroine? I bet you could make a lot of money that way. Heh, maybe more than even Nabiki would know what to do with."

Wondering why Ranma now looked as if she had stepped on a live wire, Akane shrugged, just answering her question for once. She wasn't insulting her, so she would take what she could get. "Probably. I mean, let's face it, the martial arts are fun, and I'll always define myself as a martial artist, but you can't really make a living off it. Not a good one, anyway, even if like me you've got a family dojo to build on."

Ranma bit her lip at that, and this time there was no corresponding electrical zap. There were dozens of ways Ranma could think of to use the martial arts to make a good living, though admittedly half of them he/she had thought up during conversations with Nabiki when she was in a less egotistic mood. Sure, acting was one of them, but not one that Ranma would have thought of.

"But I'm still a martial artist like I said! It's just that the acting thing is going to be added on top of that," Akane said seriously.

To Ranma that was the height of fallacy. If you're a martial artist that was what you were. There was nothing more, nothing less. But again she bit off her words as she felt another jolt go through her. _Dammit, that old crone's having way too much fun!_ she thought as she heard a muffled cackle from behind them in the next booth over. "Okay, that's fine then. But it sort of brings me to what I wanted to talk about. I mean, if you're doing that, then what do you see me doing?"

"Why should I care what you were doing, Ranma!?" Akane asked bluntly. "It's not like we're getting married or anything. We had our chance for that, remember? And now you don't even have your cure!"

"That's the other question I wanted ta ask. I mean, if we…" The redhead blushed, stammering for several minutes until another electric jolt forced her to keep speaking. "If I get with anyone, I'm not saying I will…" she added hastily as Akane seemed ready to flare up. "But if I do, this form's not just going away, Akane! It's going to be a part of me. Do you, that is, could you see yourself even kissing me in this form, let alone any, um, anything else?"

Now it was Akane turn to rein in her self-control, banishing the heavy mallet that had just appeared in her hands with difficulty as she glared across the table at Ranma. "Never! A girl kissing another girl, that's so **perverted,** though I shouldn't be surprised the idea occurred to you!"

Then she paused as her own words registered. Not the insult, that was unimportant, just background noise at this point. But as for her statement… "Oh," she said softly.

"Heh, yeah," Ranma said with a nod, her blue eyes more serious and sad than Akane had ever seen them. "No shared dream of the future. No discussion about where our lives are going. And you can't see past my female form. Even…even if we wanted to try to push past all of the mistakes we've both made, all the insults and shit, I don't know that I see us going anywhere."

Akane paled as Ranma spoke, staring at her, then she shook her head. "Why does it matter what our feelings are?" she said, her voice dead, leached of all emotions, even anger. "Our parents are still going to push us into it."

"Not if I'm not around, they aren't," Ranma retorted. The redhead stood up abruptly, pushing the remains of her half-eaten ice cream across the table. "In case I don't get ta say it again without something interferin', have a nice life, Akane. I hope your acting career takes off. I think it would be cool to tell people I knew the famous martial artist-cum-actress before she got famous," the redhead said with a wink, before heading towards the door.

For some reason, Ranma didn't feel as sad as she thought she would have after that. Instead, it was as if a weight had been removed from her shoulders instead of her heart being gouged out as she had feared.

"That was well done, boy," Cologne said, coming out of her hiding place and moving alongside Ranma. "And I didn't have to shock you nearly as badly as I had feared I would."

"You shocked me enough, you old ghoul!" Ranma shot back then mellowed. "Still, I really needed it. I'll see you this evening at the Cat Café."

Cologne nodded, hefting the taser hopefully. "You don't want me to follow you over to Uchan's?"

Ranma shook her head. "For one thing, Konatsu is working there, and if anyone around here could spot you he would, and I'm kind of afraid any kind of fight'd start the ball of crazy rolling for the day," Ranma said dryly. "For another, Ukyo's always been easier to talk to than Akane. I never fell into the whole insulting her to show affection thing with her."

"You really have matured, Ranma," Cologne said with a chuckle, patting the young woman on the shoulder before pogoing off on her staff.

Ranma stared after her, then looked back inside to where Akane still sat, staring straight ahead while she finished off their ice cream. "Right," Ranma said, slapping her face. "Martial artists, ho, full speed ahead! Let's get this over with."

Ranma moved over the rooftops towards Ukyo's place of work, hopping down off of the roof to one side of it, narrowly avoiding a few throwing stars tossed her way. Plucking them out of the air as they passed, the redhead landed, holding them out to the man dressed as a girl who had thrown them. "These are yours, I think," she said dryly.

"My apologies, Ranma-sama," Konatsu, the boy trained as a kunoichi, said, taking the throwing stars and making them disappear somewhere on his person. "And thank you for returning them; these are rather expensive, strangely."

"I know. Ya can never find the real ones in the city without paying up the nose for 'em," Ranma said commiseratingly. "Ah, and I'm not here to start anything to worry about. Heck, none of the others have followed me either, I don't think. I just want to talk to Ukyo."

"Thank you," the man replied once more, bowing his head. "And again I am sorry I attacked without looking, but we had a bit of an issue yesterday with some very silly criminal sorts."

"Really?" Ranma asked, laughing as she pushed the door open. "In this town? Damn, they must've been brain dead."

"That's what we said, sugah!" Ukyo replied from behind her grill in her heavy Osakan accent, waving to her friend. The place was jam-packed at the moment, with only a single spot free in one of the booths, but she still had time to acknowledge the redhead's entry. "You want some hot water, Ran-chan?"

Ranma shook her head as she slid into one of the booths. "Not right now, thanks. I'd like to talk to you though if that's all right?"

Ukyo looked around shaking her head. "Sorry, this is kind of rush hour in here right now. You want something to eat while ya wait?"

Ranma nodded and pulled out a few bills, putting them on the side of the table for her. "I'll pay this time if that's all right?"

" **You** paying for food, Ranma? That's ominous," she quipped, though Ukyo did actually look worried. "What can I get you? We're having a special on mushroom and shrimp okonomiyaki today. The mushrooms are really tasty."

"Then I'll have one of each, I think," Ranma said, patting her stomach.

"Comin' right up!" Ukyo replied with a grin, before going around to take a few more orders. For several minutes Ukyo moved around and served other people, flipping Ranma's okonomiyaki over to her when they were done before going back to the other customers. She continued to be busy as Ranma ate but stopped working as suddenly something very strange happened. She felt herself shrinking suddenly, her clothes becoming too large and now the top of her grill well above her head. "What the heck!"

Ranma wheeled around, staring at the place Ukyo and been standing, then looking down at her own food, her eyes widening. "Ukyo, where did you get these mushrooms!?"

Ukyo looked up from staring down at her body in shock, keeping her clothing on with difficulty as she glanced around the side of the grill. "I, I didn't get them. Konatsu found them. Why what just happened?"

"Age-changing mushrooms!" Ranma shouted, just as the effects hit her. One moment Ranma and the rest of Ukyo's customers were normal, then many had suddenly regressed in age to various degrees.

One elderly man had suddenly changed into a teenager and, looking down at his body, cackled evilly as he rubbed his hands together before moving towards the door. A middle-aged woman who had been changed into a preteen girl was looking down at her hands thoughtfully as if deciding whether or not she was happy with this.

Others, however, were certainly unhappy including Ranma. Her body had suddenly changed into that of a five or six-year-old redheaded girl.

"Age regression mushrooms, sugah?" Ukyo asked several moments later after the majority of the customers had left and she had changed her clothing. She looked at Ranma, now dressed in a miniature version of his/her normal attire, and just barely held back from grabbing the little redhead up and squealing about how cute she was with difficulty. _Then again, I suppose the same thing could be said about me right now._ "You never mentioned anything about them."

"They're one of the more embarrassing things I've run into. Ryoga found them somewhere and brought a lot of them back," Ranma said with a shrug. "It's okay. We just have to find the mushrooms, then grow them to a certain height and eat them. Then we'll change back."

"It'll take a while for them to grow from what we have," Ukyo said thoughtfully. "Though I think I could send Konatsu out to look for more?"

Ukyo looked down at her own body then laughed hugging Ranma unable to control herself any longer. "EEE, we both look just like when we were kids!"

"Yeah, except for my being cursed into a girl this time!" Ranma said with a laugh, pushing her away lightly.

"But just think of it! This way we could play dress-up," Ukyo said quickly.

Ranma rolled her eyes. "So, anyway. Before this, I wanted to ask you about plans for the future."

"Are you seriously asking that right now?" Ukyo asked, somewhat incredulous. "I mean," Ukyo said, tapping her chest. "I know I'm not exactly…"

"Nothing like that," Ranma replied, quickly shaking her head. "And like I said, this isn't exactly permanent." Ranma leaned back, looking at Ukyo thoughtfully. "Ukyo, you've always said that your big dream for the future is to run your own major restaurant, right? Make your family name famous. But, but when I was struck by that Weakness Moxibustion point, you acted as if you wanted me to be some kind of, of a stay-at-home husband. Is that where you see me fitting into your plans? And be serious."

"There's no reason you couldn't add a dojo to the side of the restaurant, Ranchan," Ukyo said defensively. "I wouldn't stop you from having your own dream."

"That's my old man's dream, not mine," Ranma said softly. "Mine is traveling the world and pushing my martial arts to the limit by learning everything I can, not tying myself down to one place."

Ukyo winced. She had memories of being on the road both before and after her father died, or both before-and-after he'd tried to pawn her off onto Ranma and his fat oaf of a father. She much preferred remaining in one place like she had been the last year and a half since she had arrived in Nerima.

"I, I wouldn't like that sugar, but, but you could go on like long training trips every other week or something?" she said somewhat desperately. She knew she was losing points with Ranma and was wondering where this smarter, more mature Ranma had come from. She almost brought up Genma's deal with her own but knew somehow that that would be even more counterproductive.

"And then there's this form," Ranma said, looking down at herself. "Well, not really this form, but you know what I mean. My female form, not our being so young again. It's, it's not going away, Ukyo. There is no cure for it any longer, none that would work without turning me into more of a freak I already am. Can you, that is…" the redhead paused seeing the answer in Ukyo's face, which had fallen.

She simply shook her head lightly. "Sorry, Ranchan. I might like to cross-dress, but I've never liked the idea of kissing another girl. I tried it once when I was passing myself off as a boy, and I didn't like it." Ukyo sighed sadly a pout on her face, which looked rather adorable on her child body at the moment. "So is that it? We just remain friends? What about the agreement your old man and mine made?"

"I think so, yeah. And as for my old man's stupidity, I've decided to take the stance that his selling my hand off so often nullifies all the agreements he made, not just one," Ranma said, sighing. "If it's any consolation, you are handling it a hell of a lot better than Akane did. She called me a pervert for even bringing up the idea."

"HAH! You're not a pervert, Ranma. Frankly, I think she's insane to even think you are. With that Chinese hussy throwing herself at you at every opportunity, you could've perved out big time at any point. Heck, I wouldn't have said no to a bit of a kissing or something like that, but you never took us up on it," Ukyo replied, rolling her eyes at Akane's silliness. Ranma might not have been perfect, but if he had given Ukyo even half the attention he gave Akane she would never have let him go.

"Yeah, but that wouldn't have been honorable," Ranma replied with a sigh. "So, still friends?"

"Still friends," Ukyo replied with a laugh, shaking the redheaded girl's hand quickly. She then grabbed and pulled Ranma into a hug, fighting back a few tears as Ranma ended their father's agreement. "And now, dress-up party!"

"Help! Kidnapper!" Ranma shouted theatrically. "Help me Konatsu you're my only hope!"

"Oooh! That's an idea!" Ukyo squealed.

Much to Ranma consternation when Konatsu appeared after locking up the restaurant, the kunoichi-boy was more than happy to join the dress up party. Later, after a sort of consolation party with Ukyo and letting herself be dressed up in various costumes Ranma left, hopping over the rooftops having taken a brief moment to change into his male body once more. _Two down, one to go…_

Catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye, Ranma turned aside from his course to the Cat Café, hopping over to one of the many vacant lots in the area designed to help contain the martial arts battles. In the center of the lot was Gosunkugi, mapping out what looked like a magic circle on the ground.

Sighing, Ranma decided to head this off at the pass. He hopped down next to the self-styled sorcerer, smacking him on the shoulder and sending him sprawling. Even as a seven-year-old boy, Ranma was stronger than most adult men. And Gosunkugi was a weakling even for his age group. "What're you up to this time, Gos?" he asked conversationally, looking around at the magic circle the boy had been drawing, then picking up the piece of paper he had been reading from. "A return me hex? What the heck?"

"It's supposed to be a spell to send you away," Gosunkugi mumbled, pushing himself off the ground with difficulty. Once on his feet, he stared at the little boy that had accosted him. "Wh, Ranma, what the…"

"Age regression mushrooms. I'll be back to normal tomorrow or somewhere close." Ranma shrugged. "You have any idea where it'd send me?"

"It's just supposed to just send you home. I wanted to see if this new shop I bought it from was worth the money they were asking for most of their stuff," Gosunkugi said slowly, staring at Ranma and being a bit more forthright than he would've been normally thanks to his shock at Ranma's appearance. "They had a lot of other stuff, but all of it is way out of my normal budget. This wasn't, so I figured if it worked I might want to ask my parents or maybe Kuno for some help."

The boy was interrupted by a fist thumping into his stomach, sending him doubling over and gasping. "Right, new magic shop in the area. Must hunt down and destroy," Ranma said shaking his head. "Thank God you're so poor, Gos. And if I ever… Oh you have gotta…!"

Just then as if Gosunkugi mentioning him had summoned the madman into being, Kuno appeared from a nearby street, charging forward and laughing wildly. "Ah! My servant's words have been proven correct! You have been struck down by your own magic, foul sorcerer! Now it falls on me to deal the final blow, and the fierce tigress will be mine!"

Ranma growled, then turned and launched himself towards the swordsman. A good fight was just what he needed right now after the emotional conversations he'd had with Akane and Ukyo. _And I still have to see Shampoo! No way in hell I'm going over there like this, though. Too dangerous with Mousse there, so I'd have to wait till tomorrow anyway._ Of all his rivals, Ranma felt that Mousse was the one most likely to actually kill him if given the opportunity.

The swordsman swung his wooden sword towards Ranma. Ranma adroitly ducked underneath it, hammering a blow upwards. However, Kuno was fast enough, or Ranma was slow enough in his young body, that Kuno was able to dodge backward. Kuno swung his sword again and again, the blade becoming a blur, and it was all Ranma could do for a few moments to dodge. He didn't notice that behind him Gosunkugi had gone back to work on his magic circle.

The two of them danced around one another, and the swordsman exclaimed, "Verily, even like this your vile magics do make you passably beyond mere mortals. But I am the blue thunder of Furinkan High, and today I will prevail!"

"You're still at Furinkan High because you were held back a year moron!" Ranma replied tartly, dodging another blow that came little too close for comfort. Grabbing Kuno's arm as the swordsman was a little too slow to pull back, he hammered a single blow into the swordsman's jaw, which sent his body flying backward.

Before Kuno landed, Ranma raced afterward, pressing his advantage and hammering several more blows into the delusional dolt. _Interestingly, like this, I don't have to worry so much about holding back! Who would've thought there'd be a good thing to being shrunk like this? The short arms are a bit of a bitch, though!_

The swordsman almost recovered before Rama was in his own reach, but three hard blows pummeling into his chest and face knocked him out, and the young boy pushed himself upright, shaking his head. "That was actually a good bit of exercise," he said happily, hopping off and away. "Now, where was I?"

Gosunkugi looked up as he finished his mumbling, pointing at Ranma dramatically. "And let him disappear to his heart, no wait…" Gosunkugi paused, looking down, but before he could finish his spell Ranma's fist slammed into his face.

It sent Gosunkugi away, and Ranma landed right where he had been. "That's enough of that, Gos!"

There was a flash then, and Ranma looked down as the magic circle activated despite the fact that Gosunkugi hadn't finished the spell. "Oh, that can't be good!" A second later, Ranma was gone.

At that point Cologne came upon the scene carrying a basket of mushrooms and cackling in amusement, only to stop as she saw Ranma disappear in a flash of light. Faster than most people would have credited her for moving, even Ranma, she crossed the intervening distance from the roof where she had been pogoing along to right in front of Gosunkugi. Grabbing the weedy boy, she hefted him into the air while she remained standing on top of her pogo stick. "Where is he! Where did you send him?!"

"I don't know!" the boy gasped. "I, I didn't finish the spell! It was supposed to, that is, it's just a simple…"

"Where is it?" Cologne interrupted.

Fearfully, Gosunkugi held out the page he had been reading from and watched as Cologne's eyes widened. "This is a **real** spell! I saw several like this when I was younger. Where did you get this?" she bellowed, turning back to him with a glare that nearly made Gosunkugi wet himself.

"A, a magic curio shop. There's a new one in town, but it's prices are so large, this was all I could afford!" he squealed.

Turning back to the paper, Cologne read through the spell quickly. It should have returned Ranma simply to his home, or wherever his heart's home was. _Does Ranma even have one of those? With that boy's wanderlust and new desire to leave, I have no idea. Maybe his mother's home, but if not there, then where?_

After a moment she frowned, looking at the spell again. _There are some bits of this array…they could be dimensional in nature!_ "Tell me, where were you cut off?"

Gosunkugi pointed with a hesitant finger, and Cologne frowned. "Very well. I will check the boy's home. If he is not there, expect to see me again, and I will not be in a very forgiving mood."

She found Nodoka at home and asked quickly if Ranma was there. When informed that he was not, she was forced to share what had occurred.

"If not here, then where could Ranma have been sent?" his mother asked quickly, concern for her son shining through. Whatever Ranma might have thought about how obsessed she was, his mother did care for him in her own admittedly odd manner.

"I don't know. It should've sent anyone who had a home to said home, but I'm afraid your boy doesn't really think of this as home. That's not a slight on you," Cologne added, though she felt it was in a way. "It's just that Ranma spent so much time on the road that he developed quite a bit of wanderlust. If he loved traveling more than being here or anywhere else, there's no telling where the spell sent him, especially since the verbal activation segment of the spell was interrupted. In fact, that spell was designed to send interdimensional travelers home. It could be used on someone from this dimension to send them home, of course. It is a multipurpose spell, though it has cross-dimensional components."

Over the next few hours, the concerned parties gathered together. The chibi-Ukyo, Akane, Shampoo, Soun, Genma and his wife, Mousse, and Cologne tried to find the shop Gos had found the spell in with his somewhat-willing help, only to discover that the shop was gone. There was no hint that it had ever existed, and the spell array had been wiped out in the casting, so no clue was left as to where Ranma had gone or how to get him back. Cologne had to admit to being utterly flummoxed.

 _Well, the boys away,_ Cologne thought as she watched everyone's reactions. Ukyo looked sad but resigned; Shampoo enraged, muttering about skinning the now-shaking Gos alive. The two men wept and moaned, despairing that the boy had been foolish enough to be caught and blaming him for something completely out of his control as usual. Mousse seemed sad, yet also happy at the same time. And Akane was almost blank as if she wasn't certain what she felt at all.

Looking at the chibi-Ukyo, Cologne cackled suddenly, remembering that Ranma had also been under the influence of the mushrooms. As everyone looked at her, she shook her head. "I was just thinking: he was still under the effect of the age regression mushrooms. I'm just wondering if maybe this time when he grows up, he'll have an easier time of it is all without this one around," she said gesturing over towards Genma

As Genma looked affronted, everyone else nodded seriously, understanding her point, before going back to trying to figure out a way to get Ranma back. Turning away, Cologne wished them luck but doubted they would have any success. _Good luck with your new life, my boy. It's not the way I would have liked it to occur, but I think you got your clean break and then some!_ Cologne hopped away back to the Cat Café, letting out another cackle. "Nothing is ever halfway with you, is it, Ranma?"

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma appeared in midair in a sky devoid of any buildings or any other sign of human habitation within sight. Not that Ranma had much time to realize that before gravity, a force much like common sense which he had fought with his entire life, decided to grab at him once more. "Well, fuck me!" he shouted as he began to fall.

Yet while Ranma was still affected by the age regression mushrooms, he retained his knowledge as a master of the Saotome Aerial Style. Flipping himself, Ranma went with the pull of gravity for a moment, diving down towards the ground headfirst to where he saw some larger than average trees sticking out above the rest of the forest which covered the ground from one end to the other. Once he was on course he began flipping himself, flinging out his arms and legs in order to slow his descent once more.

With his shorter limbs, he couldn't slow himself as quickly as he normally would, but he was able to fit through a few of the upper branches before smacking into a few more. Ranma's feet found brief purchase on one of them, hopping upwards as it cracked, redirecting much of his momentum. However, there he ran into a problem, mistiming his jump, his hands not able to grab the branch he had been aiming for. "Curse my short arms!"

Continuing to fall, Ranma bounced around and down the tree for a while before he had bled out all the momentum of his original plummet through the sky. One branch caught him in the shoulder and another in the leg, hidden by their fellows until he was too close to dodge, and Ranma felt his far weaker child form break under the blows, but he was still eventually able to stop himself, one of his legs hanging limply for a moment. "OW…"

Leaning against the tree's trunk for a moment, Ranma closed his eyes, letting the noise of the forest wash over him as he concentrated on his ki, his inner energy. Given all of the injuries and especially the mallet shots he had taken over the past two years, Ranma had learned how to actually redirect his ki to aid in his healing. Before that Ranma's ki would heal him without his direction, which was far slower than when he was directing it. And luckily his ki reserves hadn't shrunk along with his age.

After a few moments, his injuries were healed, and Ranma pushed himself to his feet, glaring at him. In particular, a large bird which looked like it had a lizard's lower body caught his eye. "Not to sound like pig-boy, but where the hell am I? I so fucking hope that stinking spell of Gos's didn't send me back in time… That would truly suck."

Hopping up to the tallest portion of the tree and looking around, Ranma couldn't see any sign of human habitation anywhere. What was worse, a lot of animals that should have been much warier of him, squirrels and other small animals, didn't seem to be as wary of him as they should be. "Gah! Well, I ain't gonna find anything just standing here. Best to choose a direction and go with it."

Closing his eyes, Ranma concentrated on his hearing for a moment, hoping to hear the sound of running water. He did and moved in that direction, finding a decent sized river about twenty minutes from his original landing point. "And water means I can find the ocean, at least. And that means I might find people too since towns and stuff are always centered on water if they can be."

Hopping through the trees, Ranma followed the stream, his progress slowed by his stomach rumbling and his short stature. _Hmm, gonna have to stop and maybe fish or hunt up a squirrel or something._ Despite those two irritations, Ranma found he was actually having fun. Traveling like this was always interesting, and he enjoyed the idea of traveling through areas that he had never seen before.

He stopped for a second at a place where another stream fed into the one he had been following, staring up higher into the trees to the other side of the river. "What the heck're you?"

"OOK, ooh, the little boy has good eyes, ooh, ooh." A giant, ape looking creature with a nearly human expression on his face and pale green fur hopped down to the small cleared area near the stream. "Oooh, ooh, human boy isn't normally very tasty, but I'm hungry!"

With that the creature lunged across the stream, only to run into a punch that rocked it backwards. Before it knew what was going on, two little hands had grabbed it by its ears and then, somehow, flipped the giant creature over its own back, slamming it head first into a tree trunk which shattered under the impact.

Flipping his pigtail slightly with one hand, Ranma scoffed. "Raw Ranma is never on the menu, ya weird stupid beastie. I hope you're not an example of the dominant species around here." For a moment Ranma wondered if he should kill and eat the beast like it had wanted to do to him, but decided that eating something that could speak intelligently was just wrong. He left the beast there and moved further downriver before stopping to fish for a time, refilling his Saotome Stomach™ with several large fish.

A few days passed by, with Ranma continuing his journey downstream. He ran into several other monsters: an overlarge alligator thing, two more ape creatures, and more. This along with the fact the stars in the nighttime sky were different made Ranma realize that he certainly wasn't anywhere on Earth, whatever era it was here. The alligator thing made good eating though.

Other people might have been despondent, angry, or in shock. Ranma, however, wasn't. Yes, not being his real age sucked hugely, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. Yes, he hadn't intended to leave Nerima so completely, but he couldn't really say leaving this way was bad. And Ranma loved traveling, so he was actually enjoying this opportunity. Growing up wouldn't be fun. He remembered enough about his own puberty and knew enough about his female form to worry about that, but that was years in the future.

Yet, even so Ranma couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he began to see signs of human habitation. Here and there a few trees of a specific variety had been cut down. Ranma saw a few walking paths cut out of the underbrush, and then the area around the stream crossed a road. Pausing there, Ranma stood in the nearby treetops looking from the road to the stream, thinking hard. _F_ _ollow the stream still or the road?_

A second later Ranma's decision was taken from him as he saw a group of humans walking down the road. There were around sixty of them or so, with fifteen, maybe twenty wearing hoods and cloaks walking alongside or in front of the rest. They all had staffs in their hands and were gesturing at the main group angrily. That main group consisted of several dozen people of all ages chained together, their hands in irons before them. Many of them were children, including one redheaded girl who grabbed Ranma's attention for a second, her hair the same color as his own curse form.

At the sight of the slaves, Ranma's eyes practically glowed in fury. Ranma held his independence and freedom as the most important things in his life save for his honor and his love of the art. _Yeah, this ain't gonna fly._

Ranma hid for a moment, his body one with the surroundings as he waited for the column to pass under his hiding spot. As it did, he launched himself forward, his hands flaring out to either side as he roared "Moko Takabasha!" Two cerulean spheres of energy shot out, smashing into two of the guards as Ranma dropped feet first onto a third. His little feet impacted the mans' face with a sickening crunch and Ranma leaped away, kicking and punching out at several more nearby. Having gotten used to his smaller body over the last few days it was no longer a hindrance. Indeed, he had made it a strength, working on his dodging and leaping abilities to an even greater degree than he had, so he could both close in and get away faster if need be.

That skill was put to the test now as several of the attackers got over their initial shock and began to wave their sticks at him. Circles of energy appeared around the tips, then what could only be called magic spells lashed out at him. Streams of water, fire, and even lightning lashed out at him one after another.

 _Oh great, in this world real magic exists, not just fucking paper spells or weird items. GRAHH!_ Ranma dodged everything they could send at him, kicking and dodging here and there, lashing out with his own ki attacks as he could. When they struck the slavers they were smashed backwards, their bodies broken. Ranma would not normally have been so ruthless, but with his younger body, their numbers, and the fact they were slaving scum, any hesitation could get him killed or worse. Ranma was not willing to let that happen. He'd grieve over their deaths later, maybe.

More and more of the slavers got into the battle, so much so their spells started to cause casualties on their own side. Seeing that, Ranma began to add fuel to the fire, taunting them and hoping to get them even angrier. Anything to stop them from trying to take a few of the slaves hostage against him. "Ha! You losers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn! You think you're tough, I know old grannies who could kick all your asses! Is that why you have so many girls and women locked up, can't get any girl's attention any other way? I don't blame ya, with the way you all look they'd have to be tied down 'less they run away in fright! And is it just me, or are those staves of yours overcompensating for something else?"

His words roused the slavers fury, and all of them now moved around the column of slaves, firing spells at him as he continued to dodge. And at the same time, Ranma's fearless assault also inspired the hearts of the slaves.

 **OOOOOOO**

The street urchin known as Erza stared as a young boy her own age assaulted the slavers which had assaulted her town, killing many and enslaving the rest. She had overheard them speaking about some kind of tower, but beyond that, she had no idea about why they had captured them all or where they were being taken. And at the moment she didn't care. Watching the boy fight so fiercely, so fearlessly, had woken something inside her.

As the closest slaver turned to launch a fire spell at their attacker, she barreled forward, dragging a few of the others with her. That slowed her charge down, but she still rammed into the man with enough energy to ruin his shot. He staggered before turning to her, his staff raised to smack her down, but a blow to the side of the head sent him flying to the side, his neck snapped.

Erza stared in shock at the dead body, but she couldn't dwell on it for long as the boy landed in front of her, winking once as his hand flashed out. There was a sound of rolling thunder for a second, then Erza's shackles shattered under blows she couldn't see.

"GO!" the boy bellowed as he leaped away, flipping a few times in midair before landing on the shoulders of one of the slavers, lashing out with that blue magic attack even as his legs twisted, cracking the man's neck explosively before kicking off and ramming headfirst into another one.

Erza looked down at her unchained hands for a moment before reaching down to grab the staff of the slaver she had rammed into, swinging it one way, then the other. While it didn't activate for her, it was still a nicely sized bit of yew wood, which could do as a weapon.

She turned and gestured at the other slaves, shouting, "What are you all waiting for? Fight!" Galvanized by the fact that a third of their captors were down and by Erza's words, the rest of the slaves, regardless of age, began to fight back, rushing this way and that. Someone found the keys to their shackles on one of the downed wizards and began to pass them down, unlatching the shackles one after another.

Once freed, the slaves either scattered out into the woodlands, escaping as best they could, or began to attack the guards as best they could. Beaten, starving, and weak, this wasn't much in most cases, but some, like Ezra, seemed to find hidden pools of strength as they fought for their freedom.

 **OOOOOOO**

While Ranma's ki reserves had not shrunk to match his body, his need to use ki to enhance his young body's physical ability had grown. Before this fight Ranma actually hadn't realized that; none of his previous experiences since eating at Uk-chan's had prepared him for it. At this point in the battle, however, Ranma could feel his ki reserves dwindling. _Still, it looks like we might have won this fight! Damn, that redheaded girl is feisty. That one guy she hit in the balls'll never be able to use 'em again!_

Ranma's upbeat opinion of the fight's outcome ended abruptly as a wave of fire slammed into him from behind, searing his skin. He roared in pain, pushing himself down and to the left to get away from the source of the pain. A stray kick shattered a slaver's kneecap as he passed, and he used the momentum to roll away from another attack, turning in the direction the magical assault had come from.

Another group of fifty wizard slavers had appeared in the sky being carried by several magic carpets. Where they had come from Ranma had no idea, but he supposed they might have been supposed to meet the group he had been attacking, maybe to take over transporting the slaves.

Why they were there didn't matter much at the moment so much as the fact that they were there at all. Several of them had begun to chant out longer spells, and small globes of power encased the slaves in small or large groups. At the same time, others began to cover their nearly overwhelmed fellows, killing a few of the slaves almost immediately. "If they will not serve in the creation of the tower, then they can die where they stand! For the glory of Lord Zeref!"

Growling, Ranma launched himself forward, bouncing up and out of a nearby tree's canopy, smashing into one of the flying carpets and lashing out left and right. He killed several of the slavers, but the rest of the group turned on him and the carpet he was on. "Bring him down! One less slave won't matter at this point, but we need to break this resistance!"

Spells lashed at Ranma and the people around him from all over, and some of them were bound to get through. One lightning blast caught the young boy in the side, the impact launching him over the side to land in the river Ranma had originally been following. Several more wizards launched attacks on the river itself, keeping up the stream of lightning into the water, electrocuting Ranma as he landed in the water.

Screaming, Ranma launched a single ki attack, one of the sealed techniques he/she had learned during the fight with Ryu Kumon. The Kijin Raishin Dan did its work, slicing into and through more than half of the slavers and their flying carpets without slowing.

But the damage was done, and Ranma's ability to take pain finally gave out. The now redheaded little girl slumped further into the water and felt her body being picked up and carried downstream by the current. The last thing Ranma saw was the other redhead, her expression torn between shock and horror, trying to race after her along the river bank before darkness took him.

 **OOOOOOO**

Typhon was the king of water dragons. He was huge, the size of two whales set tail to nose and with shoulders around half a whale lengths long, with more scars covering his body then unmarred scale. He was also very, very old, easily the oldest dragon still living, possibly the oldest to ever have existed. He had seen millennia pass, and though it was utterly unheard of for a dragon to die of old age, Typhon could feel his body giving out on him.

 _Perhaps that is why Acnologia left me alive._ The ancient dragon thought, not for the first time. _It could be considered the ultimate humiliation for a dragon, especially a dragon king, to die of old age rather than in battle. I suppose I could try and find him, make Acnologia kill me. But I doubt he would do more than laugh at me, and besides, where would I start my search?_

His rheumy eyes blinked once as he stared around at his greatest creation, the runic control room. It was a large underwater cavern about the size of his own body, though it actually wasn't his main hall, rather it was an offshoot from the main cavern. Separating it from the rest of his underwater home was a massive stone door set on a diagonal along one wall and a portion of the floor, so heavy that only a dragon could ever move it. And every surface on the inside was covered with runes.

When he set himself down on the master rune set in his sleeping chamber, Typhon became the master of everything in this room. He could create anything, change the landscape to his whim, create beasts, monsters, anything and everything, even food. He could even compress time or change the gravity within the room.

Typhon had originally begun the work on the room as part of a trap for Acnologia, but by the time it was finished he was too old to take advantage of it. One thing the room could not do was reverse time, and so there was no cure for Typhon's old age… Added to this was the fact he had never considered how would have actually get Acnologia into the room in the first place. _I call it my greatest creation, yet it could also be called my curse!_

Turning with difficulty, Typhon cast that thought aside for what seemed like the millionth time in the last decade or so. He might be old, but he still had the appetite of a dragon, and it was time to hunt. Food in the chamber was filling and gave you nutrients, but Typhon felt that it just couldn't quite capture the taste of food correctly. _I think I am in the mood for squid today. Perhaps I can find a giant one willing to try and fight me. That would be nice._

Swimming forward with a surprising amount of grace for something so large and old, Typhon exited his lair, swimming out into the ocean beyond, his senses reaching forward to explore the surrounding ocean. He swam slowly but inexorably, moving like a great underwater snake, searching for prey and finding it quickly.

After battling and killing the giant squid, Typhon looped his massive bulk around it, tearing out great chunks of his kill, ignoring the number of sharks that had turned up to try and partake of his meal. Old he might be, but no mere shark would ever be able to even dent his scales, made tougher even than most dragons by the scarring and the constant pressures found deep beneath the ocean.

Typhon had nearly finished his meal when he felt something at the edge of his senses, an energy signature of some kind, the nature of which he had never felt before. It was faint, but Typhon could sense it, his skill at manipulating and sensing magic having grown as he aged. _What is that, I wonder?_

Curiosity suddenly filling his aged body at this mystery, Typhon swam in the direction of the odd energy, moving up through the water as he did, stopping in puzzlement as he finally caught sight of the odd energy signature. _What in the name of all the Ancient Kings is a human girl of that young an age doing this far out to sea? And how is she still alive?_

Typhon's home was protected more by its remoteness than anything else, but that didn't mean getting out this far from the human lands was too hard. Typhon could well imagine the youth having been dumped over the side of a ship or falling off during a storm, but even if Typhon supposed that was what had happened he still didn't understand how the human was still alive, if barely.

Swimming closer, Typhon nudged the tiny body with his nose, watching its small chest move up and down as it continued to float there. There were wounds on the tiny body, old wounds it looked like, almost faded, but ones that Typhon recognized as those given by lightning strikes. There was another mark on the girl, an old mostly faded burn which encompassed all of the girl's visible back. It was obvious at that point what had happened. The girl had run into and possibly fought a group of wizards for some reason and had survived to tell the tale.

Sticking his nostrils out of the ocean, Typhon sniffed heavily, taking in the smell of the girl. He could smell some very odd things from her to go with the energy within her. He also could sense that she had some very odd magic on her. It felt like a curse, but one that could be best described as a joke rather than a physically or mentally harmful curse.

 _But the energy of the girl is slowly draining away, and she looks as if she has been unconscious for some time. She could perhaps even be dying, not from wounds, but from lack of food. Starvation is a horrible way to die, perhaps as bad as old age. If I want to know what that odd energy is within her and the even stranger magical signature, I will have to try to keep her alive. Hmm… Now, what was it humans liked to eat? I do hope they aren't susceptible to poisons._

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma woke up groggily from the sudden intrusion into her dreamless sleep of two different types of stimuli. One was the feel of her little feet being smacked very lightly by something. That, given her sense of utter exhaustion, would not have been enough to wake Ranma, but besides that, there was the smell of something cooking. The Saotome Stomach™ aided by the Saotome Nose (patent pending) told Ranma's bleary mind that it smelled like seafood.

There was also a loud, gravelly voice growling at him. "Wake up, girl! Wake up! Damn it, claws are not made for fine manipulation, let alone delicate maneuvering! Wake up!"

Realizing Ranma's brain was offline, the stomach engaged its override subroutine, and Ranma found her body moving on its own, eyes opening, locating the target and pouncing without any input from her brain. Said target was what looked like a whole flame-grilled shark, but the type of food it was didn't really matter as much as the fact that it was there, and there was a lot of it. "Rahhh-yumyummmm!"

Ranma tore and ate the food for several minutes like a ravenous beast, her body demanding fuel to refill her ki reserves after healing itself from the horrendous damage she had taken. Despite having an insanely high threshold in terms of how much physical damage she could take, for some reason the magical attacks she had been hit with had almost ignored her durability, so her ki had had to work overtime to keep him alive. That had come with a severe cost, and her reserves were so empty right now Ranma felt almost as weak as a normal girl her current physical age normally was.

In the background of her frenzied gorging was something that sounded like an avalanche, and it was only a few moments later that Ranma had enough cognitive ability to notice that the sound was laughter. She didn't care until about halfway through the shark to wonder who was doing the laughing. On the heels of that thought came the need to wonder about other pesky details, such as where she was and what had happened.

Looking up, Ranma found herself looking into the massive eyes of an equally large… "Dragon!" she shouted, leaping back and trying to put some distance between the monstrous thing and her currently tiny frame. Doing so made her realize how massive the creature really was. _Damn, I wouldn't even be a bite to this beastie!_

"Do you always shout and scream at the people who save you from drowning or starvation?" the dragon grumbled, moving back slightly itself.

It was only then that Ranma noticed that at least half of its body was currently submerged in a huge pool that filled one end of the large cavern Ranma found herself in. Ranma also noticed that the beast looked old, extremely so. The dragon's scales were noticeably gray along the edges, and there were hundreds of scars covering its body from snout to where its body disappeared into the water. Its eyes too were rheumy.

"Um…sorry, I guess. Took me a bit to um, to be all there up here, y'know?" Ranma said, tapping her head. "So you saved me and brought me here?" Looking around quickly, Ranma frowned before turning back to the ancient looking dragon. "Just to be clear on this, you didn't save me so I could go on a quest for you? I've seen that kind of crap in games, and I've actually gone through a few adventures like that myself, so I gotta tell ya my gratitude don't extend that far."

The dragon chuckled, but it peered at Ranma with even more amusement and interest than before. "You don't seem surprised to hear me speak?"

Ranma shrugged. "I've run into a lot of weird shit over my life; a talking dragon isn't that unusual. I mean, the Musk Dynasty was started by the son of a dragon and a man, so I figure dragons at least need to be smart enough to talk."

"I have never heard of this Musk Dynasty, and how in the world would a dragon and a human mate?" Typhon asked before shuddering a little. "And may I just say how happy I am to hear that it was the human who was the man in that relationship, because ouch."

"Gah, no!" Ranma said, cursing as she blushed. "The dragon somehow fell into a cursed spring that turned her into a human woman. Don't ask me how that works. And you haven't answered my questions," she finished, growling the words and once more taking up a combat stance.

I saved you, girl because you have a very odd energy signature in you that I have never seen before. You also have some kind of curse I've never seen the like of. I can sense its magic on you, though not the result of it. Some kind of prank or other? Hmm, but while I might not have spent any time around humans in the last two millennia or so, I do not think that normal human girls your age are able to talk as well as you are. And how would a female so young as you are have been on adventures?"

The dragon moved to one side, laying its heavy head on a ledge of rock. It made a rumbling sort of noise, and Ranma for a moment could only think of an old man gratefully sitting down in a soft chair. "But we are getting ahead of ourselves. I am Typhon, king of the water dragons. What is your name, girl?"

Getting a little fed up at the 'girl' comments, Ranma scowled. "Name's Ranma, and I can show ya my curse, so long as ya promise not to attack me the moment I go back to normal."

"By that, I have to assume the curse is already active," Typhon mused. "Very well, this should be interesting."

"Okay, in that case, I need some hot water," Ranma said, moving over to the water. She was also hoping to see if it maybe led to a way out of here since she couldn't see an entrance anywhere else. Sure, the massive dragon seemed friendly, in a crotchety senile mad scientist with a new specimen sort of way, but that didn't mean she fully trusted him to stay that way.

Before she could see more than a bit of the tunnel leading down into the water and away, Ranma found herself drenched by warm water from somewhere. Turning quickly, the now male Ranma found that the dragon hadn't moved its mouth and head still in the same position it had been in a moment before. _Okay, so that wasn't some kind of spit. That's good._ "Huh, that handy."

The dragon seemed to blink slowly, then a deep avalanche-like chuckle reverberated through its body. "That's an amusing curse, boy, though I've never heard of a spell like that being linked to the application of water. I presume that this is your real body?"

"Erm, sort of, yes." Ranma fell silent, but the old dragon's rheumy eyes remained locked on him, and eventually, he mumbled, "Er, I ate an age reducing mushroom a few days ago.

"So, a curse the likes of which I've never heard of, an odd energy within your body that is even now filling up from nearly being extinguished, and mentions of a mushroom whose properties would make it famous worldwide," Typhon mused, his eyes narrowing in thought. _I wonder if it works on dragons. Bah, probably not._ "If that is, it existed anywhere on Earth Land. Further, you have experience with magic, which means you are not from Edolas. So, where did you come from, Ranma?"

Ranma hesitated, staring at the ancient dragon then sighed. It really wasn't like she had much of a choice but to answer Typhon's questions right now anyway. He was too tired, too small, and had no idea where he was or how long it would take him to get to the surface. "I don't know where I am right now. I, I guess you could say I was the target of a spell, but then interrupted the spell at the source. The spell was supposed to send me away, like to my home, but it was being used by a nuisance I know, and until it activated I honestly thought it was a gag gift. As for the names you mentioned, never heard of 'em."

"Ah, a planes traveler then. Though you're from much farther afield than our nearest dimensional neighbor. What was its name again? Bah, probably not important. And did you mean to eat this age regression mushroom?" Typhon asked. "You must tell me more about yourself, lad. Consider sharing some of your adventures, as you put it, with me as payment for saving your life."

"Sure, if you tell me about you and where I am," Ranma countered, only to blush as his stomach began to roar at him. "Erm… and so long as ya don't mind me still eating as you're talking."

"Then we have an agreement. I will start. Hmm, this planet is called Earth Land. My home is located in the oceans to the south of a peninsula called Ishgar, which is in many ways the center of human civilization on the planet, with all those odd nations and names and such. Hmmm…magic is prevalent in this world, in stark contrast to the only other dimension I know of. You are certainly not from there, so don't ask; they don't have curses like you do. I know not of human history for the most part, so let us concentrate on magic. There are dozens of different varieties of magic, all of which are based upon what is called the embodiment of the spirit and the use of Ethernano…"

From there Typhon went into a discourse on magic: what it was, how many varieties it could come in, and other things, sounding like a professor who was extremely scatterbrained, jumping from topic to topic. Despite that, the sheer scope of magic fascinated Ranma, as did the fact that if you learned you were a mage, i.e., if you had the ability to bring out your spirit, you could learn any magic you could visualize and then control. He was a little concerned that every magic type had what Typhon called Taboos, but even so, they sounded amazingly interesting.

 _Holy hell, so much to learn, heheheh! Maybe, maybe that spell did precisely what it said it would: sent me to where my heart's home is. I have always loved learning, loved the martial arts and getting better, training myself in new styles. Here there is so much to do I could keep learning for decades and never get bored!_ Ranma thought.

Despite eyes that were nearly blind with cataracts, Typhon could still see well enough to note how much Ranma had almost lit up at the idea of magic. _Now to see if there is as much to this youth as he says there is. If so,…he could be worthy of learning my Dragon Slaying Arts._

With that thought, Typhon trailed off. "But now it is your turn to tell me about yourself, Ranma. Tell me about your life and your adventures."

Nodding, Ranma finished the bite of burnt shark and began. Typhon listened intently, getting a feel for the boy in what he said, in his adventures and how he acted, as well as how he spoke about his past. Even if you set aside the amount of human mating ritual stuff which Typhon couldn't care less about, the story was utterly fascinating. Typhon could quickly tell that here was someone who was both driven, intelligent in his own way, and almost painfully easy to manipulate if you could figure out his handles.

"It sounds amazing, Ranma. But this magic spell that sent you here, I certainly don't know how to reverse that, and I doubt you would be able to find anyone else who could," Typhon said as Ranma's story wound down. "Would you be happy with never going back to your old dimension?"

"I…" Ranma paused, thinking hard before a smile somewhat tinged with sadness came to him. "I think I would be fine with that. I can't say I wouldn't miss some of my friends, Ukyo and my mom and maybe Kasumi, but…yeah, I'm fine with staying in this dimension. There's so much I could learn here!" he said, his voice going from melancholy to enthusiastic in the blink of an eye as he thrust one, admittedly tiny, fist in the air.

"Hah, an excellent attitude to have there!" Typhon said, roaring aloud in laughter, but if another dragon had been there they would have recognized a sort of sly, scheming set to his mouth and eyes. He sighed theatrically, leaning back down against the raised stone ledge. "But you know, without magic you're going to be very small change around here. Oh, this ki energy of yours is fascinating, but there are many types of magic that could overcome them. And even being able to access magic gives its users a certain amount of durability at the higher levels. I'm rather afraid you would be overwhelmed as you are, especially given your age."

"Say that to those slaver bastards whose asses I, I kicked…" Ranma paused, the memory of taking over a dozen lives in that engagement coming back to him. He shuddered but pushed the memories aside for now. It had been a serious fight, one not only for his own life but for the lives of those slaves, a real 'me or them' situation where he could not have hesitated lest it cost lives. _Best I get used to that kind of thing now. This world, it's a lot more…raw, I'd call it, than my own. I don't want to go about entering every fight likes I need to kill to win, but I need to be ready to do so if need be._

"Ranma, those scum were the equivalent of peons. They are like those students who attacked that one prospective mate of yours," Typhon said, rolling his eyes visibly. "You can't compare yourself to them. No, to really be at the top of the food chain on Earth Land, you need magic."

"Hah, just wait until I grow back to my original age, old man!" Ranma said with a laugh coming out of his maudlin thoughts. "Still, you might right, and besides, learning all these different types of magic sound really fun! But how to bring this magic out of me?"

"Ahh, there I actually have a suggestion and would like to offer a deal, Ranma. You see, I can bring your magic out of you easily. But while I did not mention it earlier, dragons such as myself use a magic called Dragon Slaying magic, which we can teach to a chosen human. Several other dragons have done that of late, and I always wondered what doing so would be like but had no wish to search out a human that might be worth my time. So how about this, lad? I bring out your magic, and you learn my Water Dragon Slayer art?"

Ranma looked at the big lizard thoughtfully. There were a lot of things he could think to say right now, and he could tell that the old dragon had some reason to offer this deal beyond the goodness of his heart. But that and even more normal questions like, how long it would take, what Water Dragon Slayer magic entailed, and what the training would consist of, didn't stay in Ranma's head. Instead, he asked, "If I can control water, does that mean I could ward it off me, or heat it up at need?"

"Eventually your element manipulation could reach that point, yes," Typhon replied, holding back a burst of laughter at Ranma's priorities. _Then again, if I changed gender every time I touched water I would want some way to control it too. Oh, the experiments I could try…_

"Then you got yourself a deal, old man!" Ranma said, leaping to his feet happily. His ki reserves slowly changing the food he'd just eaten into fuel, Ranma was feeling almost back to normal. _Well, normal for me at this physical age, anyway,_ Ranma thought ruefully.

"Excellent, then we can begin." Typhon gestured with one paw, and a magic circle appeared around Ranma. Before he could think of moving it froze him in place, and Typhon slowly began to breathe out over him, a slow stream of water coming from his mouth. It wasn't unpleasant, at least not at first, but the water didn't seem to hit Ranma so much as to seep into his form. _At least it's warm so I'm not changing back into a girl!_

How long this went on Ranma didn't know, but eventually his body began to emit a light, a deep blue pulse of light that cascaded out of him. The magic circle around him disappeared, and Typhon pulled back, the stream of water stopping. Looking up at the massive dragon, Ranma noted that he now looked tired on top of his age. "Well, that was interesting, and it does indeed look as if you have magic, brat."

So saying Typhon moved back over to his stone slate. He then turned, staring at Ranma, his eyes glowing for a moment with a dim yellow light, which went away quickly, leaving the ancient dragon looking even more tired than before. "Well, now. I had assumed that what you called ki would turn out to be the same thing as magic, only coming solely from your own energy rather than your body's energy and the environment. But it looks as if that is not the case. Your ki is separate, or somewhat, at any rate, from your magical core. That is truly strange. Still, I doubt it will matter in the long run."

"Cool! I'm badass, now tell me something new!" Ranma replied, closing his eyes and trying to get a feel for his body and how it might have changed given what Typhon had just done. He could sense something there but really couldn't figure out how to access it. Despite that Ranma felt better than he had, actually a little light almost, certainly more energetic.

"Hah. Let's say that after we see if you can actually learn the magic, monkey!" Typhon scoffed. "The words for the magic I want to teach you first is Soryu no Hoko. Concentrate on that new feeling within you. That should be the magical energy now imbuing your body. Bring it up and concentrate it into your hands and mouth. Cup your mouth, then say the words and concentrate on expelling the magic out of your mouth."

This was how Ranma's apprenticeship to Typhon the Water Dragon King began. Months passed as Ranma learned from the old dragon everything he could. It was quickly evident to Typhon however that he would not be able to finish Ranma's training, not in real time anyway. He was so old that the magic he had forced into Ranma's body had really taken it out of him, his mind starting to collapse further. Every day he showed his age more than the day before, and Ranma began to be really worried about the old guy.

Eventually, it got to the point where Ranma actually stopped his training to stare at the old beast. "Typhon, you're not looking well. Is there anything…" He trailed off, knowing that it was a stupid question even as he felt compelled to say it.

"Bah, I'm old, boy. Old! Old for a race that shouldn't grow old. I'll be the only dragon in all of Earth Land's history that could die of old age rather than combat. But that is not important. What is important is you finishing your training."

Ranma frowned, unwilling to restart his training which had been sparring with Typhon, or rather one of Typhon's front paws given the size disparity. Yet even that minimal amount of exertion seemed to have sapped Typhon. "Let's not for now. Tell me about the other Dragons Slayers. You've mentioned them, but haven't told me any details."

"Bah, it's not as if I know much about them, Ranma. It's been years since I talked to any other dragon, let alone one of the ones who adopted a human child," Typhon said, but didn't argue further for restarting their training. "Still, I can tell you some about two of them. Igneel's brat is worse than you when it comes to fighting, apparently. The boy's always going around destroying trees now that he can use his power more freely. Can't remember his name. Then there's the Marvell girl. Can't remember her first name, but Grandeeney, the queen of the sky, was raving about how cute and sweet she was."

Typhon sighed, shifting more of his body back into the water which let out of the cave. Ranma knew by this point that it led out into the rest of his underground palace, a multi-cave structure on the bottom of the sea. He had even been out there twice, but his young body could not take the pressure for long, burning ki so fast to protect him that he had to turn back within a minute.

The old dragon's continued musings brought Ranma out of his own as he spoke about Grandeeney. "Ah, but Grandeeney herself, a more gentle soul you could never find amongst dragons, truly a gem. Hah, she was even kind to an old coot like me! And she never goes looking for a fight or imagining slights, not like Metalicana or Igneel, the sarcastic bastard, and the overly proud fool."

Then Typhon sighed, only his jaws and head still above the water now. "But that is not what we must speak of, Ranma. We need to speed up your training. I know of a way to do that and to at least give you a head start on regaining your original age."

"What is it? Tell me!?" Ranma said, then paused. "Wait, unless it takes more of your magic out of you, in which case don't do it. I'll grow up and train my magic on my own."

"No. I am dying, boy, Ranma, and the other Dragon Slayers may well need you," Typhon said, shaking his head and sending ripples through the pool of water. "Best to do something with my life, and maybe this time it'll actually work!"

With that Typhon dove abruptly, leaving Ranma to gape at him before jumping in after the beast, wanting to go after him and demand that Typhon explain what he meant by that. But Typhon swam too quickly, gone out the cave before Ranma could catch him, and Ranma had to stop as he saw the stone doorway roll into place. Cursing to herself, the redhead swam back up to the rest of the cavern, pulling herself out of the water.

She was just in time to watch the walls which had always glowed green since she had arrived began to pulse. Then suddenly the massive cavern was different. It was almost as if Ranma had been transported to a forest somewhere, with a nice pool to one side of it. "What…."

Typhon's voice came out of nowhere, sounding far louder and more energetic than in person. "This is the runic control room, Ranma, a creation I spent my entire life to build. It is my life's work and, until you arrived, utterly useless too. You see, the room can only be controlled from another room, and…let's just say finishing the project took so much of my mind, I couldn't actually think up a way to use it for its original purpose."

From there Typhon explained the magic of the room and what it could and could not do. Ranma was a little leery about the whole time compression thing. Still, he couldn't deny that this place could be a major aid in terms of training. "Okay, I get all that, but why not just explain it, and why the hell do you think that these other Dragon Slayers out there might need me?"

Unfortunately for Ranma, Typhon couldn't actually hear his response. Not that he would have replied in any event. He wanted Ranma to live, to get to know the other Dragon Slayers, not to go looking for Acnologia, which he knew Ranma would if told about him, or even worry about the other threats out there to humanity, such as Zeref or the demons he had created.

Instead, he simply said. "I said I am dying, Ranma. I think I barely have another week, maybe a little more to me. And before you start to feel guilty, waking up your magic did not take more than a few months off my life expectancy. And when you have lived for over two thousand years a month doesn't matter at all. No, what does is leaving something behind. You, and your mastering my Water Dragon Slayer magic, that will be what I leave behind. Now, get to training!"

"Hey, hold on, ya old bastard. I'm not doneEE!" Ranma was interrupted by a roar behind her. Turning, the redhead gaped at the massive beast which looked like someone had bred a rock golem with a shark and was currently charging at her. "Oh, you have got to be, GRAHH!"

Again Ranma's words were interrupted, this time by Ranma having to dodge a punch that would have taken her head off. "Okay, ya bastard, bring it on!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Typhon had been off, actually. He was only able to last out three days before his magic started to fail him, and the illusions and everything else in the runic control cave faded. But judging by the way the rock wall that had been blocking the passage into the cave exploded, it seemed to be enough.

Ranma came out, swimming through the water, ignoring the pressure like she was born to it. Around the redhead's head was a bubble of air, kept there by Ranma, pushing the water around her head back through magic rather than by creating an actual bubble. Typhon also blearily noticed that the young girl did indeed look older. A human would have been able to tell that before she had been around eight, and now she was around ten. To Typhon, all he could tell was that she seemed a little taller.

The human paused, floating in the water in front of Typhon's now almost completely blind eyes, while the lights around them, the magic in the caverns fueled by Typhon's magic, began to fade slowly. "Typhon, I… Damn it, I wanted to scream and shout at you for trapping me in there, and for, for killing yourself, but…" The redhead shook her head sadly. "Just tell me why!"

"I had my reasons… Wanted to train you, wanted to make certain you mastered my magical art," Typhon replied, his voice a whisper, barely heard through the water. Each word was accompanied by a rattling gasp of air, and Ranma noticed how thin and haggard the dragon looked. There was no more blue in his scales, and even the gray which had replaced it seemed lifeless.

"Live, Ranma. Live and grow. Seek out the other Dragon Slayers; they will need you and you them. And remember this, this life, it is a second chance. Don't just concentrate on magic and the arts. That, obsession like that, is what led me to my solitude. It, it isn't enough to be strong, if, if you are also alone…"

With that Typhon's eyes slid shut. He let out a last, bone-rattling gasp of air, and then, suddenly, the bubbles stopped coming from his mouth, and his sides stopped heaving. Ranma looked at the ancient dragon who had become, if not his/her friend or parental figure, at least somewhat like a grandfather to him/her in a way. She bowed her head in prayer before resolutely turning towards the entrance.

Once she passed the threshold, Ranma's eyes could barely make out anything, so dark was the ocean around her. But thanks to her training Ranma barely felt the depth pressure. _Well, heh, at least I know the direction I need to go._

Opening her mouth, Ranma sucked in as much water as she could take in, empowering her magic to the utmost then expelling it out of her feet. She zoomed up through the water, slowly so she wouldn't get the bends, but still far faster than anyone could normally swim. Ranma nearly lost control of her air bubble several times but was able to sustain it until she saw the water lightening around her. Having used up her air by then, Ranma pushed on and broke out onto the surface with a gasping roar as loud as a whale's.

For a moment Ranma just floated there, gasping in air and enjoying the feel of the sun, the **real** sun, on her face and the wind moving over her. Then she changed position and began to once more shoot water out of her feet, moving through the ocean.

Two days passed before she saw any sign of human habitation, and when she did it was a large merchant vessel. The lookout saw her first, of course, and several people were lining the side of the ship by the time Ranma came within shouting distance. "Hey, can you point out where the nearest shoreline is?" Ranma shouted, her voice carrying over the wind and wave with difficulty.

Still staring at the young redheaded girl apparently sliding across the surface of the ocean, the person Ranma thought might be the captain pointed numbly in a northeastern direction.

"Thanks!" Ranma bellowed back, before continuing on her way. Soon after that Ranma spotted land and began to smile. Typhon had been right after all. This whole world was a new adventure for him/her, and despite the tragedy of the old dragon's passing, she/he was looking forward to this…

 **End Chapter**

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For those of you wondering I want Ranma to be a little older than the majority of the main characters. He will be twenty or so by the time the canon arcs start. This does mean I will be speeding through time quite briskly, and yes maybe using one large time-skip right before the start of canon - that is, when Ranma starts interacting fulltime with the Fairy Tail characters.

In terms of pairing: I originally thought this story up and thought to put Ranma with Erza. However, I also actually like Mira's character too, and given the rivalry between the two girls, there is no chance of me using both. It will be one or the other.

Other than that, I would like to play around with characters that I rarely see in pairings. I really like Bisca for one, and Jenny Realight as well as Ultear. Who knows. We'll see.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this, and if you want to see more, please consider joining over on Patty R On.


	2. Chapter 2

Can't Draw, not Japanese.

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! As a present to my fanfic readers here is the second chapter of _Making Waves_. It has been mostly a Patty on only story up to this point, where we are going on to chapter 1# (no jinx here LOL). I will share one or two chapters more during the Holiday season. I'd you want to see more, please think about joining up, since in December I'll also be posting over there the second chapter of a Ranma/Lord Marksman and Vanadis crossover.

This has been betaed by by Hiryo, however he is not a small mistake guy so much as a lore checker, so there will no doubt be mistakes still. Apologies in advance. Justlovereadin', another of my Patt R ons, has also given his insight on the flow of the fic and the Fairy Tail lore.

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 **Chapter 2: Wandering Seahorse, Total Storm**

Ranma came ashore bounding up onto the quay of a large city, which the captain of the last boat she'd passed had pointed her towards several days ago, albeit with shaky fingers. The man had seemed unused to young redheaded girls who were able to walk on water. And he had pointed to the city rather than the nearest shoreline, but Ranma figured it was better this way anyway.

The city was a large one Ranma had been able to tell that from a distance. It seemed to be an important port city considering all of the different ships he could see, both in type and the flags they were carrying. The ships ranged from what looked like a Chinese junks, huge ungainly and fat they looked like they had sailed right out of a history book. Right next to them however was a sleek racing ship or something like it which looked almost like it wouldn't have been so out of place back in his old world.

Ignoring the crowd of sailors and dockworkers who had noticed her strange arrival, Ranma began to walk away from the wharf, looking at some of the signs on a few of the buildings nearby. To his/her irritation but not surprise Ranma found that she could not read the signs despite being able to communicate.

Typhon had told Ranma that some kind of ancient spell had been cast over the entire world thousands of years ago to allow for communication, but it had never been expanded to include writing. This had explained how the slavers Ranma had run into months (years?) ago had been able to understand his taunts and vice versa.

Despite that Ranma could figure out which ones meant an inn. After walking several blocks away from the docks she found an inn that looked a little bit cleaner and better of better quality than the ones down by the docks and walked in.

As soon as she did a voice hailed him from one side of the doorway. "Can I help you little girl?" it said in a condescending tone, indicating that the speaker did not really think he was going to help Ranma at all. Rather the speaker seemed to wish to boot her out of the inn post haste.

Ranma turned, and nodded equably not taking any umbrage at the tone. If someone wanted to underestimate her because of how she looked, that was fine by Ranma. "Yeaaah," she said, emphasizing her normal hick accent, the one that Kasumi had gone to such pains to try to train him out of. "I was wonderin' if'n I could get a room here?"

"Our room and accompanying services are rather expensive," the man drawled looking Ranma up and down. "Does a little street urchin like you even have any method of payment?"

"Weall I don't know 'bout that, but will these do?" she asked, pulling out from one of her pockets a handful of small pearls. She had taken them from Typhon's cave, which had been littered with the things.

The man's attitude immediately changed, his tone becoming almost unctuous. "Of course of course, we'll take three of those for a night I think, the exchange rate isn't that good I'm afraid. After all, we are a port city, so we see pearls all the time."

At that Ranma rolled her eyes, dropping the act. "Don't take me for a fool," she said coldly. "If you don't want my business, I'll take my pearls elsewhere. I'm certain that I could get quite a bit of the local cash from any one of the city's jewelers. I'm offering one for my stay in the city. That will probably be about two weeks. I'll offer a second pearl for food and hot water over that same timeframe."

The man stiffened, realizing he had been had, but nodded quickly. "That will do nicely ma'am."

Ranma handed over two of the pearls all of whom were around the size of his knuckle, and perfectly smooth and round. They varied in color from light pink to a dark blue, which Ranma knew would be the most valuable.

He handed one pink and one white pearl to the man, who took them greedily. "Would you like food sent to your room?"

"Not right away, but a bath would be very nice."

"Ah of course," the man said it with a smarmy little smile as he began trying to get on Ranma's good side. "You had a bit of an accident getting ashore I take it?"

"Something like that," Ranma said with a chuckle, letting the man assume whatever he wanted.

Waiting for the hot water to be brought up Ranma looked at herself in the mirror. She estimated her age at something around ten or eleven. It was hard to tell, though Ranma already noticed her chest was starting to swell. _Geez, I know mom once said she was an early bloomer, but this is just weird. Oh, I'm_ _ **so**_ _not looking forward to when I hit that time of the month for the first time again. Ughhh, there are some things man should not know, and that is at the top of the list._

Later after a bath, Ranma moved out over the rooftops by hopping out the window. He figured he didn't really want to explain his curse or pay extra for a second person using the room.

Bouncing over the rooftops Ranma let his thoughts drift to Typhon as he looked for a jeweler's where he could exchange some more of the pearls for local cash. What Typhon had done, how he had sacrificed what little of his life force remained to power his training room so that Ranma could learn and age faster, bothered Ranma a lot when he thought about it.

He understood Typhon wanting to do something with his life. The old dragon had seemingly hated the fact that he was, well, **old.** It was as if living to that age had been a curse in his eyes. Ranma also thought the old guy might've been going a little senile or just plain crazy given how isolated he was, although Ranma knew that he was projecting what a human would've gone through onto a completely inhuman creature. _Hell as far as I know dragons might not be able to stand the sight of one another out of the minimal amount of time needed ta make sure there're little dragons around in the future._

 _Still, I have to wonder why he was so insistent about my needing to become as good as I can at Dragon Slaying magic. Why'd he build that runic control room in the first place? Why, even if he was happy about finally dying, did he think that my training was worth that price? Did he really just want to leave something behind as he said? Why was he so insistent I find other Dragon Slayers, and how the hell am I supposed to go about finding other Dragon Slayers anyway?_

Coming to a dead end in his thinking, Ranma shook his head and hopped down from the roof he was currently running along onto the streets below, ignoring with ease the looks he was getting. Ranma did notice that not nearly as many people looked shocked when he landed as would've been the case back in his old dimension outside of Nerima. It seemed as if magic made people a lot better able to roll with the unusual.

 _For now,_ Ranma thought _I should just research dragons any way I can. Beyond that, well there is real, useable_ _ **magic**_ _here! Magical techniques, magical fighting styles, regular fighting styles, even magical weapons!_ While his father had instilled in Ranma the idea that no weapon was more dangerous than the fist holding it, Ranma saw no reason to limit his repertoire to just his own hands and feet here.

This was especially true given that he knew most magic he ran into would probably be long ranged. He would never become a swordsman or a dedicated weapon user, but having them and knowing what to do with them seemed a good idea.

As for actually learning magic Ranma had asked Typhon at one point if Ranma would be able to learn more than one style before Typhon had sealed him away. And after a moment's thought Typhon had said that he could. Few other magics would have the same offensive power as Dragon Slayer magic but there were a lot of other magics out there that could do specific jobs or tasks better, and more than a few that were quite versatile.

 _Versatility_ Ranma thought now as he walked down the street towards the jeweler's he had spotted from the rooftops, _is a hallmark of Anything Goes, as is taking anything you see and adding to the your style. Here, that means a whole hell of a lot more than it ever did at home._

Even as he haggled with the jeweler about the price for a few of the pearls, the other fellow being rather surprised at haggling at all with such a young girl, Ranma's thoughts remained on what was most important in his mind: Learning martial arts, and getting stronger. _Beyond continuing training with my Dragon Slayer magic, I want to train my ki attacks too. I wasn't really able to concentrate on them in the time chamber. I also want to get faster using my Amaguriken techniques, segue into it with more fluidity, and extend the technique to my legs._

The deal struck Ranma sold five white and one pink pearl for the equivalent of what he thought would be something like 100,000 yen and walked out with a large pouch of cash, which he stuffed into his ki space down one sleeve thinking about what he wanted to buy before again going back to what he wanted to do. _Enlarge my reserves both magical and ki and maybe look into exactly how much more energy it would take to organize my ki space_.

Unlike Mousse, Ranma had never organized his ki space after he had reverse-engineered the technique. Yes, it was incredibly useful, but it was like building a book case. You could make the book case itself with so many wooden slats, all well and good. But if you wanted to organize it, to add shelves or dividers for the books, that took more wood or in this case ki and actually being able to find the things also took ki. It could take up to three or even four times the amount of ki to organize the space than to create it in the first place.

Ranma heard a honk behind him, and looked over his shoulder only to stop and stare before one of the other passersby grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him out of the way. "Haven't you ever seen a car kid?" said the man before letting Ranma going walking off.

"Not like that," Ranma muttered shaking his head. It looked like picture of a car from 1920 or so. But from what he could see it didn't have an engine or anything to actually make it move. Following the car as it moved through the city, Ranma eventually noticed that the car was connected to the driver by some kind of tube with a bracelet on the end of it going around his wrist. Halfway through the city, the man and the passenger switched places, the passenger hooking up the device in turn to his arm before they continued. Thinking about what he had just seen, Ranma turned back, hopping once more over the rooftops.

Now that he knew what he was looking for he spotted five other such cars moving around the city, and even a few larger trucks, though those seemed to have numerous tubes connecting both the driver and several other people to them. Examining the driver and passengers closely on one stopped truck as he sat on top of it, Ranma nodded thoughtfully. _They run on magic or ki maybe. But Typhon said ki wasn't used like that here, so it must be magic._

As the truck began to move, Ranma felt a little queasy, but he still hopped off easily landing on a lamp. _Wonder what that was about?_

Shaking that thought off Ranma bent over to hang there as he stared at the light he was on. Since it wasn't night, the light thankfully wasn't on, letting him peer at it closely, while a few people on the street around him stopped and stared. _That looks more like a crystal of some kind than a lightbulb. Cars that run on magic, and I could've sworn I saw a train station a moment ago._

Hopping back up onto the rooftops he made his way back to where he thought he had sought seen the train station, and it was indeed a station complete with one long train. The train however did not run on magic. Ranma saw several dozen people loading it up with water while others hooked up a new coal cart behind the engine.

"And there were a lot more horse-drawn carts than magic cars around. "So, something like a mix between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution era but with magic. That's damn cool," he said aloud, laughing lightly before hopping back down to the streets.

The clothing too seemed an odd mix. He saw a man with a very good modern suit walking around one portion of the city, surrounded by others who looked like they came from the Victorian Age. In the rest of the city, outfits out of Chinese history seemed to dominate, reminding Ranma strongly of what the Amazons routinely wore.

Taking an apple pie of all things from one vendor (and paying him, breaking one of Genma's most important rules about living on the road: never pay unless you have to) Ranma asked directions towards the nearest store where he could get some camping gear. The man directed him several blocks away and There Ranma found not one store but several, each of them specializing in a different type of travel gear, sitting right next to several large open areas wherein several dozen mules, horses and, strangely camels each had their own paddocks outside large inns.

Ranma went to each store in turn, buying a tent, a sleeping bag, cooking gear, and a few small tins of spices. As he stuffed the last bit into his ki space, the man he'd been buying from nodded his head. "Ahh, Requip magic, I've always thought that was the most useful kind of magic around."

"Oh is that what it's called?" Ranma asked guilelessly while his mental ears pricked forward. "I taught myself this a few years ago. I don't suppose you'd know anyone in the city who uses it would you? I've got some questions about how to get the most out of it."

"Sorry can't help you there, boyo" the man said with a shrug of his wide shoulders. "We don't have a Mage's Guild here in the city. We have two small magic schools, but they don't specialize in anything except for navigation and water magics. And, though you didn't hear it for me, most of their so-called graduates are pretty useless. "The best lessons they have, are the ones that teach cleaning spells or train caravan goers," he finished with a laugh.

Ranma nodded as if he understood what the man was talking about, though the idea of cleaning spells at least he understood. Then it came to him that the man must mean those people he had seen in the truck earlier: mages who were trained to use their magical reserves in such a manner. What that actually meant he didn't know. _Maybe they can learn to use less of their magic to power the cart or something?_

With his shopping over with for the moment, Ranma simply traveled around the city via rooftops. He didn't spot anyone else traveling in such a manner, but he also didn't see nearly as many confused or shocked looks directed his way either when he was noticed by the people below him.

Near the center of the city, or what he thought was the center anyway, Ranma found himself hopping from larger building to larger building, and thought maybe he should get down if he didn't want to draw it negative attention. The rich were often prickly about odd people hopping around their roofs after all regardless of the individual's age.

This proved fortuitous, because as he hopped down, Ranma spotted several people with books coming in and out of a large building to one side. _A library? Learning from books ain't my normal style, but I suppose if I'm going to research dragons that's the way to do it._

When he entered Ranma moved towards the nearest book, picking it out of the shelf and opening it to a random page. And just like the signs outside, Ranma couldn't understand a word. "Dammit!" He muttered under his breath.

"Do you need help young man?" asked a small voice behind them.

Ranma turned, and saw a librarian who was sitting behind a desk set by the doorway. Surprised she had even hear him, he shrugged apologetically. "Unless you know a spell to teach me the local language I'm afraid you probably can't help me."

"Well while I don't know that spell, I'm not a mage after all, we do have a method that you can use to learn the local language. She held out a large book, the thickness of which made Ranma want to cringe. "This is the Dialectia. It was written by a series of rune mages, whose work is mainly to translate from one language to another. Any mage can learn the language within it, so long as you can funnel your power into the book itself to power the spell. The information will then flow out to you in some fashion." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sorry, it was explained to me several years ago when I took this job, but you're the first mage to come through those doors that needed it."

Ranma shrugged, and moved over to the book but she quickly pulled away from him. "That will be 3000 Notas!" she said firmly, naming the amount in the local currency. "Each book is good for only 15 uses, so we have to charge you, sorry."

In reply Ranma smirked at her and instead of paying for it with his now limited local funds pulled out one of the blue pearls. The portable cooking set he had bought had been top of the line and nearly wiped out his funds on its own. "Will this do?"

The librarian gaped at the pearl in the young boy's hand, then nodded slowly. "I'll um, I'll have to check with my supervisor."

A moment later the girl came back out from the backroom, leading an extremely old and very short looking man with a long beard. The somewhat dwarfish looking-man held out his hand without a word taking the pearl and holding it up to a jewelers lens for a moment. Then he nodded. "It's real, and it's worth at least 5000 Notas! I, we can't give you change for this," he said, holding it out to Ranma reluctantly.

Ranma waved that off. "Throw in a few maps and maybe a few books about dangerous animals and you've got a deal." This way he'd probably get more than his money's worth in terms of books and they would be his too rather than still belonging to the library.

The librarian huffed at the very idea of selling books, especially to such a young boy, but her supervisor nodded rapidly. Even with that, they were getting a great deal since though they did have to charge for Ranma and the price was exorbitant it wasn't as if they had used that book very often. That pearl would bring in more revenue than the library saw in a month.

With that Ranma laid his hand onto the runic array set into the first page of the book then channeled some of his magical reserve, as if he was activating his Dragon Slayer magic only to feel it sucked into the book activating the spell within. Then a feeling of **flow** hit him, almost as if something was coming back into him. This was accompanied by words appearing in the forefront of his mind, hundreds, then thousands of them one page after another. They filled Ranma's mind so quickly and rapidly that it actually hurt a little and made him feel sort of ill, almost as if someone had literally stuffed the dictionary into his brain.

Pulling his hand back, Ranma groaned a little, swaying in place and the manager grabbed his shoulder. "It takes you like that sometimes," he said equably having seen this the one time he'd seen the book in action before. "You'll have to give it a few days to settle in."

Groaning again, Ranma held his head in his hands and nodded. "Don't suppose you have a headache medicine?" Then blinked as the manager held out a small vial to him.

Downing it Ranma gagged at the taste, but the feeling of his brain being about to blow up like a balloon receded slightly. The manager then reiterated that he needed to wait a few days before he put his new knowledge to the test or else the pain would get worse, and Ranma nodded, exiting the library.

He spent the next two days exploring the city, getting a feel for this world that he had not been able to while with Typhon. It turned out that the man who had sold him some of his camping gear had been correct: while magic itself seemed relatively common place, dedicated mages made up a very small minority in this world.

He found some of the schools the man had mentioned, and checked them out, but like the man had said they only dealt with travel magic, wind or water controlling magic. Ranma didn't need water magic of course, and the wind magics they were taught here were something of a local specialty of a few intermarried clans. Moreover, they seemed relatively weak to Ranma, able to push the ship along if need be for a few minutes, but nothing really worth writing home about.

Talking to some of the teachers however was much more helpful. It turned out that while Typhon had been correct in that he could learn other magics, there were a very limited number of magical types they could be taught to everyone. Specialty magic, like Dragon Slayer magic or other varieties, could not be taught unless the individual being taught already had a talent for them. Many magics were singular styles, unable to be reproduced. A family could specialize in one type of magic, or a person could awaken a type of magic within them, and no one else would be able to learn it from them.

Requip turned out to be a type of magic which could be learned to a certain degree by anyone, but not to the extent someone could use it in battle. That took both effort, a lot of talent in Requip and power. Guns Magic, which Ranma was somewhat interested in, could also be learned by anyone, though he was warned it would take a lifetime to get really good at it.

Requip however interested him as well once he heard some specifics about it. For one thing, Requip didn't seem to take as much from an individual's magical reserves as a ki space did to create. And for another, apparently he would just have to ask for the item he put in by word, the magic would do the rest. There would be no need to actually organize it.

But like Guns Magic there was no one to learn Requip from in the city, which he had learned was called Ocean's Song.

It was during these first few days among other people that Ranma discovered a few of the odd things that came with learning Dragon Slayer magic. First was the fact that he no longer found the taste of anything but water agreeable. He had asked for a local specialty, a kind of pear-like drink, and found it almost undrinkable. Waving the waiter over, he asked for a drink of water. "You realize that the water has to be heated to get rid of germs young man? Here in Ocean's song our water isn't the cleanest," the man said.

"That's fine, this is just a little too sweet for me I think." Shrugging at Ranma's reply the waiter swiftly came back with a glass of water. Ranma drank from it and smiled as the taste hit him, flowing down his throat almost thrumming with power. _Huh, so it isn't just the water from the training cave that carries magic, all water can give me a power up? But no other liquids. Weird._

On his third day in the city, Ranma spent most of the day at the library but he didn't find much about dragons and didn't really learn much more about magic than he had talking to the teachers. There **were** books on dragons, but most of them were just stories, fairy tales. The real history books which mentioned dragons were few and far between. One of them mentioned a war between dragons and humans, but it was astonishingly vague about who was fighting who and why, or indeed anything of the actual particulars.

That was irritating, but the library did have lots of books about local animals, and some about travel. And the maps were fascinating, or at least Ranma thought so.

It turned out that the country Ranma had landed it was called Minstrel. It was the second largest nation on the peninsula that the maps showed, though Ranma had to wonder why the maps didn't cover the actual continent the peninsula was a part of. And the largest nation, Pergrande, was three times the size of Minstrel. _Maybe people don't travel much?_ The map also didn't show any of the other nations in any detail, but it did show Minstrel in detail, which was good enough for Ranma.

There were two things about the map that bothered Ranma and he looked over at the librarian, having taken a seat in a desk near her station. "Excuse me, but why is this road called the Straight Path? It isn't straight at all I mean it's got all the normal twists and turns to it."

"It's based off a saying more than the reality," she said with a grin. "'Those who seek the truth of themselves and the world must walk the Straight Path, yet be certain they will not like all the answers'. The Straight Path begins in Midi, then goes through Minstrel into Desierto, Bellum and Pergrande before turning around and heading up into Iceberg then the other countries as you can see. It is the only continuous road that passes through all the nations of the peninsula. Well, beyond Sin and Enca, but they aren't actual countries really, more lawless zones than anything else."

"And it doesn't travel into the continent?" Ranma asked, making a note to not go to Sin or Enca if he could help it. They sounded like a lot more trouble than they could be worth.

The librarian shook her head, amused by how well the youngster spoke, and how ambitious he was, wishing to travel at such a young age. "No, no roads lead into the continent as far as I know, though why that is you'd have to ask someone else. I have never been out of Ocean's Song myself. Why would I be?"

Ranma nodded, since that confirmed two things for him. One, that there might be something dangerous on the continent, or some reason why there was no one traveling there and two, that people didn't travel often in this world.

His search for information on dragons stymied at the library, and having no local magic or martial arts to learn (Ranma had looked for those too of course), Ranma decided to leave Ocean's Song the next day. As he walked out of the gates of the city, Ranma looked at the path leading off. It was a massive road, very wide here and tramped down by numerous feet, hooves and wheels and it continued on out of sight over the horizon.

The idea of seeing what lay beyond that horizon filled Ranma with happiness, and he grinned, crouching down lightly for a second before running off as fast as his legs could carry him, which was very fast indeed. He had a whole world to explore, magic to learn martial arts to learn by any other name, and sights to see!

From then on, Ranma split his day into segments. He would push as hard as he could in the morning, covering as much territory as he could unless he saw something interesting which did not happen often those first few weeks. Then he would have a light lunch, exercise both his martial arts major and Dragon Slayer magic in two hour portions. Then he would hunt up some food, meat or otherwise, stuffing whatever remained into his ki space. Ki space was frozen, and it froze anything you put within it, which was good for keeping food edible if not fresh. Then he would meditate and go to sleep.

To Ranma's amused shock he was attacked sometimes at night and during the day by rather foolish animals, including ones that looked like the Vulcan creature he had met first upon his arrival in this world though their fur was a different color. He had read about them in the books of the library, and dealt with them without much effort. According to the books they were some kind of secondary level predator, like hyenas, which had spread over the peninsula. But to even a ten-year old Ranma they were no real threat.

This routine was interrupted twice before he left Minstrel, which for the most part really did look like ancient China, complete with lots of peasants, scattered towns in the center of farmland, and a few scattered Asian style castles. In other words for the most part it was settled land and somewhat boring, at least to Ranma. The first interruption to his routine however proved that even in Minstrel there were still dangers.

Ranma had been traveling for several days without seeing any further sign of humans, no farms or other traffic. The area here was well away from any source of water, and seemed rocky from what Ranma could see as he passed through. There were also scattered copses of trees in sight, but again, no farms or anything. Then over the horizon Ranma saw what at first he took to be a small walled village.

When he came close enough however, Ranma saw that it was in fact a truly huge inn, the same size as the ones which served the trade caravans back in Ocean's Song. The wall was about as long as a city block to a size with several larger buildings inside it to match.

The wall also had several guards posted on the walls, one of whom spotted him coming and shouted a warning. Before Ranma reached the wall there were dozens of guards there now. As he came within hailing distance, man shouted at him. "Halt boy! Who are you, and where is the rest of your band?"

"My name's Ranma and I'm alone," Ranma said with a laugh, pointing back the way he had, "Aren't you guys' an inn, or do you question every person who comes along the road?"

"We're having a minor issue with bandits in the area," said the voice apologetically. "Sorry boy, but we have to ask, and you'll have to submit to being questioned if we let you in."

Ranma nodded, and he was let into the inn without further fanfare, the guards like the animals underestimating how dangerous Ranma was thanks to his age. In the inn's carriageway he found himself questioned by the owner of the inn, who doubled as its chief guardsmen. He was a middle-aged man with straight-backed silver hair whose looks reminded Ranma of a villain from Gintama he remembered. _What was his name again, the one who had run the underground world? He looks like the guy who ran the underground bordellos Yorusawa or something?_

"Your guard said you had issues with bandits," Ranma asked after the man had finished asking him about what he had seen on his travels that day. Since Ranma covered as much ground in a day that a cart could in a week or more, that made sense.

"Yes," the man said grunting irritably. "They want to force us to pay protection money, so they've been attacking travelers in a radius around the inn, and even attacking us occasionally at night with fire arrows and such alike. They're not that big of a deal for us here behind our walls, but their depredations have hurt several caravans badly, and word has gotten around at this point. That means we'll either have to hunt them down and deal with them, call in the Silken Guard to do it, which will take weeks or maybe even months, or risk losing our business."

Ranma nodded, having heard that the, rather idiotic in his opinion, name for Minstrel's small military force was the Silken Guard. He had seen a lot of traffic on the road for a few days after he left the city, but he hadn't seen any in the past day or two. He also noted the man's waist held not one but four guns of different types, each of which looked like individual works of a blacksmith. "What's it worth you to get rid of these bandits?"

"I can't pay you much lad," the man said, taking Ranma at face value on whether or not he could get rid of the bandits. If the boy could only find their hideout without them knowing they had been found that would be a help in and of itself. And he liked the look of Ranma, the young man had a dangerous look in his eyes, a wild, dangerous look in his eyes, one the old man recognized from his younger days, even if Ranma was setting out rather sooner than he had.

"I'm not interested in money, I want to learn Guns Magic." Ranma replied, gesturing down at the man's collection of guns.

"Well then!" the man said with a faint smile. "I can probably start you off at the very least. I was a marksman of some repute when I was younger."

"Then we have a deal. Guns Magic, and a free stay at the inn while I learn?"

"If you can even find them boy I'll let you stay free for a night, give you some fresh food and a hot bath," The older man said with a laugh. "If you can beat them all yourself and bring them to justice, then I'll teach you some Guns Magic."

Ranma nodded at that, and the two men shook. Later having eaten his fill Ranma left with one of the guards, who showed him where the latest bandit attack had occurred about 20 minutes travel, for Ranma anyway, from the inn. The guard, even on a horse, took about a full turn of the glass.

The young man explained as he dropped out of his saddle, gesturing around to the scorched clearing as he spoke to the young teen. Here and there were pieces of leather, a chip sword here, a broken axle there showing what had happened. "This was their boldest attack yet," he said grimly, "but they took the caravan for all it was worth, and then left the people behind to make their way to the inn putting more strain on our own resources. It's a good plan, but if we knew where they were hiding out it wouldn't be enough to stop us from wiping them out!"

"Gotcha," Ranma nodded, moving over to this patch of ground than this one, sniffing and peering around into the copse of trees that abutted the road here. Ranma had found that Dragon Slayer magic heightened the senses to a **ridiculous** degree especially that of scent. It'd taken Ranma a long while in the time dilation chamber to get used to, but once he did, he found it remarkably useful.

The guard was watching the young teen sniff around quizzically, but eventually Ranma stopped and nodded. "I'll see you back at the inn, I think I've got their scent."

"Their scent?" The guard asked questioningly then shrugged his shoulders. "I'll go with you. If you can track them down, you might need help getting away at the very least." Unlike his boss, the man hadn't realized that Ranma was some kind of mage before this and was still seeing him as just a young boy.

Ranma laughed then hopped easily up into the treetops. "You couldn't keep up with me." With that he was off rushing through the treetops as fast as any monkey.

He stepped occasionally seeing strings or ropes connected to tiny bells here and there, even up in the treetops. When he saw those, Ranma sniffed around for any further trails, finding spots here and there where the bandits must've made their hideout as they moved away from the roads. _Huh, so they were using temporary bases closer to the road, which they then left after moving back to their main base. Smart, not smart enough, but smart._

Several times Ranma broke out of a copse of trees here, but the further back from the road he got, the more overgrown, in a rocky kind of way, the area was. Eventually he followed the trial into a series of buttes, large standing stones taller than the inn and wider to boot. There, he found the bandit's main camp.

It was a very well hidden fort with the only entrance being a small crack in the butte, which led into a hidden caldera beyond. If you didn't know it was there, you could pass it by without even noticing, and this was further helped Ranma would later learn by boulders set into the cave a few feet inside. The rock in question looked natural, but was in fact only a shallow cover backed by wood.

But the bandits had not thought that anyone would be able to scale the outside rock face without them hearing him, which Ranma did easily.

Peering down from the top of the caldera Ranma thought there were about fifty of them, more than the guards at the inn which made Ranma wonder if the guards had been underestimating them, or if they had that much faith in the old man to even the odds with his magic. The bandits were armed with crossbows, short swords and long spears for the most part, and some of the ones on guard seemed to be wearing somewhat decent looking body armor. There were also what looked like twenty horses kept in a very small paddock near the back of the caldera.

All of their gear of course was scavenged, none of it matching, though the crossbows were uniformly crude devices. _Maybe one of the bandits built those on his own?_ Whatever the case, they had seven guards on duty at all times even in their hidden fortress.

It didn't help them.

After spending a few minutes watching the camp, Ranma dropped on them from above, water cascading from his fists in either direction into the form of claws as he roared out a challenge. He'd decided to use Dragon Slaying magic for this, just to see how well it worked in a limited combat situation. His claws struck with all the force of the tsunami, sending bandits flying as he leapt down into the midst of the camp. "Soryu no Tsume! (Water Dragon's Claws)"

"Attack! Were under attack! Mage!" shouted one of the bandits, only to find himself punted over one of their crude huts.

From the various small crude huts that dominated the caldera bandits charged out, grabbing at weapons leaving their armor behind for now. "He's only a boy, kill him! Circle and bring him down with crossbows!"

It might have been a good plan, but Ranma was too fast for them to pin down. He was in among them before they could further organize, kicks and water-encased fists lashing out this way. One such kick sent a man flying out up and over the side of the caldera and Ranma laughed wildly, a sound that ended in a roar as he launched himself into the next bunch of bandits. Some of them hearing that wild challenge quailed and tried to reach the exit, but Ranma was there before they could get away, smashing them down quickly.

Even as he went to work on the bandits however, part of Ranma's mind was working on what he was feeling, which he actually spoke aloud to himself. The bandits would later admit to one another that this had perhaps been the most humiliating thing: that the young mage had been carrying on a conversation with himself while kicking their asses.

"Hmm, so just like in the ocean forcing Water Dragon Slayer magic through my feet is a little difficult. And the more I use it, the more, more uncontrolled I feel," He mused as he smashed them to and fro. "I wonder if that is part of the magic, you start to feel like a dragon might? Weird, definitely something to be aware of in the future, Ranma."

"Huh, that one's still alive?" Ranma said a second later, watching as a man Ranma had punched through the walls of a hut stagger to his feet before falling back to his knees.

"Gah, stop it, stop talking to yourself you little bastard!" shouted one of the bandits, a sentiment echoed by the other bandits, which Ranma ignored, going on with his verbal commentary.

A second later he ducked under a blow from a sword, grabbing up a stone and hurling it at a man who looked to be trying to climb the inside of the caldera. He fell with a squawk and Ranma continued as if he hadn't been interupted. "That's something to note."

Grabbing a jabbing spear Ranma pulled the man holding it and punched out slightly harder than normal, watching as the man collapsed to the ground. "Huh," he said aloud, before hopping over a sword thrust, bringing the spear butt around in a whirling arc to crack against the man's head sending him flying.

A moment later however the man got up. "So it wasn't a single aberration, interesting," Ranma said with a laugh, now knowing it wasn't his imagination: people in this world were definitely tougher than the normal civilian was back in his old world. They were one and all able to take hits that would have downed anyone but Kuno in the old Furinkan Date Akane brigade.

 _I wonder why? Crap, that probably means I didn't kill as many of those slavers as I had thought. Dammit!_ While in no way bloodthirsty, Ranma would personally have rather killed all of the slavers then left them alive to continue their depredations.

His laugh seemed to goad the last of the bandits into a frothing fury and they pushed in against Ranma harder. "Little asshole, stop laughing at us, we're the mighty Raven's Peak bandits, take us seriously brat!"

But that only meant they got in one another's way as Ranma hopped leaped and bounced around them, rarely touching down except to lash out with kicks, his fists and feet knocking the bandits flying. "Now, let's see what happens if I coat my entire body in Dragon Slaying Magic."

The fight ended quickly after that. Dragon Slaying magic, beyond allowing him to pull water out of the air and cover his limbs with it, also had made Ranma tougher physically. He was faster, stronger and possibly more durable than he remembered being at this age back in his old world, though he wasn't about to give this scum the satisfaction of tagging him to make sure of that last bit.

In comparison to the age he had been before the age reduction mushrooms he wasn't all that much stronger but the difference between where he had been the first time around at ten going on eleven and now was **very** noticeable. The possibilities there caused Ranma to cackle aloud, and the last few bandits fell running away from the cackling mad young mage who had suddenly appeared in their midst.

Once the last man fell, Ranma stepped back, allowing his magic to fade from his hands as he frowned, staring around at the bodies hurled everywhere. "Now, how to get you lot back to the inn?"

Sighing, Ranma first moved over to the paddock, letting the spooked horses out. "Might as well let you lot out and have some shoulder room before I figure out what I want to do."

To his surprise, the horses didn't seem scared of him despite being a stranger, indeed they seemed to calm down very quickly now that the fight was over. One or two of the mares even came up and leaned down to nuzzle into his shoulder causing Ranma to chuckle, patting their noses and what he could reach of their necks. "Well now, is this another aspect of Dragon Slayer magic? Weird but welcome. So long as furry demons don't react the same way anyway."

Eventually Ranma had to resort to using the bandits' horses. Creating sleds from the shattered remains of their camp and tying the men to them, He lead the horses out in small groups, then hefted the last few of them into onto his shoulders, following the last horses out.

That evening Ranma returned to being mission accomplished, to the gaping shock of the guards on duty. They had him dump the bandits outside, the guards coming out quickly to more thoroughly tie up the bandits.

Their boss came out then, shaking his head with a chuckle. "I thought you might be a mage, but I didn't expect results this quickly lad."

"Bandits are bandits, and not worth much time in my mind. Now, about my payment?" Ranma asked, shrugging off the praise. It hadn't like they had been any real threat to him after all, Ranma had gotten tougher fights from groups of Vulcans before this.

Ranma stayed there for two weeks, buying more spices when the next caravan came through and learning Guns Magic from the owner.

Guns Magic depended on two parts: the ability to create the magic bullets, and the guns to hold and direct it. Controlling your magic, creating the small array around your hands and wrist then pushing the magic into the gun and forming it into a bullet took most people years to learn if they even could in the first place. Adding what the old man called 'the form of effect', the ability to add more magic to create an effect with the bullet, was beyond him still.

The old man told him not to worry, that it took most Gun mages years to learn, and that Ranma's progress was frankly incredible. But it still irritated Ranma given his experience with shaping and manipulating his ki. That ability had carried over to using Dragon Slayer magic, but not Guns Magic beyond the most basic level so far.

For the other, it turned out that guns themselves were extremely expensive in Minstrel, and the man refused to sell Ranma more than one from his own collection. "Most of them are heirlooms or have sentimental value, sorry lad." The old man never called Ranma by name for some reason, which Ranma didn't care about enough to question.

Ranma waved that off. "I'd rather build my own if that's possible."

"Ah, that's a different story entirely." The man laughed. "Building guns for Guns Magic is tough, and there aren't very many blacksmiths in Mistral or Desierto to do the work. Your best bet would probably be travelling to Pergrande buying one there. They have some of the best gunsmiths and regular smiths you'll find. Even the headquarters for the famous Heart Kreuz armor division is there. Now, let's see you hold the bullet shape again…"

Two days later Ranma left the inn, heading further along the Straight Path. There was no point in going cross-country after all, since he wanted to explore magic and martial arts, which meant people, not just the world itself.

The second interruption to his normal travelling schedule was a far more sedate one. It occurred when Ranma came across a crevasse in the road where several dozen workers were using construction magic to build the bridge.

As he watched Ranma saw the one mage among the workers use some kind of specialty transfiguration magic to turn planks of wood to the correct size and shape. The man also seemed to use a simple style of Requip, providing tools as needed.

Ranma volunteered to help out with anything needing strength, and was able to pick up a bit of the wood magic just by watching the mage in question though none of the workers seemed to realize he was since they were rather in awe of Ranma's brute strength in such a young body. With his help they finished the bridge in far less time than it would've taken them otherwise: Ranma could fetch the materials from the next town over in a few hours which would have required the workers several days to cart in.

The Requip magic however eluded Ranma somewhat since the mage refused to share any of it with him. Ranma found the man decidedly on the unpleasant side, a small-minded bully somewhat intimidated by Ranma's brute strength and unwilling to share what he knew with him or anyone else. Ranma was tempted to intimidate the man into doing it, but figured that would have been just as petty on his part as the man's unwillingness to help him was in the first place.

After that, Ranma passed through two cities in quick succession, the outskirts of the cities only being four hours apart for him, though obviously that was at least several days' worth of travel for anyone else. They seemed to be what Ranma thought as a soft industrial center. They didn't work in heavy materials like metals or wood, but silk, cotton and fabrics of all kinds. The cities were magnificently colorful, with each street dominated by fabrics of different colors waving from every window or shop.

Ranma stopped in the second city to exchange some furs from the stupid animals who had attacked him since leaving Ocean's Song as well as a single white pearl for more clothing and more spices, figuring he could buy clothing here much more cheaply than anywhere else. This turned out to be the case. Ranma was able to buy several weeks' worth of clothing for less than he had paid than he'd paid for a good, durable tent back in Ocean's Song.

As Ranma was trying a shirt on he shared a sound form his nightmares behind him. "Meow…" With a shriek he leaped out of the changing room leaving his shirt behind.

Outside the changing booth one of the store's clerks barely had a second to blush before she found herself lifted up by an extremely hunky looking little boy and being used against the owner's cat as a shield. "Um, um, it' um it's only Mr. Nibblesworth sir, did he startle you?"

"NO! Not startle, just, childhood, bad thing, furry demons, ugh… Get it away!" Ranma cried, still holding her forward as if she weighed no more than a feather.

The cate meowed again as it padded forward, but the manager came over at that point. She was a middle-aged woman with a black hair and a decent figure, who stopped and stared at the sight of a young boy holding up one of her clerks like a shield against Mr. Nibblesworth. The fact said clerk was at least two feet taller than the boy and rather busty didn't seem to bother him, and she wondered how he was doing it until she noticed the muscles on his arms and back.

"Alright that's about enough of that," stepping around the pair she made to scoop up her cat, but he hissed at her, backing away and trying to go around her. "Does someone want the bottle?" She asked, arching an eyebrow and getting out a spray bottle.

Recognizing the threat from long experience the cat huffed and turned, moving off as if it was all his own idea. Turning she smiled at the young teen. "There, all better. Now if you could please release Henrietta we can get on with fitting you for clothing."

Sheepishly Ranma set his shield down on her feet, one hand moving to pull at his pigtail self-consciously as he realized he was shirtless. He noticed and somewhat preened under the looks he was getting from the older women around him but his embarrassment at showing his greatest fear to other people overrode that. "Sorry about that, I uh, had a really bad experience with cats when I was younger. It um, it stuck with me…"

"I understand," the manager soothed. "We can't always choose what we are scared at." She took a moment to watch as the young man stepped around her clerk, nearly staring as she saw his muscles move. _Young, what 11, 12, year old boys shouldn't have that kind of build!_

"Um, what did you use to scare it away anyway?"

"Oh this, it's just a spray bottle. Just some plain water in it. You spritz the cat in the face, they hate that," she replied, trying hard not to stare at Ranma's chest. Feeling a little mischievous she raised the bottle. "It sometimes works on people too, see?"

With that she spritzed Ranma in the face only to stare in shock as the change occurred. Hard, toned abs became just barely budding breasts over an equally toned stomach, tiny bright red nipples winking at her before they were covered. "Wh, what?"

"Why'd ya have ta do that?" Ranma groused, covering herself. _Need to get better at unconsciously keeping water off me, if I don't anticipate it, I can't redirect it. Still, I suppose given what she just told me it's worth it. How did I never hear of this spray bottle idea before!?_ Looking up at the gawking women Ranma shrugged and launched into her normal spiel about her curse.

The manager nodded, having met mages before and thinking this curse was a much more permanent example of some kind of joke magic. With that in mind she simply accepted it, unknowingly making Ranma's day for the second time in less than fifteen minutes.

"Very well then I apologize for that, but I think we should look into training bras at the very least. As you age dear you'll learn that certain parts will start to become uncomfortable if they aren't supported, especially at first. No underwear however, boxers there definitely. Depending on the design they can be as at home on a girl's body as a boy's."

Later that day Ranma bought two books from the only bookstore in the city. It was evident that reading wasn't a necessity to most people in this world, or at least in Minstrel, and they didn't seem to have any newspapers or magazines here either.

One of the books was a traveling book called _For the Wizard on the Go_ , by someone named Gildarts. The writing was nothing to write home about, but it explained in greater detail the various dangerous animals a mage could meet as they traveled. There were even notes to go with some of them, many of which Ranma found were hilarious.

"'The Vulcan," one of them said about the animal Ranma had run into most often so far. "'The dumbest yet most widely spread animal you'll ever meet. They look like apes, they talk like humans, and they think you're crunchy and good with ketchup. The reverse alas is not true. They also seem to think that numbers or sheer size matter more than skill, and the traveling mage can certainly have some fun teaching them the error of their ways.'"

The other book was called Specialties of the Countries of Earthland. In that book, Ranma learned that like the innkeeper had said the best steel came from Pergrande, and that Stella and Joyawere apparently incredibly mountainous, unable to feed their own people but supplying a lot of the raw ores to the rest of the peninsula. Minstrel, as Ranma had supposed from the city he was currently in and the one he had passed through before, was the clothing center for the continent. They didn't export so much in terms of fashion but fabrics and materials, and they were also apparently a decent maritime power.

Another country however grabbed Ranma's interest immediately, since it was famous for magical inventions. "Fiore," he mused, closing the book and stuffing it into his ki space. "Huh, that could be a good place to settle in a few years down the line."

Ranma moved on from that city quickly, again having found little of any interest to him to learn there. There was some magic to extract silk, check the quality of clothing and so forth, which he could've learned, but beyond learning a few cleaning spells Ranma wasn't very interested in such magics. _Now if they could teach me how to reinforce clothing that would've been interesting_ Ranma thought, as he once more jogged down Straight Path, eating up the miles faster than a galloping horse.

A normal person would have taken a year to cross Minstrel on foot from the bottom half of the country to where it bordered Desierto. For Ranma it had barely taken a month to cross a large portion of the second largest country of Earthland. From that border the road he was on traveled through Desierto. There he found that there was no guard post or anything, rather there was another large inn, sitting directly where one country began and the other started.

But Ranma could already see a difference in the terrain. Whereas Minstrel had been interspersed rolling hills, large stands of forest and in many places a lot of farms, here he had stopped seeing trees a few hours back. The land as he ran changed into grassland, and then into scrub brush, with the green slowly disappearing the further he went away from the border.

Soon enough the last bit of green faded, and after that, with the heat of the sun beating down on him like a physical force, Ranma found himself in the desert which gave this country its name.

Unlike in Minstrel, the part of the Straight Path through Desierto wasn't nearly as obvious. There were some markers here and there, and there were certainly a few areas of solid enough ground where you could make out the ruts of cart tracks. However, given the changing nature of the desert environment these were few and far between. Twice Ranma lost his way in that first day, and five more times the next the difference being because of a sandstorm that had passed through the area and covered several of these markers.

He was also attacked by bandits on his third night out into the desert.

Ranma was asleep as they came upon him. They were dressed as typical desert bandits, heavy fabrics covering their faces, black clothing to blend into the night, and long sabers in hand. They didn't speak to one another, simply making hand gestures, which would have translated into an entire conversation had anyone else been around to translate and known the secret bandit sign language.

"Dammit, it's just one boy, and he doesn't look to be carrying anything either. Some kind of apprentice hunter maybe?"

"Look around again. I don't think he even has any supplies visible, so he has to have them hidden somewhere."

Furtive searching later, the gesture began once more even more emphatically. "Nothing! He's just alone out here with **nothing**? Is he some kind of mage?"

"If he's a mage, we can get even more money for him at the slavers than they'll normally pay for a boy his age. Take him."

"But carefully," a fifth gesturer motioned. "Mages might be worth a lot later on, but they can be expensive to take in the first place, no matter how young they are."

"Agreed. You go first."

If people could shout with hand gestures, this group would've been doing so at that point. Eventually one victim was pushed forward by his fellows, signaling with his fingers in a very descriptive gesture that could only mean "you guys are all jackasses", before raising his sword and bringing the edge down to rest lightly on Ranma's neck. Or that was the plan anyway.

What actually happened was he found his wrist gripped suddenly. Then before he could realize what was happening, the bandit found himself pulled off balance and then tossed away, his weapon now lying in the sand beside the mage boy as he turned over and seemingly continued to sleep. The man landed in a heap several yards away, with the other bandits having watched his parabolic arc through the air with wide eyes behind their turbans.

They looked at one another then one of the smarter bandits gestured. "Three of us at once then. Come at him from different angles. Once we have steel poking him in at least one or more tender areas he'll come quietly."

One of the more cautious ones signed back, "The boy's still sleeping."

"Then let's make certain he stays that way. Switch to sandbags," said another man.

A few of the bandits who were lower on the totem than the others grumbled a bit mentally, then slid their sabers into their sheaths before pulling out something that looked like a bola. The end however wasn't made of rocks, but rather a sack filled with sand tied together. With these in hand, the three moved over to stand over to the mage, then raised their weapons and hammered down towards his head.

To their shock the mage dodged them all, ducking to one side, his hand waving above his head for a second almost as if he was trying to swat away a fly. However his fingers grabbed at the bolas right behind the sandbags, and pulled them out of the hands of the bandits. Then he went right back of snoring.

"He still snoring!" shouted one of the disarmed bandits aloud to the shock of his fellows.

There is a moment of stillness. Then Ranma rolled to his feet, kicking out at the bandit who had spoken sending him flying backwards. At the same time one of his fellows shouted out "Now you've done you idiot!"

"Where the hell do you people come from?" Ranma asked, cracking his neck and rolling one of his shoulders. Then he looked at them closely in the light of his fire and frowned. "Bandits right?" Then he smiled, a slow evil little smile as he pulled out the gun he had purchased from the innkeeper from his ki space. "Well now, you all just volunteered for a bit target practice. Run little doggies, run!"

While he didn't kill any of them, Ranma certainly left the bandits in no fair state to continue their depredations. With several of them crippled and others wounded to various lesser degrees, if they lived or died they wouldn't be able to fight effectively ever again.

The next day he moved on, losing the trail once more only to find it several days later. Not that he had actually covered near as much area in that time as he normally would have. Even Ranma couldn't run at top speed through the desert during the day, and even Ranma couldn't travel at night. While his eyes were good, they weren't good enough to Straight Path at night unless he was going even more slowly than he could during the day.

More than a week later, Ranma was reading the travel log as he was walking along, having found several bits of the trail and knowing generally speaking which direction it was going, when a giant scorpion with three tails instead of one rose up out of the ground in front of them.

Ranma cocked his head at the thing, as it clacked its claws menacingly, its three tales each moving in different directions, poised to strike. Ranma hopped up over the first one, landing on it for a moment as he flipped through the book searchingly. "Ah here we go, the tri-scorpion. Let's see, are you edible?"

The scorpion danced in place trying to fling him off, but Ranma just hopped over to another one of its stingers, then when it tried to bring him down to where the other stingers could strike, Ranma hopped off and away onto the sand forcing it to turn around, a complicate maneuver for anything with that many legs.

"'While something of a delicacy in certain regions, Tri-scorpions need to be cooked over a slow fire after boiling intensely for two days to get out the poison.' So… not edible, fine. 'They are single hunters, however they do tend to while not working in packs, inhabit the same territory as one another for mating purposes'."

"Yeah, didn't need to know that last part but whatever," Ranma said, ducking under a clause wipe, then rolling to avoid two of the tales before hopping over the third one. When he came down, he did so fist first, slamming into the thing's back right below it stingers having dodged two more strikes from them in midair. The thing gave a cry of agony, as its carapace shattered under the below, and another blow to its back caused it to fall limp.

"Well if I can't eat you, at least someone else can try." With that Ranma picked the thing up and hurled it away from the trail, before turning back and walking on his way. The bit about them having sharing territory with several others of their kind however became more important quickly as throughout that day Ranma dealt with seven more such attacks. By the time the sun was setting he was angry and irritable, and he decided to push on through the night, grumbling under his breath about "freaking giant insects who don't freaking learn."

Several turns of the candle after the sun set blanketing the desert in cold and darkness in equal measure Ranma saw a welcome sight in the distance: a small fire just at the horizon. Making his way towards it quickly, Ranma saw what looked like a trade caravan of some kind. It consisted of several large covered wagons and one truck parked all in a circle around a central fire pit which had been carefully built to conceal its size. It was much larger than Ranma had first thought, and there were several men on guard on top of the wagons.

As Ranma approached, one of them sent up some kind of flair and the others quickly congregated around him. An instant later they were pointing their guns out into the desert towards Ranma. "Halt stranger!"

Ranma nodded, and said simply "I'm uncertain if you'll see me holding my hands up from there but I'm doing it anyway. I can understand why you guys are so protective, but can you at least tell me how the **Frick** you got through the tri-scorpions?" Ranma asked plaintively. "I've been dealing with those persistent fuckers all day."

"There's a trick to that, the scorpions don't seem to like the smell of horse dung for some reason. So once you know you're in their territory, if you keep the smell wafting around the caravan for the day they won't bother you," said the same guard in a slightly more conversational tone of voice, having noticed the youth's age and now no longer being on guard. At the same time another guard hopped off the wagon top to go and get their leader.

"That must've been really uncomfortable," Ranma said, grimacing at the very idea. Luckily he couldn't smell any such thing from the camp now, or rather no more than normal, which he would have given his Water Dragon Slayer magic. However he felt it incumbent to ask. "If you're going to do that tomorrow too, I'm just going to skirt around your camp rather than ask to join you."

"And why would we want you to join in the first place boy? We're not a charity case." The same voice asked. It was both standoffish and rather dismissive. "In fact how the hell have you even survived out here on your own?"

In reply Ranma gathered water from the air around him and held it up, in the shape of a claw naturally. "That good enough of a reason?" He asked. The trick was tough as **hell** to do here in the desert, but Ranma could at least pull it off at night if not during the day. _And at least out here I don't have to worry about sudden squalls or water pouring uphill to splash me._

There was a moment of silence from the caravan then two men came forward around a wagon, lighting a lamp as they did. The two of them were a study in contrast. One man was rather rotund and had a jolly looking if intelligent face with a neatly trimmed beard. The other, was tall, thin to the point of emaciation, and had a lugubrious face on him that made it look as if the man had never smiled in his life. "Hold that out boy so we can see it," The shorter man practically ordered as they came near.

Ranma did so, and the two of them looked at it for a moment. "Is that water? Honest to goodness water?" The fat man asked incredulously.

"Yep. Out here in the desert I can't do this very often, only once a night or so if I want to retain enough energy to move. Getting it to coalesce out of the air here is **really** hard. But I'm also a very good fighter, a somewhat decent camp cook, and I seem to have discovered a way with animals recently," Ranma replied with a smile, nearly invisible since he was standing beyond the light of their lamps. "I figure with all of that I can pay my way, and traveling with your caravan will probably be more enjoyable than travelling alone.

The lugubrious man nodded slowly. "That would be a help master Timothy," he said slowly. "The Crescent Moon bandits operate out here, and any help we can have against them I'll take. And with a steady supply of water we can work the horses as hard as the camels moving forward. Still, he's a stranger, and we don't know if he could be a plant."

"Both good points, but I think we can chance it. The boy doesn't even look Desiertonian, and you know the bandits don't recruit from those of other descent," the jolly looking man said with a nod. "So beyond a place by our fires, what would you ask for in trade boy?"

"A place by the fire as you said, and if you have any magics, I'd like permission to try and learn them." Ranma replied.

The fat man guffawed slapping his belly. "The only magics we have in my little caravan come from Whiticus, who has learned some music magic in his time in the Traveler's Guild. You can feel free to ask boy, but I doubt you'll get anywhere."

Ranma nodded, knowing that the Traveler's Guild was the guild that trained its mages to better handle the rigors of using magical transportation. "So can I join you for a few days?"

"I think we can arrange that, so long as you don't hold us to any agreement about actually learning from Whiticus," said Timothy, still chuckling a little. "For now keep that water where you are, and we'll get some buckets out to take it forward."

"No problem," Ranma replied and followed them, still holding out his hand in front of him. The water was slowly cooling around his hand in the nighttime air but Ranma didn't care about that. He'd long since discovered that he could put body parts besides his head into water and not trigger the change. If his head or main body got even a little wet that triggered the change, but he could at least soak his hands and feet in cold water, which allowed him to use his Dragon Slayer Magic without needing to constantly transform into his female form.

Ranma camped out by the caravan's fire that night, then got up and helped them start moving the animals. With the camels that Ranma had seen pulling their carts, and the horses trotting alongside to be switched out at lunchtime, the trade caravan actually made decent time. Not as fast as Ranma could've moved alone of course, but still decent enough for its size and these conditions.

Talking to a few of the men and women in the caravan, Ranma learned that they were heading towards Bellum, where they would drop off their current goods and pick up new ones. The group as a whole was somewhat taciturn towards Ranma, and Ranma got the distinct impression they didn't like outsiders very much, but given his magic they weren't willing to turn him away. There were also no children among the group, which might have had something to do with it.

It turned out that trade caravans like this were **big** money, and sort of the life's blood between the various nations. While there were indeed trains as Ranma had seen, none crossed any borders, and they weren't very common even in Seven, where they had been first developed just yet.

Currently this group was carrying cotton, silk and other such from Minstrel, along with several dozen small crystal figurines which they expected to sell for a very good price. Even that information though Ranma picked up listening in on their conversations rather than talking to them directly, his hearing having been enhanced by his Dragon Slayer training.

It was obvious watching the people work that this group had made this journey many times before. There was a practiced air of efficiency about them, and all of their equipment was of excellent quality, especially that of the guards. Yet for all of that, again there were only four mages among them, and of all of them, only a middle-aged man with dark silver hair named Whiticus could do anything beyond power the one truck in the caravan along as efficiently as possible. Ranma found this out that first evening when Whiticus set to providing some entrainment for the evening.

While a few of the other womenfolk were cooking dinner, he held out his hands in front of him, magical circles appearing around their wrists and hands of a faint green color. A second later a musical instrument seemingly made of the same color of light appeared between them, followed by two more. These instruments began to play by themselves as one of the nearby women began to sing. The first song was a working song of some kind, the men and women assigned to fold out their tents from the truck's side working to its beat. The second song was a dancing one, and Ranma watched as several pairs of men and women danced around the campfire.

Later, during the evening meal Ranma moved up to the older man and asked, "So, what kind of magic is that?"

"It's a specialized variety of construction magic sort of," the man said vaguely, looking down at his meal. "Its short term, not at all impressive, not like your water condensing magic."

Ranma didn't correct the man, having no wish to brag about his magic since he was already having enough trouble fitting in with this group. As he watched the mage turned away, moving over to sit beside a middle aged woman, who glared Ranma's way as if the young boy's presence offended her causing Ranma to roll his eyes. _Freaking clannish assholes. Still, what they don't know won't hurt them, and besides, I think it's time to see if I can come up with some kind of ki sight for magic._

The displaced and de-aged martial artist had learned by this point that he could feel out both his magical core and his ki reserves using mediation, and while his ki sight wasn't anything to write home about, he thought that doing the same thing magically should be possible. So over the next few evenings Ranma seemed to everyone to accept that he was the outsider here, and retreated from the campfire quickly after coming back from scouting around. Instead, he would sit on the top of the roof of the truck, out of sight of anyone with their night vision destroyed by the fire, meditating or seeming to as he watched the mage use his magic.

At first Ranma's attempt to develop a magic equivalent of ki sight didn't work very well, but eventually he was able to come up with one, his eyes glowing slightly covered with a thin film of water. It would be months before he could even try to use it while not meditating however.

Watching the magic work between the purple-haired woman's hands into the shape of an instrument was interesting, but not very useful on its own. Ranma thought it might be useful in the future if he needed to earn some money after his pearls ran out and dumbass animals stopped attacking him, but he had hoped it would help him learn how to use Re-quip magic. Yet it turned out the instruments were not only guided by Lucretia's magic, they were made of it too instead of being summoned from some pocket space. That was disappointing, but Ranma consoled himself with the fact he had at least learned how she did it in the first place, and had learned to use mage sight. _Now, if I could just figure out how she actually makes them create music…_

However before Ranma could figure that out, his time with the caravan came to an abrupt end. Another week after creating his mage sight technique, Ranma was coming back from a scouting patrol, having found and knocked out several bandit scouts. He had just moved to enter Timothy's personal wagon when he heard a grunt from one side followed by a curse. Ranma turned in that direction just in time to receive a face full of cold water from one of the women folk who had just tripped as they were carrying a pot of water towards the fire.

Grumbling Ranma raised one hand to her face and wiped away the water, glaring at the girl. _Even in freaking desert I'm not safe from being splashed?_! "Watch where you're going next time will ya?"

"W,What just happened?!" shouted one of the men from nearby, backing away quickly.

"It's a magic curse," Ranma said shrugging as he tried to downplay his curse, watching as more and more of the caravaners present backed away from him. Lucretia in particular and the other mages were looking at first worried then disgusted as he went on. "Hot water changes me back into a guy. It's a full body change and no it doesn't affect my mind, I'm still a guy up here." She finished, tapping her forehead.

With that Ranma coalesced a claw of water, heated it, and then lifted it above his head lit letting it drop. Once again a man Ranma looked around, frowning at the looks he was still getting from the people around him. "Freak," muttered one of them, the lugubrious man who Ranma had since learned was the guard captain.

Ranma glared, throwing out his shoulders as his hands curled into fists. "Hey! I didn't choose to get cursed, I got knocked into a cursed spring! But I've learned to live with it. Why does that make me a freak?"

"You turn into a girl, hell you probably perv on your own body," said one of the women, making Ranma choke, wondering how the hell anyone could think like that.

"I don't know about that, but a curse that stays on like that, that's fell magic. It's bad luck to have someone cursed at all around, let alone to that extent," one of the travel mages said, making some weird signal with her hands.

 _You'd think people who know magic's real would be less suspicious but I guess not,_ Ranma thought with a sinking feeling. The final straw was when one of the men sidled up and asked "so, how much for a look? I mean, if your other form's a curse form, than ya don't really care if you show it off a bit do you?"

After punching the lolicon's lights out, Ranma looked over at Timothy who had come out to see what the commotion was. "I'm leaving," he said simply. "I don't have to deal with this shit, I've dealt with enough crap about my curse in my life already. Good luck all, oh, and ya might want to watch out, I knocked out a few bandit scouts while out on patrol just now, there might be more in the area."

Without another word Ranma turned away, ignoring Timothy's shouted questions or the lugubrious man's sudden look of concern and leaped out into the gathering night, moving out and away from the clannish traders quickly. Thankfully for them however, Ranma had disabled all the bandit watchers in the area, and the caravan continued on its merry, if ignorant, way.

Over the next few days, Ranma saw no sign of human life other than a few hunters, operating alone here and there, not even seeing any more bandits. Surprising Ranma after the caravaners' off-putting attitude the hunters were happy and willing to work with Ranma, not seeing any issue with his age or being a mage.

These hunters scoured the desert for dangerous animals, making certain that none of the truly dangerous ones moved into the territory where the Straight Path went through. When Ranma saw what one of those truly dangerous animals looked like, he realized why the tri-scorpion was such small change and hadn't registered on their radar.

The thing looked like a rhinoceros on steroids, with fangs like that of alligator, and wide pads for feet. It was also three meters tall and six meters long. The traveling guide from Gildarts had these to say about the beasties. "Toronids. Thankfully found only in Desierto, these beasties are trouble on wide feet. Good eating if you can get through their hide which can also fetch a decent price, but watch out because they are too stupid to realize they should be feeling pain. Go for the eyes, my young mage, go for the eyes!"

"Why do I think I should have a hamster to talk to right now?" Ranma mused, as he leaped out of the way of a charging toronid, stuffing his travel log back into his ki space before following its advice. And again, Gildarts was proven correct: the beast's eyes were vulnerable to a few Guns Magic bullets, and they really did make good eating once you stripped off their very, very tough hides.

A few days after that meeting, Ranma ran into the beasts that really ruled the desert, the red carapace beetles. They looked like scarab beetles only half the size of a man, but they travelled in massive packs, descending on anything else living and tearing it to pieces. "Hateful and angry little bastards at the best of times, these things will hunt down anything else for food even if they've already eaten their fill just for the pleasure of doing so. Fire and area effect magic is your friend against these beasts. Nothing about them is useful unless you're a poisoner, not even an apothecary will find anything useful from these guys." Ranma read, as he raced on, carrying a hunter over his shoulder, the man's hide having proven too close to the swarm. "Right, well, I suppose there's nothing for it."

Putting the book away turned and began to dance around the beetles in a wide spiral, which considering they were trying to swarm him under was not easy. _I just hope that the book was right about them being angry little bastards._

It turned out that it was, and that yes, animals could produce enough of a battle aura to power a Hiryu Shouten Ha. With Ranma and the hunter adding their fire to the maelstrom, the massive horde of insects was torn asunder by the winds. The hunter sighed, shaking his head and looking over at the youth who had saved him quizzically. "So, you're a wind mage of some sort?"

"Yeah sure, let's go with that," Ranma replied, not bothering to correct the man. He hadn't used any magic in front of him before, so that was actually a decent guess on the hunter's part.

The hunter was so grateful to be saved, he shared some of his Guns Magic tricks. Ranma had already learned rapid fire from the innkeeper, and now learned Eagle Eye, a sniper technique. Ranma didn't really have the right mindset to be a sniper normally, but as always, it was a technique he might be able to modify in the future.

About two months after entering the desert, Ranma began to notice a change in the terrain, which indicated he was at last coming to the end of the quasi-nation Desierto. Soon the terrain changed back into hardscrabble, then grassland, dotted here and there with small streams, and finally segueing into a forest.

This forest swiftly proved larger and denser forest than Ranma had ever seen since arriving in this world, even the one he had dropped into in the first place. Traveling through the treetops by the Path, Ranma noticed that the trees here also looked different than most of the others he'd seen. Or at least one out of every ten trees had a very odd, almost metallic sheen to them. Those were invariably the largest and strongest looking trees too, and Ranma wondered about them

After two days of travelling through the forests, Ranma came upon what looked like a lumber camp, set only a little ways off the path. He leaped out of the woods into the small cleared area around it, startling a few men who were talking and pointing into the forest, one of them going so far as to jump back in alarm. "Yo, names Ranma, I'm just a traveler passing through. Can ya tell me how far the nearest city is from here?"

After recovering from their surprise the team of loggers nodded and their foreman, a massive bull-necked man, stepped forward, grasping Ranma's hands. In an effort to try and regain some of his standing with his crew he tried to grip Ranma's hand as hard as he could, but Ranma barely even noticed. "Yeah kid, Bellum's around a month's journey from here for a normal person travelling alone. More than three month's travel for a cart of course. Are you… alone?"

Hearing the name Ranma thought about what he had learned about it already. Bellum, which was the name of this 'nation' as well as the city, was a trade hub sitting directly on the Straight Path and the shores of an inland lack which it controlled, despite it being on the borders of three other countries. The trade from the lake had built the city-state into a decent power.

Shaking his head out of such thoughts Ranma nodded. "Yeah I am. Next question though, can ya tell me about those weird larger than normal tree? The ones with the odd color to their bark?" Ranma looked around the logging camp, only realizing now that a lot of the tools he saw were… odd. They looked far tougher, almost like metalworking tools rather than regular wooden saws, axes and such.

"Hah!" the man bellowed a laugh, joined by his men. "Come on then, and we'll show you."

The man led the way over to a tree stump, nodding down to it. "Tap it kid."

Ranma did so then frowned at the feel of it. The stump was definitely that of a tree, and it felt sort of like wood, but also metal. He said so aloud, looking back at the man behind him.

"Yep, it's called ironwood. These trees are hard as steel, and just as hard to knock down. But there are certain plant magics that can be used to soften them." He nodded over to two people, both with light purple hair who had come out of a nearby cabin. "So once they're cut down, they can be worked like regular would. The best ships are made by ironwood trees, weapons, and of course buildings." The foreman replied.

"And a lot of the train tracks too. In fact, that's why we're out here, to knock down ironwood trees and map out a route for a possible train from Bellum into Minstrel." Another man said.

"But cutting them down in the first place is still time-consuming, and don't get me started on the difficulty of ripping out the stumps." Said a third, shaking his head. "A single ironwood tree can take as long as a week to cut down even with the right equipment. Working them afterwards is a bit easier."

"Huh…" Ranma thought for a few seconds then nodded. "What's it worth ya to have a bit of help there?"

"You a mage?" the foreman asked bluntly. When Ranma nodded he went on. "Well kid, if you can knock or cut an ironwood tree down, I'll pay you as much as I would my entire crew for a day."

"Hmm, I might want to take that in trade, but let me see what I can do." So saying Ranma hopped back into the surrounding foliage, racing off before anyone could stop him.

He soon found one of the ironwood trees, which looked to be something like one out of every ten trees. Hopping down to the ground, Ranma decided to start simple and work his way up, just to see what it would take. Rearing back Ranma punched out at the tree, and the loggers in their camp looked around as they heard the distinctive knocking gong sort of noise that happened when something hard hit an ironwood tree.

"GAOOWWW!" Ranma yelled hopping around the tree and ringing his hand out knowing he had just broken a few bones in his hand but thankfully he could already feel his ki healing going to work. "Okay, so punching alone won't work. Time for something a little more serious."

Ranma waited until his hand was healed before attempting his next attack. Both hands blurred into the Amaguriken, slamming into the same two spots on the ironwood tree, like two overly large and rather insane woodpecker. Again there was the same sound as before, but this time it went on like rolling thunder. Yet even so, Ranma pulled away to find that his attack had only severely dented the tree, not knocked it down. _And if I hadn't covered my hands in ki, I'd be sporting two freaking broken hands now just like before._

"Magic time." Ranma said, gathering his magic into his hands. "Water Dragon's claws!" With that he lashed forward, slicing at the tree. That seemed to work better, he was able to slice deeply into the tree, but didn't knock it down. "Damn tough trees, though I'd guess that water magic is sort of weak against plants in any event. Well, let's see if I can do something a little different…"

Backing away, Ranma concentrated his magic into one hand then slashed his hand forward in a diagonal, lashing out with the same claw. This time the slashing attack worked far better, coming in at a higher speed than his previous attacks and with all the power concentrated into a single claw so to speak. The attack sliced clear through the tree, which toppled with a resounding crash, taking a smaller tree with it as it went. "OOoweee, okay, that works. And this is a way I can train myself in my Water Dragon Slayer magic further, and my touching training to a whole new degree too.

Lifting up the tree, he found it weighed a freaking ton. He had trouble getting it off the ground, let alone actually carrying it back to camp. _Still being held back by my body's age too much. Definitely going to stay and work on my physical skills here._

It took him a lot longer to get back to the logging camp, but when he arrived it was to shocked exclamations and looks of disbelief from the two mages and the foreman, all of whom came over to gape as Ranma finally dropped the end of the cut ironwood tree. "Okay," he huffed. "So, how about we talk some business old man?"

The foreman nodded slowly, staring at what would have been a full week's worth for his team. "Yeah, kiddo, and the names Rolf. Why don't we step into my office?"

Eventually it was agreed that Ranma would be added to the payroll as if he was an entirely separate team. The camp would feed him as well for however long he was with them, and would put a solid roof over his head as well. Since Ranma's tent had been ripped apart in an animal attack weeks back in Desierto, that wasn't a small consideration for him.

Before the deal could be struck however, Ranma hesitated then sighed. "Oh, and um, one thing you should know about me. I have a curse. It, it activated if I get hit by cold water in the face or body, and it turns me into a girl."

The man blinked at him, then looked over at one of the two mages. Ranma had learned they worked for a guild called Forest Folk. Guilds seemed to be the usual way mages were organized regardless of country. "Whut?" the mage asked, blinking. "What kind of curse is that?"

"An irritating one. I fell into a cursed spring, and I was cursed to turn into a girl, because a girl had drowned there. It changes me to what I'd look if I had been born a girl sort of, but it doesn't affect my mind." Ranma replied, knowing for a fact his female form looked more like his mother than his male body had. "It makes me a lot faster, a little weaker, nothing more."

"Show us," Rolf ordered.

Ranma did so, though when the mage, whose name Ranma hadn't been told just yet, looked as if he was about to toucher her chest, she stepped back quickly, raising a fist around which water began to form, glowing with magic. "AH, back off! I don't like guys, and I don't like getting prodded any more than a normal woman would. So is this a deal breaker or not?"

"Definitely not," Rolf decided quickly. With Ranma's help they could do ten or twelve times the amount of work done in the same amount of time. That would mean more money for both him and his employers even after paying Ranma. "If anyone starts insulting you or anything I'd like you to not do anything permanent to them, but other than that play as rough as you like. My boys aren't saints after all, they'll expect you to give as good as you get regardless of your age."

"Done." Ranma said, changing back to his male body and holding out his hand. The two shook, and the deal was made.

Ranma spent around half a year with the loggers, working out, training his magical powers, and knocking down a little over a hundred ironwood trees, the speed with which he did so going up as he trained. The loggers were able to clear more land in that time than they would have otherwise in two years, despite slowing down as autumn began.

The displaced martial artist's training proceeded apace during this time. His toughness training, in particular his hands and feet rose to a height he hadn't managed in his old world. His strength skyrocketed from lugging the ironwood trees around. His Dragon Slayer magic also seemed to reach a new level. Ranma had proving his discovery in Mistral after only another month: the Dragon Slayer magic not only gave him control over an element, but heightened his physical skills to a degree his old body would never have been able to reach.

Though still barely eleven Ranma knew he was tougher, stronger and faster than he had been before he had arrived in Nerima in his old world. With further training there was no telling how strong he could get. Ranma was told later that his cackles upon becoming certain of that were rather disturbing for all that heard them, but he couldn't have cared less.

Beyond his physical skills, Ranma also slowly began to master the disparate magic he had learned so far. Construction magic and martial arts construction allowed him to throw up a house for himself rather than a cabin, and he had actually made some money on the side selling the house to one of the loggers, who knew a young farmer who might be interested in making a life out here in the Ironwood forest.

His Guns Magic too came a long way. Ranma wasn't happy yet with how he had worked it into his total style, but he did like the possibilities of long range attacks. And he had become better at controlling the power each magical bullet possessed, even if he hadn't been able to embue the bullets with special effects.

The magic he'd sort of stolen from the traders however was a flop. While Ranma had a decent singing voice, he had no knowledge of instruments and couldn't recreate music for the instruments to play.

Replete with cash and with autumn now upon them Ranma ended his time with the loggers and headed on to Bellum. Bellum itself looked like any normal port city, and his search for any interesting martial arts styles or magics to learn turned up nothing. The Forest Folk were the only guild in the country, and their magics held no interest to him. And there was also no martial arts schools or anything of that nature. The Lake Watch, the marines and sailors who patrolled the lake and the area around Bellum, were decent for what they were, but nothing special. It was looking more and more that magic had replaced the idea of high end martial arts in this world.

The library however was a lot more help, giving Ranma some more information about dragons. It turned out that dragons and humans had battled one another several centuries ago, the books were unclear if it was several thousand or just a thousand years ago, in something called the Dragon King Festival. How it began, who the sides were, no one knew. All that was known was that dragons had not been seen in the world since then. The book told of something called dragon lacrima, which were found on the sites of old battles between dragons, but other than that, there was no new news about dragons at all. _But Typhon was so certain I'd find other dragon slayers out there._

With a sigh Ranma decided to set that to the side for now. He wanted to check out Pergrande, which interested him for several reasons before turning his attention to searching out other Dragon Slayers. With that in mind, Ranma made preparations to move on.

Beyond buying himself a new tent and some more spices since his supplies had run out long since, Ranma bought a staff made from ironwood as well as some short clubs and some other bits. This included pistol and rifle stocks, which could be fitted with barrels and other things later. Rolf had told him that while the metal they had in Bellum was decent, coming over the lake from Joya and Stella, their blacksmiths certainly weren't as good as those Pergrande could boast.

Once more Ranma headed out following the Straight Path along which he could see some train tracks were being laid now in the same direction he was going, though he left the cleared area behind in the first day of travel. Five more days travel brought Ranma to the border between Bellum and Pergrande. Here for the first time there was actually a guard post denoting the border, and he was halted there by several men.

These men were uniformly tall, taller than Ranma had been back in Nerima. They all had the same uniforms on, chain mail hauberks under red tabards with the symbol of Pergrande on it, a wall with a hawk in the air above it. Their hair was black or brown, and all wielded long polearms, somewhere between a guan dao and a halberd in design.

"Halt boy and be recognized," the man in the lead said sternly. "What is your reason for entering Pergrande?"

"My name's Ranma, I'm traveling the world and interested in buying some guns to use with my Guns Magic," Ranma said, having no reason to lie, but also no liking for the officious tone of the man.

"You're following the Straight Path?" the man said, nodding and making a note of that. He didn't sound any friendlier than the first time, but some of the tenseness seemed to have gone out of them at Ranma's willingness to answer and the fact he had finally taken in Ranma's apparent age. There might have also been some pride there, for Pergrande was noted as one of the best places to get guns of any kind, or any kind of metalwork.

"Yep," Ranma said with a nod. "I started in Minstrel, and I'm making my way through. Is it true by the way that you guys export guns and other things to even Fiore?"

"Indeed," the man said that pride Ranma had almost thought he had missed a second ago much more visible now as the man seemed to calm down further. "We are the forerunners of guns of all kinds, though not so much Guns Magic. Pergrande was the first country to discover gunpowder and our army is still the only army in the world that uses muskets as our primary weapon."

"Of course there's a reason for that," said one of the other guards shaking his head. "Just ask him boss, I don't think he's a danger to the country."

The captain rolled his eyes, but calmed down much further as Ranma chuckled. "Very well, did you see any bandits in the woods nearby lad? Were you accosted on your way? We've lost two trade caravans in the past week."

Ranma nodded, as he had been attacked two nights ago. "Yeah, I ran into a few. I left them a half days journey, for me anyway, back that way. Don't know how long that would be for you lot. As ya might've noticed I travel quite quickly."

The captain laughed. The reason he had been so officious and almost defensive was his worry about the bandits and the fact that he had seen Ranma racing through the treetops almost as fast as a horse could gallop. So the point was well taken. "You say you left them tied up? How many of them, and do you think they could still be there? And from your earlier comments about Guns Magic, can I assume you're a mage?"

Ranma nodded, not elaborating on what kind of mage he was. He'd received many an odd look and quizzical laugh at denoting himself as a water Dragon Slayer. According to what he had discovered in Bellum Dragon Slayer magic was the stuff of legends.

"There are about 30 of them all told," he reported. "Only about seven attacked me, but one of them tried to run away, I followed him to their base. Sorry I can't tell you where that was exactly the man zigzagged through the woods. Although I did leave the others where they attacked me, so I bet you could get them to talk."

The captain looked over to his sergeant who chuckled evilly. "I expect we could."

Ranma nodded but scowled at the same time. "That's the third group of bandits I've dealt with since I started my journey in Minstrel. Is banditry really that big of an issue?"

"It is in Desierto, and Bellum, and a little bit in portions of Minstrel. Minstrel however is a bit of a different sort, since their most of the bandits are former serfs." Said the soldier, looking a little amused that this young boy was a strong enough mage to deal with groups of adult men and women, or at least said he was. And checking on his word wouldn't cost them anything.

Ranma nodded, understanding the point and sharing a grimace with both men. "Pergrande doesn't employ serfs," the man said proudly. "We haven't in over 400 years, we were the first country to follow Fiore in dispelling that archaic system."

"As for the other countries, you won't run into much in the way of bandits. Thieves yes, and I know the coastal territories have problems with slavers, but not outright bandits in the interior. In Pergrande you won't find **any** bandits. If anyone tries to take up banditry in Pergrande they're stomped hard by the local police force, and if not them, then the Royal Army sends a company of light Calvary out to deal with them.

Ranma nodded, though it took him a minute to realize why light cavalry would be used to hunt bandits. _Mounted pistoleers I suppose. If the bandits don't have guns or magic they'd be boned. "_ Do I need any kind of marker or anything to travel through?"

The man nodded, pulling out a small strip of purple colored cloth, with the symbol of Pergrande on it. "Keep this in your bag, or your Requip space and bring it out if asked," the man said, his voice turning official once more. "If you are accosted for breaking the laws, such as drunk and disorderly, using magic in an offensive manner without cause, attacking our citizens or engaging in trade of illegal goods, this will be taken from you and you will be escorted to the nearest border… whichever border that may be."

The man's last few words were said in a tone that meant it was some kind of threat, but Ranma didn't understand it so he simply shrugged his shoulders and nodding his head in agreement. He shook the man's hand, then told him good luck in finding the bandit's camp and went on his way racing through the trees once more.

The ironwood forest gave way only about a single day later and the road changed with it dramatically. First of all, he saw farms as he exited, several of them scattered around the road and visible in the distance from where he was jogging along. There were also people, dozens of people working in those fields with various farm animals visible as well, more people than Ranma had seen outside of cities since leaving Minstrel.

These were large farms with many workers on them, and as Ranma passed by them he noticed some of them looked like they weren't human. He paused to stare at one of them, realizing it was a stone golem about as tall as a man, going about its work pulling out a tree stump as he watched. A man stood by, directing it with his hands.

The man in question looked more like a monk than anything else, with a bald head, robes that looked vaguely Buddhist and a long, graying topknot. On his chest was emblazoned a large golem standing on a red background. Ranma was tempted to ask the man some questions about his magic, but the serious expression on his face, and the fact that he was sweating a little as he directed the golem told Ranma that he wasn't that powerful a mage, so he decided to wait to ask questions.

Later that day Ranma found an inn set alongside the Straight Path and bought a map. Carrying the map and his food he sat on the inn's rooftop staring out over the area as he examined both the map and the area itself. The road in particular caught his attention now, something niggling at his senses as he looked at it.

The Straight Path was a real road of course, it had some portions of it had been cobblestoned, some of it was simply packed down dirt, others had even been raised, dirt, with the worst of course having been in Desierto. But here, the Straight Path was a **road!** It was slightly raised from the surrounding land, paved with stones in a way that made Rama think about something he had seen once in books, and lined with tamped down earth for horses.

"Roman roads!" He said clicking his fingers unseen and unheard by any up here. _Those roads were not built for the passage of goods, but for the passage of armies… Interesting, and possibly a bad sign given how officious that guy back of the border was._ But it was also the first sign of a real, unified country that Ranma had seen, so he supposed he'd take the good with the bad there.

Something caught his eye on a nearby building, and he hopped down, ignoring the squawk of a chicken he nearly landed on, moving over to look at what had caught his attention. It was a poster, of some kind, showing an armed soldier holding up his spear, and pointing east. Pulling it off the wall, Ranma moved towards the inn. There he asked the innkeeper, a jolly looking elderly woman, what it meant.

"Can't read the local language young'un? No worries, I'll translate it for you. It's a recruitment poster 'sign up and serve your country'. It's a call for magic users in particular. I suppose them orcs are making trouble again." The woman said, making an effort not to mother the youth in front of her as she had tried when he first entered her inn.

"Orcs?" Ranma asked nonplussed. He hadn't seen or read about anything that looked like what he thought of as an orc, though given the magic and fantasy elements of this world, Ranma wondered why he was so surprised. _Still even the travel log doesn't mention them._ "What do you mean orcs?"

"Can't tell you much young'un'" the innkeeper said with a laugh. "Lived here my whole life, never seen an orc, but I've seen boys and girls sign up to join the Army and be sent out to fight 'em."

"Whatever you can tell me is good enough ma'am," Ranma said politely.

The innkeeper nodded. "Our eastern borders a mountain, from one side of the peninsula to the other that separates it from the continent. And on the continent as I'm sure you know, well, there's nothing there anymore. The orcs come from the continent, don't know much 'bout where or why, though legend says they're created somehow from some ancient magic ring or someat. They sometimes find ways through the mountain passes. Not in large lots normally, but sometimes they force the Trident Passages, which is a series of three huge canyons through the mountains. When that happens, the armies have to stop 'em of course. That's about all I know."

Ranma nodded and began to ask some more questions about the area around them.

Five days later of traveling Ranma began to see more signs that maybe the orcs were more of a problem than the innkeeper had realized. The terrain had changed as he had traveled, becoming more hilly, with fewer farms but larger farmsteads. But what he started to see most of all at that point were refugees moving down the road.

Stopping one such traveler, Ranma pulled the cart along for the man as he asked him some questions. "What's going on?"

The man looked at Ranma and how easily he was pulling a cart that had taken him and his family to pull with a frown. "Are you a mage boy?"

"I am Sir, but I'm not from this country so I don't know what's going on."

The man nodded, and gestured over his shoulder explaining as they walked along, smiling a little as Ranma lifted up his two kids and set them on the cart too, ignoring the fact one was his own age and size. "Orcs," he said simply. "They've gotten around one of the Walls of the Trident and are coming on like an army, burning as they come. It's another migration apparently, it happens every hundred years or so. But this one came upon us as a surprise and it'll take time for the King to gather the Royal Army."

Ranma heard the capitals when he said the 'Walls' there and wondered about the significance before asking a more important question, eager to see what these orcs were really like and of course to help people. Defending the helpless was part of the martial arts code after all, even if his father had never really emphasized that aspect. "Do you have any idea where these orcs are?"

"I'm afraid not, we left upon the first warning. They shouldn't have gotten out of the hills just yet though. Orcs move slower over any kind of long distance."

Thanking the man, Ranma traveled with the family for a while, pulling both their cars and several others for the group of refugees, then retracing his steps at a run to make up for lost time, before now sprinting on. About half a day's travel at full speed Ranma's started to see signs of combat and that evening he came upon his first orc raiding party when he followed the signs of smoke.

The smoke was coming from a hamlet, a small one, with eight large houses that had apparently shared a single wall. The wall had collapsed in numerous places, and there were screams and cries from within as Ranma came upon the scene. He was just in time to see an orc cut down a man then grabbed at the boy that had been hiding behind him, picking the boy off the ground like he was plucking a carrot from the ground.

That hand came apart as Ranma opened fire with his Guns Magic, targeting the orcs head with his next bullet. "Run!" Ranma ordered shouting the words as he raced forward, leaving his guns at his side now, his hands clenched.

The orcs were not what Ranma had expected. They were not pure fantasy orcs, rather they were like fantasy orcs crossed with plants, with leafs sticking out here and there. They were of course huge slabs of muscle, the shortest of which was as tall as Kuno had been, but far, **far** broader in the shoulders, with dozens of eyes protruding slightly from their faces in every direction and legs that almost seemed to be tree trunks.

They also had six heavy fingers, and they seemed to only be using these huge blades of something Ranma recognized as ironwood, only for some reason the weapons in their hands were black rather than the normal grey. This group was led by a true monster standing around fourteen feet tall, and wider across the shoulders then even Pantyhose Taro.

Ranma roared, gesturing to either side and gathering water from the air into claws as he shouted "Water Dragon's Claw!" Three of the orcs came apart under his blows, and Ranma moved on, cutting them to pieces, punching them so hard that their heads flew off. They seemed to have some kind of added durability to blunt force trauma which deadened some of the force behind his punches, or would have if Ranma was a normal adult man instead of the boy he appeared.

As it was they still flew away broken, and about seven minutes after his arrival the last the leader fell. Ranma literally ripped its arms off and then beat it to death with two blows of it still bleeding shoulder stumps, ignoring their size disparity with an ease it was almost comical.

Standing in the rubble, he looked around as a few survivors came out to gawk at him. "Th, that's a more physical style of wizardry than I've ever seen before," said one of the men, wiping at his mouth where blood was flowing from a cut that started above one eye and went down the side of his face. "Still, thank you for your help youngster."

Ranma nodded. "Is that the only orc party in the area?"

"Yes as far as we know this is the furthest they've gotten. But they'll be more coming." The man glanced around, looking distraught for a moment before stiffening his shoulders and gesturing towards two of the women nearby. "Start gathering what you can, don't bother with the bodies, we need to get out of here."

He looked at Ranma then nodded sharply. "You're heading for the front?"

Ranma nodded. "I'm not from this country of course but I want to pitch in if I can."

"You'll have your chance," the man said grimly, making no effort to dissuade the boy. If the youth wanted to get himself killed, he'd already proven he'd take some orcs with him, and frankly after the day he'd had, the man had little to no strength left to care about anyone but those of his little community. "The Trident Walls have fallen."

Ranma looked at him quizzically. "What's the Trident Walls?"

The man blank them laughed. "Oh right, not a Pergrandean. The Walls are a series of massive fortifications across the three canyons that the orcs can use to send armies against us. It's our chief defense against him, well that and the four Mage Guilds, though I understand from what one of the soldiers which passed by said that the Elemental Alliance is missing in action, either dead or fled no one knows just yet."

The man continued on, explaining what was going on to Ranma. "We always get orcs on the border, which is about… I want to say four days travel for a normal man on a horse. But they can't send armies over the passes, they're too small, too high for most of them to survive and even orcs need to eat."

A grim gesture down towards one of the corpses which looked as if someone had taken a bite out of it and then another gesture towards a mouth full of serrated teeth showed what the orcs liked to eat. Ranma again noticed how they looked sort of like plants. The orc's mouth reminded him of a Venus fly trap almost.

"So they have to take the three passes. This time, though they came upon us too quickly for the reinforcements to reach and then throw them back from the Wall. Don't know how that happened, don't know how they surprised the mages or what went on there."

Ranma nodded. "And the King is doing what exactly?"

"Beyond gathering his armies and asking for magical volunteers, King Vicotronious sent forward several companies of light cavalry to slow the orcs down and kill any hunting parties they can. One of them came through this very morning, which means it was either ambushed or just out of range to help us." The man said with a sigh. "Any road you'll still find people out there, the tree villages for example will be there still."

At Ranma's quizzical look the man let loose a laugh. "You'll have to see those to believe them. Orcs can't climb you see," he said his voice taking on an amused note even amidst the carnage that had been his family's home. "But building up in the trees is expensive at first, so there are still hamlets like ours that are on the ground and have to rely on stone walls for protection."

"Anything else you can tell me?" Ranma asked.

"Well if you're not a Pergrandian, the King is offered a bounty on orc heads, or rather their ears which are easier to carry," the man said dryly. "You just won yourself 15 silver pennies for a few minutes work."

Ranma helped the surviving townsfolk get ready for the road but did not go with them. Instead he opted to head forward alone hunting down and killing any orcs he saw regardless of their numbers. The biggest band he saw was a group of fifty, the smallest a group of three. The next evening as the sun went down he came upon one of the tree houses that the man had mentioned, and had to stop and gawk at it for a moment.

There was an entire town up in the trees, spreading out to either side of where Ranma was looking, entire houses all of them interconnected with rope walks, and even solid walk ways here and there. And it looked as if every inhabitant up there knew how to use a crossbow because they were sending down a withering hail of fire at the orcs.

So great was his shock that he didn't even know the orcs that were trying to fire primitive looking bows and arrows up at the defenders. For some reason the orcs hadn't thought of using fire yet, and Ranma wondered why for a moment before going back to gawking at the site in front of them. Ranma also saw several people with muskets firing them down, their bullets doing much more damage than the crossbow bolts, which seemed only to infuriate the orcs further.

Then Ranma began to see what looks like evidence of a magic user. Spikes of earth suddenly rose up, impaling orcs here and there, and the orcs quickly retreated.

At that point Ranma struck the group from behind, cutting them down quickly, the fight ending in under three minutes. "Thank you for your help stranger," shouted a voice. It was that of a young looking woman, who waved her crossbow at him as she smiled down at him. "Until they bring up the Army, we're alright hereabouts. You need any food or anything?"

Rama shook his head, and then pointed at the orcs. "Why did the earth magic work on them?"

Done now, earth magic simply does work on them for some reason. "You'd have to ask our resident mage. Wade?"

"It is the magic of similarity," the man said stepping forward and throwing off his hood. There was a tattoo covering his forehead from one side to the other of a mountain range, and his face looked like he had been through some serious trauma in the recent days which Ranma supposed was likely. "Orcs are half living creatures, and half magical constructs, specifically plant magic. Thus they are susceptible to Earth magic through the law of similarity, since plant magic falls under Earth magic in strength."

Ranma nodded thinking hard about that then looked up again. "Can you point me towards the nearest town that might need help?"

Ranma was informed that most of the towns in the area outside of a few other tree towns had evacuated. There were a few was settlements here and there that hadn't, but they had been overrun. Single farmsteads might've been holding out at this point, but for the most part the further east you went, the more orcs you saw and the fewer humans.

That wasn't good, but Ranma still nodded, and was informed that there were several cavalry companies that had come by too, and decided to see if he could link up with one of them. _That way I'll learn how the war is going as a whole rather than just my little piece of it._

 **OOOOOOO**

Calvary horses squealed as their riders pulled on the reins, the group moving like an oiled machine riding towards than spinning away from the orcs. Here the scattered forest had begun to make way to scrub brush and rocky terrain of the hills, and as such the orcs found themselves on ground perfect for the wheel and fire maneuver. Every cavalryman emptied his four pistols in a series of circles towards then away from the orcs. And now that the orcs were broken and running, the lances came out.

Lances couched, the cavalryman rode the orcs down, spearing them from behind as they could, or using their holdout pistols if the orcs refused to show their backs. A horseman wouldn't survive a head long clash with an orc, their arms were so long they negated the horseman's normal range advantage.

As they were finishing up however another larger band of orcs rushed down at them from higher up in the hills. "Fade!" bellowed the officer in charge, his special status only denoted by the green of his clock in comparison to his men's brown. "Wheel and fade!"

Several of them were unable to get away and found themselves too close to the orcs, where no sane man wanted to be. Several of them were unhorsed, and more than one died while the others retreated, forced to leave their fellows behind. But then something new was added to the battle. "Water Dragon's Claw!"

From seemingly out of nowhere a young girl appeared jumping up over a rock into the midst of the battle, her fist and feet flashing. As the officer watched in shock as the blows of the young pre-teen, she couldn't be more than thirteen at most, sent the orcs flying like they had been struck by a giant's maul. Some of them even came apart under her hits, others simply flew away broken.

Taking advantage of this the officer rallied his men, and they rushed back in lances first. With the orcs concentrating on the mad youth in their midst they didn't even realize their victims had turned on them before it was too late.

Later, the officer dropped from the saddle, handing the reins off to one of his men as he pulled off his helmet. He was a young man, just hitting thirty if that, with long brown hair down to his shoulders and an aquiline nose over a mouth made for smiling, which it was now. "Well met young mage. I'm Roland, the leader of this troop. Where did you spring from?"

"The name's Ranma and as to where I came from, there's a little stream over there, I was simply following it for a bit, it's hidden between a few rocks right up until where you hit that first group. I was going to come out after you began mopping up, but then the other group showed up so I waited until they were right on top of me." Ranma shrugged, not mentioning that she had followed the stream after hopping up a waterfall to do it a little bit ago. Or that he had been splashed doing it. "Just a sec."

With that Ranma pulled out a canteen of water, heating it in her hand before tossing it over her head. He then smirked at the surprised Roland. "It's a curse, cold water changes me into a girl, hot water changes me back."

Nodding his head Roland didn't question the curse. After all, there was a lot more important things to think about right now. "Regardless, I have to thank you for your timely intervention. But what are you doing out here so far? I thought only Death's Head Caucus had responded to the king's call for aid just yet, and you don't bear their mark."

"I'm actually a stranger. Just heard about the trouble, decided to stick my oar in." Ranma shrugged. "So, what's the plan from here on, and do ya know how the campaign, war, whatever is going?"

Lips twitching Roland pulled a map from his saddle holding it out to Ranma before pulling out pouches of gun powder and refilling his pistols one after another as he spoke. "The orcs pushed through on all three tines of the Trident, something they've never done before, and the Element Alliance is missing in action, so we had no warning of their advance before they hit the Walls. The Walls fell, and so here we are."

Finished with his guns Roland took the map back, gesturing as he continued. "The king's broken up his army into four corps. Two have moved forward immediately to hold the orcs coming from the northernmost and center passages, the ones here and here, to keep them from advancing further. The other two corps are then going to come up and together push the orcs back. We're…" Roland paused then pointed at a point to the south of the map slightly. "Here, nearest the last tine of the Trident."

"Why the hell are they called the Trident?" Ranma asked, realizing that some of the information he had been given before this was off the mark somewhat.

"No idea." Roland replied dryly. "It could be because they merge around halfway through the mountains into a single pass, who knows?" as Ranma rolled his eyes Roland went on more seriously. "The problem is that as I said the orcs are coming up all three tines. The portions of their army coming down this tine, well there's no way the king can reroute enough forces to close the pass without weakening the other two fronts. This assault took us by surprise, forcing us to rely on our own resources since aid from the other nations could never arrive in time to stop the orcs from breaking out of the mountains. So king also ordered my men here along with several other units, and he's also rerouting the mage guilds to this tine."

"But you said there's only one guild, the Dead Man's Caucus, close enough to the front to matter?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, that and I understand there's a mage from Fiore which was in the capital who has offered his services." Roland looked away then as he heard the sounds of hundreds of stamping feet coming closer. "For now, we've got a job to do, hold the orcs try to reclaim the pass before the main orc horde can break out, and try to slow them down any way we can. Are you with us?"

Ranma nodded, hopping to his feet and away towards the orcs that had just come over the horizon, a torrent of water shooting him forward like he had just come out of a cannon. Before they could realize what was happening Ranma was in among them, fists and feet flashing with water glowing with magic. "I'm with you!" He roared, answered by Roland and his men charging on their horses towards him.

 **OOOOOOO**

Soon to be S-class mage of Fiore's Fairy Tail Guild Laxus Dreyar zoomed on as fast as his lightning magic could carry him, which was very fast indeed. He had left the capital Peregrine's Peak, a bare day ago, and though the capital was nearer Pergrande's border with Iceberg he was already seeing signs of the orc menace.

Laxus was a young man, only just turned thirteen a day ago, and he hoped to become the youngest S-class mage in Fiore's history next year. He was thin and wiry but immensely strong for all of that, with short cropped blond hair, large headphones with spikes sticking out of them. The mark of Fairy Tail was on his left side and he rode the lightning, able to almost teleport from one place to another, the only negative being he couldn't do it very far in one go just yet.

He had been in the capital to turn in a bounty he had taken on his first mission that had taken him so far away from Fiore. Despite that it had been a routine bounty hunting job, nothing to get his blood pumping. But this war was new and looked to be fun, a real chance to show his stuff. _Maybe if I single-handedly show up all the mages of Pergrande Jiji won't be so freaking protective of me all the time and I'll prove myself worthy of the S-class exams!_

Coming out of one of his lightning teleportations Laxus felt his body reform from the lightning particles as he looked around, and suddenly the idea of this war being just a chance to show off faded away. There on the road in front of Laxus was an overturned cart, around which several dead bodies lay. They had been hacked or torn to pieces, Laxus couldn't tell which, and among them were the bodies of a few young kids.

Among the bodies stood a group of five orcs, smashing the cart to pieces and rummaging through it. They turned as Laxus appeared on the scene and he snarled at them, his hands lighting up with lightning magic. "Rairyu No Hoken!" He snarled, launching the electrical ball forward into their midst, watching as it exploded, electrocuting the lot of them in an instant.

With a snarl Laxus headed on, heading further into the rocky hills, killing any orc he saw. He soon came upon a pitched battle between a massive band of over a thousand orcs or more and two groups. One group looked to be comprised of a few of the local mages. The first Laxus had decided was a man who looked to have morphed into an owl creature and who was using a rocket pack to strafe the orcs.

Another was a woman who looked to be in her twenties wielding a single katana with skill, fire and wind coming from every slice of her blade. Another was a man who was the same age as the woman. He looked to be using hair and sound magic, while a forth, an older man, had a large series of weapons around him moving under his will without even gestures needed. They seemed to have been the target of the orc assault.

From the side of the main fight came around fifteen mounted pistoleers, firing and turning away in a wheel and a young boy, possibly younger than Laxus by a year or more, who simply charged straight in. As he was racing forward Laxus heard him shout out a spell, "Water Dragon's Tidal Slash!" and watched as a claw of water cut through dozens of orcs at once. Then the boy's fists and feet were in play, hammering the orcs around like so many wooden dummies.

Coming out of his teleportation beside the man with the dancing weapons, Laxus snarled, lashing out to either side, "Narumikazuchi!" The lightening infused punches somehow went through the initial victim before arcing from one orc to another frying more than a dozen. "Laxus Dreyar, Fairy Tail is here!"

"Woop de do!" Shouted the younger boy as he forged forward to link up with the swordswoman. "Is that supposed ta mean something blondie! All that matters here how many orcs ya kill!"

"Ara, but it is rather polite to exchange names with your allies child," the woman replied, smiling slightly at the young boy's blood splattered figure. She approved of warriors who were willing to get blood on their hands. "My name is Ikaruga, and you are?"

"Ranma, and somewhere over there is Roland, he's the guy with the plan, though I think he didn't learn the first rule of combat!"

"Oh, and what's that brat?" Laxus asked, frying several more orcs before beginning to also use his feet and fists.

"Ain't a brat you emo wannabe rocker, and the first rule of combat is no plan survives contact with the enemy, that's why they're called the enemy." Ranma grunted as his fist found the face of a particularly large orc, hurling him into several more. A second later a water blast of near supersonic speed found the group, blasting through them and into the horde.

"So what was the plan?" The man with the weapons floating around him asked. he sent a sneer Ranma's way, trying not to seem angry at the power he and Laxus were throwing off at such a young age, with limited results. "Name's Narmenius by the way, guild master of Death's head Caucus. Means I out rank both you kids and probably this Roland fellow."

"Like I give a fuck," shouted both young men, before they glared at one another, smashing several orcs between them to glare at one another. "Stop copying me, oy I said stop it!"

"Children you can compare your… egos… later, we do have a battle on our hands right now." Ikaruga said, her voice both mocking and formal.

"…It sounded like ya substituted ego fer some other word there, but whatever." Ranma replied, looking at the pink-haired swordswoman out of the corner of his eye. "The plan was to sneak past this lot and harass them until they broke into smaller groups to chase us. They musta spotted you Head cases comin' because it sure as hell didn't work!"

As the DHC guild members all took a brief moment out of their life or death struggle to glare at Ranma for that Laxus snorted, his fist punching through an orc's neck from the side before he kicked out, hurling two more away from him. "What was your first clue water shit?"

"This water shit can drown your lightning ass punk!" Ranma roared, then turned and launched a massive wall of water into the center of the horde facing them. The orcs there were blown off their feet, easy pickings for the owl currently dive bombing them.

"You want a piece of me, ocean spawn?" Laxus roared, before bringing his hands forward to launch a haymaker forward, hurling a massive bolt of lightning forward. It arced from the weapons of one orc to another, electrocuting more than a dozen.

Ikaruga finished slicing a large orc in half at the waist, her weapon having ignored its armor, then twirled to the side, decapitating another. As she looked around however, it seemed as if the fight had gone out of the orcs. What few were still standing were retreating as fast as the legs could carry them.

"The enemies of all that is just and good run!" The owl shouted at the top of his voice. "What should I do guild master?"

"Harass them Fukuro for a few runs then come back here!" Narmenius shouted back before turning to the other mages. He opened his mouth to shout orders at them only to pause as the two young boys moved to butt head faces to face.

Before they could however, Roland suddenly rode his horse between them his face nearly apoplectic with fury. "My country is facing a threat to its very existence and you two want to fight one another instead of the enemy? Have you both lost your minds!?"

The two young-boy mages glared at one another then huffed and turned away. In reality Ranma didn't know why he had reacted that way, but something about the blonde had gotten right up his nose. _Maybe it is a scent, something about Laxus is setting me off. Need to control that, I am in control of my body, not my instincts._

Laxus too was wrestling with his self-control. He wasn't the type to let smack talk get to him these days, real insults sure, but even then not during a serious fight, especially when it came from one of his so-called allies. _What about the guy is setting my teeth on edge… those attacks of his, Water Dragon attacks… could it be he too was implanted with a lacrima at some point? Could that be why my instincts are telling me to fight him? Still, I can respect his strength at least._

"Lady Ikaruga, Guild Master Narmenius, good to see you," Roland said, pulling off his helmet and turning from the two boys. The two mages looked at him closely, but said nothing allowing the officer to speak first. "We have a situation as you can see."

Roland explained the same strategic situation that he had to Ranma the day before pointing to the southeast in the direction of the pass. "We've run out of time," he said bluntly. "If the orcs can hold the pass open, they can keep raiding, attack the royal army's flank, or simply dig in, and hold the pass open for more and more orcs. We'll see dozens of croups of this size or more. We have to retake the pass and hold it until the royal army is done retaking the other two passes."

"Tall order," Narmenius said, grunting and looking away as Roland looked at him. Vidaldus moved to stand by his side, his eyes serious and collected where before they had been wild and uncontrolled. "The rest of our guilds at least three, maybe four hours behind us. We'd have to hold the pass on our own until they arrived, and I'm not certain we could."

"It might be a tall order, but we have to do it." Roland said sternly and as Ranma watched the Death's Head Caucus members all straightened their spines, nodding.

"Fine by me," Ranma said, cracking his neck and grinning, his teeth flashing in a dangerous grin. "I'm always up for a fight against the odds."

Laxus scoffed, before going on seriously. "Feh, not like you've got enough brains to calculate the odds. Still, I'm in too. As a mage of Fairy Tail I refuse to leave the field until the battles won."

This caused Ranma to growl, but shook his head concentrating on more important things. "Okay, a question. Can the orc bands communicate?"

"No, they have no means of communication between one group and another, they don't even use runners or horns, let alone communication lacrima like those found in Fiore. Why?" Roland asked.

"If that's the case, we should try to sneak past any further groups like this until we're in position to retake the pass. How wide is it by the way?"

"The passes themselves are about half a mile wide, thought there are lots of places along their length where they widen or even shrink. I remember that from my guilds time in the mountains. And I agree with you, but how are we going to get past them?" Narmenius asked, irritated at the young boys, but holding it in for now and just answering his question. The five mage guilds of Pergrande took turns defending the borders, fighting and hunting down any orcs who tried to get through in small groups over them.

" **I** can get us past them," Ranma replied, clenching his hands. "Wait here, I'll find us a path through them, or plow a road through. I'll mark it with little strips of purple cloth." One of the shirts Ranma had bought had been purple, a color he found he rather liked, but the shirt had been shredded in Desierto during one of the numerous animal attacks.

"How the hell are you going to do that, fly?" Laxus asked, scoffing. "The moment a band see's you they'll attack, slow us down, then we'll be found again, rinse and repeat."

"If this works, no one is going to see me." Ranma said, taking a single step back before he pulled the Umi-Sen-Ken around him. for a moment as the others gaped where he had been Ranma fought to keep his senses from being overwhelmed by the feeling of being shut down as his ki inverted around him, cloaking his presence, making Ranma appear like a void to anyone and everyone trying to look in his direction. Then he was gone, less than a shadow on the breeze.

"What just happened?" Roland asked. There had been no magic circle, no spoken words, no gesture. Ranma was simply gone.

"… is it just me, or was that fucking scary?" Vidaldus asked no one in particular. This didn't stop him from getting a lot of answers, most of them along the lines of 'hell yes', with only a scoff from Laxus breaking the trend.

Ranma stalked through the hills towards the pass, unseen by any as he wound his way through the rocks, copse of trees and a few streambeds. He came out of his cloaking technique twice, using the Vorpal blades of the Yami-Sen-Ken to slaughter whole patrolling war bands, and then moving on. Eventually he came within sight of the pass itself, a massive jagged chasm leading out of the mountains, which rose sharply in a wall of stone and dirt at this point. _That must be the pass._

With a route cleared of threats Ranma waited for the others to join him, sniffing the air, his hackles rising as something in the air was setting of his danger sense something fierce. This was nothing like what he smelled from Laxus, this was ancient, deeply rooted in the ground, the iron tang of blood and fire. _What the flying fuck happened here, and why can I still smell it?_

He was roused from his ruminations as he felt movement behind him. Turning he saw the mages and the cavalry men. Roland had ordered his men to dismount, and they had moved through the terrain with their cloaks obscuring their movement. None of the other troopers had seemed happy about this, but a single glance from Roland shut them up quickly.

Laxus and the others had moved silently as well with Ikaruga leading the way, occasionally blushing as she stared at the remains of the orcs Ranma had left behind. The only one who seemed to have had issues was Fukuro or whatever his name was. He had a large gag stuck over his mouth, and someone had also removed his rocket pack, possibly by force.

"What's wrong with him?" Ranma asked.

"No worries lad, it's just that our companion has no idea of the terms 'volume control' or subtlety," Vidaldus replied. "We've long since learned to keep him quiet at need." He then stared from their current hiding place, which was a small, dried up pool where a large boulder had moved to hide a large majority of the pool. When winter came the pool would refill first with water from the rain and then snow. At the moment it was just very, very muddy.

Laxus ignored the others, sniffing the air heavily, scowling a deeper than normal sneer on his face as he stared around, trying to figure out what his nose was trying to tell him. He caught Ranma looking at him, and was about to glare at the younger boy when Ranma touched his nose, the look in his eyes one of recognition. Laxus' own eyes widened at that, and the two of them exchanged a slow nod, communicating that yes, they had realized what they had in common, but that his was no time to talk about it.

In front of them the group could see another massive band of orcs coming through the pass, probably as many as the group which they had been forced to fight head on before. They could see a point a little ways down the trail where it narrowed, but with the group of orcs already between them and it, it might as well have been on the moon. Ranma cursed, and Roland muttered imprecations under his breath. "They're already pushing another large band through. We have to stop them!"

Turning to the others he gave them all swift instructions while Vidaldus gave Fukuro his rocket pack back. "Fukuro, strafe that group out there, get them chasing you! Nickolas, take the rest of the men and climb some trees, spoiling action. Break the group up." With the orcs unable to climb and seemingly unable to think about using fire or cutting down trees the trees could become safe platforms for the group of regular troopers.

"Samson, you stay here with me and the mages. As soon as Fukuro has that group running after them, we break for the pass. If we can get down to the First Narrows, we can hold the rest of their army there." As Roland's men hopped to obey, Ranma frowned, looking at the orcs. He didn't think the orcs had actually stopped coming out of the pass yet, and after a moment said so.

Roland moved to take another look just as Fukuro launched himself into the air on a jet of flame. "Woohoo! Now you will face the might of Burning Justice! Beware Evil Doers, for the time of skulking has ended!" With that he zoomed down, plowing bodily into the orcs like a missile before coming up and away, his claws having sliced into dozens of them, putting several of them down permanently.

"Shit!" Roland cursed, then held up a hand to make the others remain where they were, the majority of his remaining men having already retreated breaking off and moving towards trees further away from the pass. "Well, nothing for it, I suppose it's do or die time now!"

The mages all looked at one another as they realized that this wasn't another forward band of orcs they were seeing coming out of the pass, this was their main army. Narmenius scowled angrily reaching over to grab Roland by his coat, whispering angrily, "What the hell are you playing at, throwing my guild's lives away like this, there's no way…"

"We have no choice!" Roland shot back his voice barely a whisper but harsh for all his lack of volume. "If the orcs can get another full army out of the pass they can take the nearest Royal Army in its flank, and keep this pass open for more! If we can't close the pass the orcs can simply bury us under numbers."

"What about invoking the Mutual Defense Pact?" Ikaruga said calmly, but making no move to restrain Narmenius. "Pull back and wait for help from the other nations."

"They wouldn't arrive in time to do us any good. We'd lose half the country before the first trickle of troops could arrive, and it would only be when we received enough magical support from Fiore that we could turn the tide. Before that it would be a bloodbath," Roland replied, shaking his head.

Ranma and Laxus exchanged a glance then Ranma turned back, watching the action. The whole lead mass of orcs had raced off, trying to get close enough to Fukuro when he put down to make certain he couldn't' get back in the air, and the first few of them had run into range of Roland's troopers. "Too late to turn back now!" Ranma said, pulling out his hip flask from his ki space and pouring the entire contents of it down his throat. The water, which Ranma had taken from a stream after his last battler, was cold, with a hint of ice to it even if it hadn't been in his ki space for very long.

On top of it tasting good of course Ranma could feel his reserves being filled to the brim before he jumped up, cloaked once more in his Umi-Sen Ken. He raced forward until he was closing on the mass of orcs still pouring out of the pass than came out of the cloak, shouting as he raised his hands to his mouth. "Soryu No Hoko!"

From Ranma's mouth a tsunami of magically charged water flowed in a torrent of power that crashed into and through the orcs in front of him. The first group of orcs it struck were pulped, their bodies turned into slurry so fast the water was going at first. After that the attack was more about pressure, as Ranma continued to roar.

"He's crazy!" Laxus shouted then laughed hopping out of their hidey-hole and racing forward, lightning dancing around him. "But he's my kind of crazy!"

Roland hopped up after the Fiorian mage, his sword and pistol out as he went with Samson following him. This left the three Death's Head Caucus members staring at one another. Narmenius was about to open his mouth and say they should retreat and leave the madman and the suicidal boys behind, when Ikaruga hopped out after them, laughing quietly as she spoke an impromptu haiku. "A madman leads the way, blood on the field and honor to be obeyed, will this be my dying day?"

Narmenius gaped at her, but pulled himself out of the ditch and followed with Vidaldus covering his back.

The orcs didn't so much regroup from the surprise of Ranma's charge on the heel of Fukuro's attack as simply bring up enough orcs to absorb the attackers. Where there had been hundreds to one in the last battle, now there seemed to thousands. The orcs got in one another's way such was their eagerness to get to grips with the humans.

But despite that, Ranma's initial momentum had carried him deeper into the pass through the horde. He spend several minutes surrounded until Laxus could reach him, but that simply meant Ranma was able to use his Anything Goes style to greater effect. With his magic still crackling around his hands and feet Ranma bounced around over the heads of the horde, each kick or punch pulping the orcs. Heads flew off, chests were crushed, shoulders and necks were blown apart under his hits.

Laxus was the first to reach him, slamming through the horde like a runaway lightning bolt. Covered with lightning while his attacks didn't have as much force behind them as Ranma's they left their victims smoking as if they had been hit by several lightning strikes. "Keep going water dick, if we can get down to that narrow point the others can mop up behind us!"

"Fine by me, you dim lightbulb! Just see if you can keep up!" Ranma replied, launching another large scale water attack and moving into the opening it made, pushing on. Laxus then raced ahead, doing the same thing with a Lightning Dragon's Roar, and the two of them pushed through deeper into the pass.

"Maaah~, so brutal," Ikaruga moaned between one blow and the next, licking her lips as she looked at Ranma's back, having just seen him hit an orc so hard that it had first flown backward then seemed to come apart at the seams.

While the others nearby shuddered at her tone Narmenius scowled angrily. _Damn girl, blood really does get her off doesn't it? Or are you a closet shotacon too? Well I suppose that's why we have become the go to guild for assassination missions. Heh, that and they pay damn well._

Using the anger of the horde against them, Ranma continued to hop above the horde this time in a spiral until he finished the spiral. "Descending Dragon Roar!" he said, thrusting his ice cold hand down and a tornado appeared around the impact with the orc he had just targeted. The tornado ripped into the horde, flaying or tossing them around clearing a wide area of the gorge and separating the orcs further down the pass from those on the western side.

Laxus paused staring as Ranma flipped his way, using the rising thermals from the down blast of the tornado to cover the distance. "… I thought you were a **Water** Dragon Slayer."

"Heh, yep, that's just a little trick I learned." Ranma said before lashing out at an orc, pulping its head. With that the orcs on this side of the tornado, which had seemed to pause and stare at the tornado, came back to life roaring and continuing to attack.

"How long will that last?!" Roland bellowed over the sound of battle.

"I have no idea, so long as the orcs keep fueling it I suppose. It varies." Ranma said before ducking under a blow from an overlarge orc, his hand once again glowing with his magic as he hammered a blow into its lower intestine hurling it up and over several more.

"Good! Then we need to wipe out the orcs here, and be prepared to charge in and take control of the narrow part of the pass." Roland replied.

Despite Ranma's splitting the horde like that however, there were still thousands of orcs on this side of the impromptu barrier. It took them around two hours to kill them all, during which Roland was injured and forced to retreat and Samson was killed. Despite their impressive skills with sword and pistol, a normal human being could not survive against these numbers in close.

The Battle was a fight of attrition. No one orc was equal to the defenders as had been shown numerous times already. But even now they were not fighting one, but hundreds each! Luckily the tornado Ranma had created had lasted long enough for them to wipe out the orcs on this side of the pass.

Not so luckily, only Ranma and Laxus were still in fighting shape, and Laxus was flagging now, his physical and magical endurance were starting to flag. Ranma was fairing quite a bit better, since his physical endurance was a lot higher than his magical, and his physical strength and speed meant he could rest his magical powers if he wanted to. Still, even Ranma let loose a groan as the tornado dissipated. "Well, it was nice while it lasted."

Growling Lacus straightened as Ikaruga shook her head wearily. She had taken a few slashes to her kimono, but since the kimono in question was actually magically reinforced cloth she was still fine save for a gash just under one of her ears. "How like a man, all noise and bluster but unable to go the distance."

"Oy, it gave us cover for long enough, and seeing as how you're leaning on your sword like that I wouldn't poke fun lady!" Ranma growled, before racing forward as the last of the tornado died. "Let's rock!"

As Ranma moved, so too did the horde of orcs waiting on the other side. As the tornado died out they roared as one, rushing forward as fat they could, their ironwood weapons raised. But they couldn't quite break out past the choke point in the pass before Laxus, who had teleported forward via his lightning powers, hit them, lashing out to both side with a wild "Lightning Dragon's Claw!"

The attacks pushed out so much lightning several orcs were turned to ash. Others might have thought those few were lucky however, considering the attack simply electrocuted them to death in a matter of seconds.

Ranma met them with a shout, losing several Moko Takabasha and following it up with a modified version of the attack he had created in the ironwood forest. "Water Dragon's Drowning Slash!" The slash eviscerated several orcs it hit, while simply cutting others down.

Groaning the DHC trio moved forward to join the younger boys wearily.

Again the battle turned into one of attrition. The horde couldn't get past the mages so long as they held the chokepoint, which was only about fifty feet wide. The mages, even Ranma however were flagging now. "Can you try another tornado attack, water spout?" Laxus growled, ducking under an attacks from one orc while kicking a second in the fork. The orc was lifted off his feet and sent into the air slightly, but Lacus had failed to surround his foot with his lightning magic, and the orc simply growled and came back to the attack.

"I'd have to leave my position here and jump into the horde lightbulb," Rana grunted in reply, his elbows slamming down into an orc's back as it tried to charge him, having lost its weapons somewhere. He used the momentum of that to flip over the orc's collapsing body, and then lashing out to either direction with a kick that sent to more orcs flying. "You think you and the others could hold here without me?"

Honestly I'd like to do just that, damn it, this whole stay and hold crap is more Ryoga's game than me. Ranma was being constrained by needed to hold his place in the line in comparison to his normal chaotic method of moving all around the battlefield. He had to hold a position in the line lest the other be spread too thin. _Not that it's doing much,_ He thought grimly.

Fukuro was the only one not trying to hold the chokepoint, since his dive bombing ability was more useful attacking from on high, and he had no secondary magic that could be useful if he remained on the ground. Roland and his few remaining men, fourteen out of the forty he had when Ranma met him, remained behind the others, using their pistols as fast as possible, charging in with makeshift spears occasionally. But it fell to Narmenius, Ikaruga, Vidaldus and the two young Dragon Slayers to defend their position.

And despite being older than the boys, it was the three Death's Head Caucus members who were flagging. From where he stood Ranma could see Narmenius becoming more and more terrified as the fight continued. The spinning blades around him had become crushed and warped through repeated impacts, and he had been forced to bring out more, the magic in them slowly fading with each blow. His blades still cut into the orcs, and he continually reached out with his Metal Control magic, directing them where he wished to.

But it was obvious that if his magical reserves were still potent his spirit was flagging. This was shown by his voice cracking as he shouted. "The rest of the Caucus is barely two hours away. We have to hold them back until then and we've won!"

"Yeah baby! Death's Head Caucus will save the day, proving we're the best guild in Pergrande!" Vidaldus had nearly shouted himself hoarse by this point and had turned hundreds of orcs against their fellows with his Rock of Succubus magic. Indeed, the disruption he was causing like that was doing more for halting the hoard than the bullets of the dismounted cavalrymen. But he was visibly drooping, his wild mane now immobile unable to defend him from the orcs attacking him, his sneer more a rictus than anything as he was forced to use his Guitar Magic attacks more and more.

Of the three, Ikaruga was the only one still fighting at near her peak level, her cutting attacks doing a lot of damage in the closed confines of the chokepoint with every swipe. But she had taken a lot of hits too. Her reinforced kimono was torn here and there, so much so her bare chest was almost entirely on display rather than what she normally called 'a tasteful amount of cleavage' and she was limping badly, blood running down from a cut to one thigh, the severity of which Ranma couldn't tell.

"FUCK!" Laxus growled a slash getting through on his chest. He killed the orc behind it, but his magic was beginning to fail him, as evinced by another slash getting in nearly taking him in the eye.

Ranma was still in a better way than anyone else, but even he was feeling it now. He was wondering if there was some-way to block the pass with an avalanche or something. Here in the chokepoint that might be possible.

His thoughts were interrupted however by a drop of something onto his head. This was followed by many, many more drops hitting him as a rain storm hit. Lightning crackled in the sky as thunder boomed, the storm having begun well back of their position and come up on them unawares, all of the fighters concentrating on the battle.

Even as the change hit him Ranma began to laugh. It was a loud, boisterous laugh, with just a hint of a cackle to it as the redhead threw back her head and howled in laughter as she felt the rain pour down.

Laxus too stared up into the sky, seeing the lightning lighting up the late evening sky. He nearly gaped as the young man who's power and strength he had come to respect over the space of the day turned into a shorter redhead, but shook it off as he raised on hand, his other hand forward, thrusting out another magical attack crashing into several of the orcs facing him. "What the fuck, you change with the tides or something?"

"Ooh, clever, **not**. Nah, it's a curse, fell into some cursed spring way before I started learning Dragon Slayer magic. Doesn't make me any less dangerous though." Ranma replied, moving faster now not only because she was in his/her female body which Ranma had trained to be faster, the water hitting him like this slowly refilling his magical reserves.

Raising his hands, Ranma reached out and with an effort of mental control that would have astonished most took control of the rain around her for a moment. She then hurled it like so many countless bullets as fast as he could make them go at the orcs attack all along the chokepoint. The orcs fell in a wave, allowing Ranma the time to gather herself for her next attack. Turning her head upwards she brought her hands up to her mouth and made a sucking noise, drawing several gallons worth of rain drops to herself.

At the same time Laxus too took advantage of the break holding up his hand and firing a simple lightning attack up into the storm clouds, connecting himself with the potential energy in the clouds. In response a massive torrent of lightning cascaded back down towards Laxus and into his waiting maw.

The two Dragon Slayers looked at one another, a sudden understanding going through them as they exchanged fanged grins, then turned back to the oncoming horde. "Rairyu no Hoko!" "Soryu no Hoko!" They shouted, launching their attacks side by side.

Lightning came out in a wide enough beam of power to encompass a dozen orcs at once. At the same time the flow of magically charged water spread out so much it encompassed the entire chokepoint, launched forward with all the power of a tsunami.

The two attacks combined into one a few feet forward of the two dragon slayers into an unstoppable force, crashing into and through the horde. What orc wasn't crushed by the water into so much slurry was electrocuted into ash. And the attack continued, the two Dragon Slayers continuing to pour more power into it, as the horde was slaughtered.

"Unison Raid," Ikaruga breathed, looking utterly enthralled even as she leaned tiredly on her sword where it was stuck into the ground. Narmenius simply collapsed to his knees, his mind torn between relief and pure envy while Fukuro whirled overhead and Vidaldus stared wide-eyed. "Incredible."

Fueled by the young dragon slayer's renewed magic cores the attack continued to hammer into the horde, slaughtering thousands of them within minutes. When the attack cut out, the horde was in a shambles, and there wasn't an orc alive for as far as any of the mages could see down the gorge. Fukuro immediately began to dive bomb the survivors while the troopers raced forward, passing the now slumped over Dragon Slayer mages seeking to finish off any orcs they could with their swords, having no ammunition left for their pistols.

From behind them Ikaruga and Narmenius heard racing feet, and both turned wearily, only to stare as they saw the rest of Death's Head Caucus. Nor were they alone. With them came four companies of light cavalry and five mages of another guild. They had the mark of a stone falling down a mountain side engraved on a single shoulder greave they all wore, under which they wore the same Buddhist monk-like robes Ranma had seen the mage controlling a golem wear that first day in Pergrande. "Ahh the Earth Shakers are here, well, better late than never I suppose."

She chuckled suddenly, looking at the two Dragon Slayers than beyond them into the gorge, where orcs were only now appearing at the edge of her sight. The oncoming mages didn't stop running until they reached the choke point, where the DHC member s began to hurl magic down the gorge. The Earth Shakers however paused as one, then knelt to the ground. Magical arrays appeared around them, merging into one and the earth began to shift, stone and dirt moving together. Soon the mages at the front of the defense were standing on a wall which filled the gorge from one side to another.

Ikaruga began to laugh flopping back one the ground as two DHC mages moved towards her and her fellows. Raising her sword to the sky which was still raining down on them all she spoke yet another haiku. "A rainy day, come upon us suddenly, an unlooked for victory!"

Hearing this and seeing the wall going up in front of them both Dragon Slayers slumped back onto their backs, staring up into the sky as Ikaruga was. At first they were silent as they lay there, simply gasping in air, or in Ranma's case letting the rain from above fall into her open mouth. Then Laxus spoke. "Hey, girly-man."

"Yeah Sparky?"

"You're an alright guy, girl, whatever, in my book."

"Right back at ya Sparky, right back at ya."

 **End Chapter**

* * *

One of the biggest blank zones to me in terms of the FT lore is the fact we so rarely see anything of the other countries of Ishgar, the peninsula which Fiore is a part of. Another big ol' blank is how little of the actual continent is known. So I figured why not make the continent off limits for a very good reason: it's overrun by the remnants of old creation magic items from ancient wars gone horribly wrong. More on that in the chapters to come, but no, Ranma won't be going looking for them. (Note: I started writing this work well before the news about there being dragons kings or whatever being out there.)

As for Ishgar, Ranma's ramblings will let me interact with all of the nations in turn as I want to. This way I can introduce canon characters one or two at a time in a seeming natural manner. I decided to make Ishgar as a whole the size of Ancient India at its height. More than large enough to explore.

The Death's Head Caucus: This guild was named a dark guild for taking assassinations yet the only example of this given in canon was their successfully assassinating the officers of an opposing army. That isn't evil, it's decent application of resources in wartime. That, and their working for Jellal. I thought that maybe showing them before they were outlawed in Fiore (something that will be interesting to discuss down the line) I could use them as side characters in this chapter. I have also shown a few flashes of characters that have things in common with canon characters, but aren't them, to show that the mage guilds of Fiore bring in the best and brightest from all of Ishgar, not just Fiore.

Laxus: I figured outside of Gildarts at this point he was the only FT mage who would be beyond Fiore's borders. And he would also be one to want to throw himself into a war to prove himself.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter of world building/exploration, and look forward to more in the future.


	3. Chapter 3

I can't draw. Nuff said.

Merry Christmas!

This is the first chapter of my two-chapter present to all of you fanfic readers out there, the third and second chapters of my previously patty on only story of _Making Waves_. If you want to see more, think about joining up, get a larger voice in what stories are updated every month and discover a lot of other goodies besides.

Dragon Naturally Speaking funny moment: Minstrel for some reason came out as Menstrual, and Laxus, as Lack ass.

I would like to express my deepest thanks to _Michael_ for his help with this chapter. Without _Michael_ 's work on this chapter, it would be barely this side of readable let alone up to my normal standards. _Hiryo_ and _JustloveReadin'_ also checked this for me. They are very good at noticing mistakes in terms of names, and Ranma/Fairy Tail knowledge, so please thank them as well.

 **Warning: World building Ahoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Of Kings, Traveling, and Trouble-finding**

 _There have to be worse ways of spending your time, but I can't think of one offhand,_ Ranma thought, hidden within a pile of snow which completely obscured his body from view. The only thing that could give him away was if one of the orcs could see his breath puffing into the air from the small mouth hole he had made to go with the eye slit he had hollowed out for his eyes.

The band of fourteen orcs Ranma was currently observing had somehow gotten through the mountain trails up to here, well above the larger Tine. But they were paying for it now, slowing down as orcs did in the cold. Orcish skin seemed to turn more and more bark like while they lost many of the tiny leaves that stuck out from their green bodies in the cold weather.

 _They move so much slower up here in the cold it's a wonder they try at all, but on the other hand they can handle the slopes far better than I would've expected,_ Ranma thought while sitting perfectly still, letting his eyes wander around the scene ignoring the cold with the ease of long experience. The orcs didn't seem able to handle the cold well, seemingly entering some kind of winter cycle like plants did. But they could walk up inclines that would make a goat go around, their feet acting like roots almost, digging in and allowing them traction.

Despite that, cold was looking to slow both sides of this had been about four months since Ranma and Laxus had led the charge to reclaim the third Tine from the orcs, and winter was in full blow here and down in the Tine. While it was most noticeable up here, snow had begun to pile up in the passes further below, and neither humans nor orcs could move as well through the snow as they could even in the autumn mud.

The humans had the benefit of tents, clothing, and organization, while the orcs just had their toughness and humans weren't able to push very far down the pass, but they could hold the chokepoint. Yet while the front the mages controlled had stabilized in their favor, from what Ranma had learned the other fronts were a different story.

One was actually better off, something Roland and the other Pergrandians had been grimly pleased by. The two Royal Army corps under personal command of the King had regained control of the Tine that they had been fighting for, pushing the orcs back into it and wiping out every orc they could on that side of the mountain. They were now holding the end of the Tine against the orcs' continued attempts to break out.

There had apparently been severe loss of life in the battles to reclaim it, which Ranma could understand. Guns against orcs should've been a no-brainer, but there were so damn **many** orcs. And they were tough bastards becoming tougher, if slower, as winter crept on.

But that left the middlemost Tine to make trouble which was indeed what was happening according to Roland. The orcs still controlled that Tine because the two Army corps that had been assigned to beat them back had attacked too slowly and too cautiously. The orcs had been able to fortify the entrance, or from their perspective, the exit of the Tine. The Army had been able to set up a cordon around them, but more and more orcs were coming forward. This meant that men kept dying there trying to hold them in with limited success.

That was about all Ranma knew of the overall strategy of the war. He had more pressing concerns, like the orc raiding parties that were trying to get over the chokepoint that the mages and their allies, three companies of mounted infantry when Ranma had left camp, had been able to set up. _It isn't the first I've seen; it won't be the last, but that's why I am up here freezing my balls off. And it's only a matter of time before the snow all around me warms up enough and turns to slush, taking them away for a while entirely, curse it._

From across Ranma there was a slight movement, a single finger poking out of the snow, then a second. Ranma spotted it and grimly clenched his fists. A second later Laxus burst out of the snow on the other side of the orc raiding party, crashing into them with a thunderous roar. A second after that, Ranma thrust himself out of the snow, racing forward as well.

The two Dragon Slayers made short work of the group. While the orc corpses cooled, their green blood, or whatever it was they used instead of blood, steaming in the air, Ranma gestured at his older friend/rival. "Let's retrace their trail. This is the same area where Vidaldus and a few of the headbangers hit an orc party a few days ago, so there might be a real trail they're using around here."

"Don't give me orders, brat," Laxus grumbled but followed Ranma despite his words, knowing there was really no point in making an issue of who was in the lead up here.

They were silent for a moment then Laxus made a move to restart the conversation they had been having before he had noticed the sound of incoming orcs. The two of them hadn't had much opportunity to talk alone since the battle to reclaim the Tine. One or the other was always assigned on the Mage Wall or up in the mountains. This was the first time they had both been assigned up here, and this was a serious conversation they both somehow instinctively knew they didn't want other people to overhear. "So, you were trained by a real dragon?"

Ranma nodded, looking over his shoulder at the blond mage. "And you really have a Dragon Lacrima embedded in you. I don't know which of us is the weirder one."

"You, definitely," Laxus said preemptively. "People have been embedded with Lacrima for a while. It's dangerous, and there's always a chance of rejection, and it is painful as **fuck** , but it's at least somewhat known. Dragons still being around, though? That's just weird."

"So you came up with all your own attacks?" Ranma asked, hopping up over a rock for a moment before almost losing his balance on the slope behind it.

"I had some help with the names, but yeah," Laxus said, following him and, like Ranma, almost losing his balance. The slope here was extremely steep, and Laxus's lips twitched as he thought that it would be a better place to ski rather than walk.

"And you've never heard of other Dragon Slayers?" Ranma pressed.

Laxus shook his head. "Never. I was the first to have a Dragon Lacrima embedded in me successfully, so there aren't even any other artificial Dragon Slayers out there as far as I know. Mind you, this is the first time I've ever even been beyond Fiore's borders, so I might be wrong about that. But I sure as hell know that dragons haven't been seen in hundreds of years. They'd be big-time news, no matter where they appeared.

"Not," Laxus went on after a moment, "that I would want anyone else to go through what I did. Lacrima implantation is not pleasant, even with the more benign Lacrima. Dragon Lacrima are a whole different story. But your dragon, this Typhon, he mentioned other dragons had picked up human kids to train?"

"Yeah, he didn't know any of their names save one, and I think his mind was going long before he and I met, but he was pretty certain they were out there. I haven't found any hint of them yet though and I've been through three countries so far looking for information on them. Four if you count Pergrande. None of the wizards here seem to have heard of Dragon Slaying magic before the two of us showed up."

Laxus nodded, not saying anything on that topic. He felt that this Typhon character had either lied to Ranma or really had been going senile like Ranma feared. He knew old people went like that sometimes, though his own grandfather hadn't yet. _Then again, Jiji isn't pushing two thousand years old._

Changing the subject, Laxus said, "It's a pity you didn't know more about the lay of the land when you ran into those slavers. Fiore has a bit of a problem with those on its southeastern border with Bosco. They are the only country that really allows slavery, though hopefully that'll be ending soon…" Laxus trailed off, pausing and sniffing the air as Ranma did the same.

Ranma knelt down to the ground, sniffing the small trail they'd been following, moving cautiously around a rock. The trail again began to dip dramatically there, so much so that again Ranma wondered if the orcs were half plant, half goat. It was steeper even then the trail they had been on. But when it leveled out again down below, Ranma estimated that it would be a little warmer in terms of the temperature. The trail plunged into a copse of trees on the somewhat more level ground, which would further shield whoever was using it from the weather.

The trees went on for a while, but Ranma could see the end of them, where the mountain once again began to rise in the distance, this time with a sheer rock face. "The trail has to either go right or left at that point, but I can't make it out from here," he whispered, but Laxus heard him easily. Laxus was a Dragon Slayer just like Ranma, which meant his hearing and other senses were acute.

The two young men exchanged a glance and then Ranma leaped down, ignoring the incline to land lightly on the ground below them. Laxus hopped into the air over him, but did not activate his lightning teleportation, simply using his legs to leapfrog the younger boy, landing in front of him in turn. He sent a smirk over his shoulder, and Ranma rolled his eyes but grinned back challengingly as the two of them made their way forward.

Halfway to the trees Ranma pulled out the pistol he had gotten from the innkeeper in Minstrel, and a bright shimmer of a magical circle appeared around his wrists for a moment. Laxus looked at him quizzically, and Ranma shrugged. "Better for long-range, less destructive attacks too. Anyway, you're saying I could've been in this Bosco place?" Ranma asked.

"No," Laxus said definitively. "Not from your description of the slavers. They didn't sound like any slavers from Bosco I've ever heard of. They sounded more like cultists." Laxus looked as if he was going to spit for a moment. "I've heard of them from my father and grandfather, but I've never run into them. There were a lot of children among the slaves?"

When Ranma nodded, Laxus continued grimly. "Yeah, there would be no point for the slavers of Bosco to take kids. Most of the slaves in Bosco go to the salt and coal mines, and you can't get a full day's work out of children."

"Fucking slavers," Ranma muttered. "I might just spend a few months in this Bosco place of yours to show them what I think of slavery."

"More power to you, Ranma," Laxus said feelingly. "I know my old man and a lot of the other guild masters in Fiore have wanted to move on them because the slavers have at least one Dark Guild backing them. But guilds aren't allowed to cross borders unless on a specific mission, and no one in Bosco has been asking for help against the slavers since it's legal there. So our hands are tied."

Laxus probably wouldn't have been involved in that kind of mission anyway, of course. His grandfather would never have allowed that given how young he was. Indeed, Laxus knew that if his grandfather learned he was involved in this war, he'd probably be grounded for life at a minimum. _Jiji will probably go Titan on me, but it's worth it, we're fighting the good fight here damn it, a hell of a lot more than I ever have on any other job._

The two Dragon Slayers passed through the forest, no longer speaking since their words would echo now until they reached the far edge of the forest. This abutted a massive elbow of rock that jutted out of the rest of the mountain. The trail continued on one side of it, around the rock face, and then ended in a crack, a fissure in the mountainside, which went further down. Inside the fissure was another trail that would've made a goat quail. There was also a group of orcs making their slow way up.

Immediately after the two boys poked their heads into the crevice, the orcs saw them and bellowed a challenge. But it was still cold here, and their movements were hampered by that and by the slope they were currently trying to scale. The two Dragon Slayers exchanged evil grins, and then Ranma flicked up his pistol and began to charge it with his magic. Next to him, Laxus simply began to lob lightning bolts down at them, frying the orcs they hit and several below or above them in line.

A second later Laxus jerked to one side as there was a loud thunderous banging next to him, and he looked over in time to see Ranma be hurled backwards, his hand smoking and cut here and there, his pistol shattered. Immediately Laxus understood what had happened and shook his head before going back to killing orcs as Ranma groaned, rolling around in the snow and waving his hand frantically. At the same time he began to shift into his female form, the explosion having changed much of the snow around them into slush. And unlike snow, slush was liquid enough to trigger the change.

"What the hell did you try to do?" Laxus asked after the last orc went down.

"I was trying to create an Overshot," Ranma groaned. "It's when you create a normal Magic Bullet then overload it with magical energy. It's supposed to hit harder, a **lot** harder. You can even add a bit of shape to it to make it a penetrator round. God that hurt, that hurt like balls!"

"Funny you should mention balls, since at the moment you don't have them again," Laxus said with a laugh. Then he moved as Ranma kicked out, taking his legs out from under him and sending him smacking ass first into the ground. "You bitch!"

After having a bit of a rough-and-tumble, the two Dragon Slayers destroyed the large rock patch that they'd had to skirt around to find this portion of the trail, dumping it onto the top of the fissure to block it off. Those were their standing orders up here: wipe out any orcs they find and destroy the trails they used as much is possible. Up this high, Ranma estimated they'd only need to wait a week or so before the snow piled up enough for even the orcs not to be able to get through.

As they walked back the two lazily destroyed the small copes of trees they had passed through, hurling the trees onto the trail behind them. While they walked the two Dragon Slayers returned to the previous topic. "No, that definitely wasn't Bosco. It sounded like Sin, or at least what I've heard about it. Endless forests with few paths, and little in the way of civilization or law. That's about all I know about it, Sin and Enca are both off-limits to any guild. Too lawless, too wild, and neither has a large population."

That almost sounded to Ranma like Siberia in a lot of ways, only worse and warmer to boot. "I just hope that the help I was able to give them allowed some of those slaves to get away," the redhead said, shaking her head.

At that thought both of them fell silent, knowing that Ranma was really whistling in the dark there. But there was also no way to ever figure it out, not without a starting point.

After they cleared the last incline and began to make their way down the mountain for real this time, Laxus changed the subject, talking to Ranma about other things. The two had become close friends since taking the Tine, though more often than not they were too busy to really talk. They talked about training when they got the chance, giving each other new ideas about how to use their powers, what other magics were useful. But more often than not they talked about simpler things, just getting to know one another.

This was not an easy task for various reasons. Laxus was prickly and prideful on top of being arrogant, prone to feel insulted at the drop of a hat. Ranma was less prideful but was somewhat more egotistical and loved to poke fun at everyone around him. They should have gotten on exactly like a house on fire and while theirs was not a peaceful friendship, they did actually get along quite well. Ranma likened it to how he and Ryoga would have gotten on without Akane around or Ryoga always wanting to blame Ranma for everything bad that happened to him.

Around evening the two of them walked into the large army camp that had sprung up around the entrance to the Tine. The guards hailed them, though one or two of them still did a double take when they noticed Ranma was in his female form. It wasn't so much the curse any longer, but like in most medieval or even industrial era armies, the Pergrandian army was male to a man. The Magic Guilds weren't, but a lot of the men here hadn't worked with mages before, so still were not quite used to seeing women around, and the mages tended to keep to themselves in any event.

Added to this was Ranma's age. In her early twenties, Ikaruga was the youngest of the women here in camp, and with a body that she enjoyed showing off. In her words she did so "Just enough to get a reaction without being obscene." But Ranma was only ten and while a young boy that age in an army camp wasn't that unusual, a young **girl** certainly was.

Ranma quickly solved this problem by pulling out a canteen and heating it in her hand before dumping it over her head, triggering the change. With that done the two of them passed through the camp to the large tent Roland and the two guild masters used as a command post. They were ushered in immediately and found all three men poring over a map of the surrounding mountains and the Tine in particular as Roland explained some bit of information. In one corner a small communication Lacrima was slowly dimming out as the two young men entered.

The two guild masters looked up first, then Roland turned around and nodded at them, gesturing them to join him. "Good to see you two back," he said mildly. "Anything happen we need to know about?"

Letting Laxus tell them about their little skirmish, Ranma took in the map for a moment. He didn't know what all the markers meant, but it looked as if reinforcements were arriving for the army under the king's command, though he supposed the little crown could mean something else. The others he thought could be digging in and bringing up supplies. _The little horses with tiny carts are sort of distinctive._

"And neither of you saw any bodies up there? Any sign of fighting? None of my men have reported any of that either. It's been months and we still haven't seen even a hint as to what happened to the Element Alliance. This is getting fucking ridiculous," growled Narmenius angrily.

"Nor mine," said the other guild master, shaking his head. He was a wizened, monk-like figure like most of his guild, and his build and face reminded Ranma something of the Dalai Lama. "We've been over most of this area now, and we should've discovered at least a few signs of fighting if the Element Alliance had even been here to begin with."

"They were here," Narmenius said, shaking his head. "In fact I spoke to Guild Master Stephen when he passed through Glasscow with his guild." Glasscow was the town that the Death's Head Caucus had their headquarters in. Ranma had asked them if there was some story behind the name, but other than looking a little shifty, none of the Pergrandians he asked gave him an answer.

"No, we didn't see any signs of fighting up there, at least none that we didn't recognize as coming from one of the other patrols. Then again, with the snow going up there I don't think we would have," Laxus said with a shrug.

"That's a minor mystery we need to set aside for now. We'll look into it in greater depth once this war ends," Roland ordered, tapping the map and looking at the young yet incredibly powerful mages without whose help the orcs would still be in control of the Tine. Normally young boys their age would never be allowed to be part of this discussion, but their power and its importance to the upcoming battle made it imperative. "The king has been in contact with us and wants us to push forward."

"What's that mean exactly?" Laxus asked, his eyes narrowing as Ranma looked up from the map to look at Roland.

"We're going to be getting reinforcements soon: another light cavalry company and five mounted infantry companies. Once they arrive, we're to push into the Tine."

"I'm as aggressive as the next guy," Ranma said to general chuckles, as everyone knew that to be a massive understatement. "But why would we want to push forward from this position?"

Roland sighed, looking at the two foreigners wondering what to tell them. Laxus at least was a Fiorian and probably wouldn't care a whit about the internal politics of another country. Ranma was an unknown there. In fact, his entire past was almost unknown, though Roland had come to trust his honesty and magical abilities. "You know that we haven't been able to reclaim the middlemost Tine?"

When the two young boys nodded, he went on. "The King can't remove the commanding officer of that army; he's too well-connected politically and is, in fact, the King's younger brother and current third in line for the throne. It would cause a lot of issues in the long term and possibly even the short term if the King removed him from command. And he hasn't been grossly incompetent, simply…timid. That's not enough reason, follow me?"

Laxus rolled his eyes, and Ranma yawned widely before making a get on with it gesture.

Chuckling Roland did so. "It's only a matter of time before the orcs bring up enough numbers to punch Zaris out of the way even in the cold. They've got, what, another two months or so before even the Tines become unpassable, but until then they can start to funnel large groups of troops forward. So long as they do that, they can continue to both fortify their position there and press out against the army that is trying to keep them locked in. So we need to reclaim the fortress and hold it. Cut them off from further reinforcements and then push up through that Tine from both directions, crushing them between two fires."

"You're mixing metaphors, Roland," Narmenius said with a laugh, "but despite that your point is easily understood."

Staring at the map again, Ranma thought about what he had learned. Like Roland had said, the three Tines of the Trident met a fair distance into the mountains, about a third of the way through them in fact. There they merged into a larger trail that wound its way to the other side of the mountains entirely. Pergrande had created a fortress there; the famous Wall that Ranma had heard the peasants speak of. Why they called it the Wall instead of the Fortress Ranma didn't know having never seen it. But it was the primary defense for Pergrande against orcish invasion, forcing the orcs to come along one avenue of attack instead of three. It's falling to either cowardice or surprise attack had been the reason why the orcs were able to get out of the mountains in the first place before they started to really get challenged.

"All right," Ranma said, looking over at Laxus, nodding to him. "So, how are we going to do this?"

Roland exchanged a glance with the two guild masters, all of them looking grim, though Narmenius also looked a little angry. They all knew what they were asking of the two young men, as well as the rest of their troops and guild members. But the King's orders were absolute, and even Narmenius understood the necessity, given the increasingly fearful reports from the army facing the middlemost Tine.

"In a gorge like this, there's no room for subtlety or maneuvers. We're just going to have to push forward and hope that our magic can grind them down before their numbers do the same to us. It'll be the orcs' kind of fight, but there's nothing we can do about it," Roland began, then started to go into detail on the planned offensive.

 **OOOOOOO**

The man running through Pergrande's countryside did not look like the kind of man who should be running for pleasure, or, indeed, should be able to move as quickly as he was. He was a very tall, broad shouldered man, his build more like that of a weightlifter or soldier rather than a sprinter. He looked to be just hitting middle-age, with a handsome rugged appearance and a heavy tattered cloak flailing behind him in the wind of his passage. Orangish hair that fell down to his shoulders was also blowing in the wind, and he looked as if he had a face used to smiling. Many a woman had fallen to the wicked glint in his eyes and his good looks, but the wicked glint normally there was in abeyance now as he raced towards the mountains where he had just been told one of his guild's precious children was.

As he passed, people got out of his way quickly. The consequences if they did not do so would be to go the way of a few trees that had tried to hinder his ruler-straight progress, to be smashed down and shattered into millions of tiny squares, hurled across the landscape as his magic activated uncontrollably.

 _What the hell was Jiji thinking letting Laxus take that bounty job!? He should've known that bastard would've done a runner, and Laxus would chase him no matter where it took him,_ the man thought to himself angrily, pulling out a bit of jerky and gnawing on it as he continued to run. _And Laxus, what the hell is he thinking! Going towards a war instead of away from it at his age?! Swear to God, if you're still alive I'm going to thrash you brat!_

 **OOOOOOO**

The battle began with a roar, quite literally. Ranma and Laxus launched their Dragon Slayer Roars down the trail into the horde of orcs. They had been crashing against the wall the Earth Shakers had put in place like ineffectual waves crashing against a rock. But the Dragon Slayer's attack scattered them nearly ten rows deep.

With that done, the Earth Shaker Mages' Guild collapsed the wall, and the light cavalry charged forward in two rows down the gorge at the new front line of the horde. As each man entered pistol range they fired, wheeling away to the inside of their lines. This was the kind of move that only the most highly trained horsemen could do without horses smashing into one another and bucking their riders or breaking the cadence of the assault. But it worked, unloading a lot of bullets into the face of the horde of orcs beyond where the two Dragon Slayers' attacks had tapered out. Not many orcs went down, but the chaos of the horde was now total.

Then the mages struck. From on high Fukuro began to strafe the orcs, dropping primitive magic bombs which exploded upon impact among them. The other mages hurled their spells forward or conjured up rock golems and sent them forward. Vidaldus moved with them for a second to his Rock of Succubus, further breaking the orcish lines. With that done, he scurried back to the rest of the army as the infantry came up, their rifles down and aimed.

They fired in volleys, reminding Ranma of images he'd seen from the Meiji Restoration. The front two ranks would fire then drop back to either side and be replaced. This cycle would continue, a remorseless march down the gorge.

Roland wheeled his horse around, nodding at the two younger mages as he hopped off, climbing up onto a small mound of dirt that had been prepared to let him look over the entire battlefield. "You know your roles?"

Laxus merely grunted irritably, giving the man the finger, while Ranma smirked and answered in a singsong voice. "Head forward when the infantry starts to flag, take up the line, and keep pushing. Until then stay at long range. Was there anything else you wanted to tell us, sir? Maybe how to tie our shoes, or do you want to make sure we pissed before the fight?"

Snorting Roland turned away, glaring at the battle while a few nearby mages rolled their eyes at Ranma's insouciant attitude.

Though Laxus and Ranma were possibly bulletproof thanks to their Dragon Slayer Magic given durability, the other mages weren't, hence why the mages had stepped back once the Earth Shakers had conjured up their golems. The DHC and the Dragon Slayers could still influence the fight, however, and they began to hurl long-range attacks down at the orcish host, which was pressed back and further back.

But they didn't break. _They should be breaking,_ Roland thought, _becoming more and more disorganized as we hammer into them._

But the orcs didn't. They didn't have anything like discipline or organization and so should have slowly become more chaotic as the battle went on. But while the horde in front of them still didn't look to be organized or fighting a controlled retreat it was obvious that they were retaining more cohesion than they should have. By this point their front line should've been broken, the golems and possessed orcs able to get in among them, which would've let Roland send his close combat mages forward to sow further chaos and give his infantry enough of a break to get his cavalry involved again.

 _But they aren't,_ Roland thought, a sliver of ice going down his back.

With his experience at feeling the flow of battle, Ranma sensed it too. "They're just absorbing our attacks. Giving ground sure, but not enough," he said, shaking his head and taking a break from flinging spells to look up at Roland and speaking in a way a much older man would have. "We don't have the initiative here."

"What are you talking about?" Laxus scoffed. He then blinked in astonishment as some of the forward-most golems began to collapse back into stone and dirt. He looked over at the mages who had been controlling them and shouted, "What the hell just happened! You can't be out of Ethernano already!"

"I don't know what happened," one of the mages stuttered, while the others tried to re-create more golems, this time as far forward as they could see. "It's as if something canceled out our magic."

"That's impossible!" one of the DHC mages replied, scoffing. "Orcs don't have any magic outside of what lives in their bodies."

"Tell that to what's happening out there," Ranma said, pointing to one of the orcs that had been infected by Vidaldus' Rock of Succubus. It had apparently shaken off the magic's effect, its looks turning back to normal as it turned and began to press towards the humans, roaring forward with its fellows.

"Full fusillade, now!" Roland shouted as the front of the orcish host reformed and charged forward, now no longer hindered by golems or their own turncoat fellows. At his command the first line of infantry lay on the ground while the next crouched and the third was joined with the fourth, standing shoulder to shoulder now. Pointing four rows of muskets forwards towards the enemy they fired as one. This slowed the orcish advance slightly as the front ranks of them simply died and had to be stepped over by the rest of their fellows.

As that was going on Roland continued to bark commands. "Earth Shakers, create a wall break in front of our infantry!"

The guild did so, which allowed the infantry a moment to breathe. But before they could pull back or even climb to the top of the makeshift fortification, the wall collapsed just as the golems had. There was no warning; it simply fell apart. An instant later the orcs on the other side charged forward and were nearly on the infantry in the next second.

"Mages forward!" Roland shouted desperately. He watched tensely as Ranma and Laxus led the way, leaping over the line of infantry, which opened to let the other mages through. As that happened he began to reorder his regular troops, pulling them back further.

The mages crashed into the front of the orcs, but even then the close combat mages started to run into trouble. Ikaruga was the first to realize it when she used her fire blade attack. It had been intended to cut down a dozen orcs but it suddenly dissipated in midair before it hit them. "What!?"

Above the horde whatever was going on also affected Fukuro, his rocket pack going out just then. With a hooting cry of despair he crashed into the mob of orcs. At the same time Narmenius' flying rotating blades of death suddenly stopped moving under his direction, collapsing to the ground.

Seeing this Laxus howled, activating his lightning teleportation and flashing forwards into the horde of orcs. Seconds after the owl-looking mage went down Laxus was able to grab Fukuro, hurling him towards the other mages with one hand as he laid into the horde around him with the other. Despite the speed of Laxus' response however, he was nearly too late. Fukuro's head was bleeding from a massive gash and his sides and arms all cut up too. He might live with medical attention, but he was out of the fight.

Ranma noted absentmindedly that he and Laxus weren't having trouble, while the other mages were now nearly magic-less. Five of the mages from the Death's Head Caucus were down, dead, or dying, he couldn't tell which, and the rest of them were falling back desperately, using simple physical skills now. Many of them had physical skills to match their magic, making them tougher than normal troops. For example, Ikaruga had trained her body just as much as she had trained her magic. But there were over a hundred orcs for each of them, and all orcs were stronger than any normal human could be.

Sitting on his horse now, at the back of the army and Roland saw all this. And then, through the horde of orcs, he saw what was causing it. "No! Those are just a legend… What…?" He shook his head rapidly, casting that thought off as stupid. They were here now, and they had to deal with it. "Shamblers!" he shouted. "Shamblers incoming!"

All the Pergrandians paled and began to fall back rapidly, while Roland turned aside, beginning to organize his cavalry for a charge. The infantry were rapidly falling back in good order, trying to put some more distance between them and the orcs. No infantrymen wanted to be up close with an orc that was why they had rifles. Yet even as they did this the close combat mages continued to die, all save the two Lost Magic users finding their magic no longer working.

Ranma broke through the line of orcs racing towards a Shambler. They were huge things, larger than even the largest orc by a foot or more with heavy, hunched over forms with arms longer than their legs. Like the orcs they looked like trees, though these looked more like walking mountains of dirt and foliage than ents gone wrong.

As he came closer even his Dragon Slayer magic began to flicker, but he bore down on it, concentrating more, and hammered a Water Dragon's Claw into the thing, crushing one of its large eyes. A second later he smashed into its chest with another punch which hurled it backwards, hopefully dead. Ranma didn't have time to make certain, as more orcs closed in all around him.

Fighting his way backwards Ranma found that several more mages had been mobbed under and that Roland was calling a full retreat. As he watched, hopping between several orcs, Ikaruga went down. An orc she had thought dead had caught her with a blow that bit into her leg right behind the kneecap, shattering it. How she stayed on her feet was a mystery but she did, stabbing down with her blade and ending the orc's unnatural life.

And then Roland and the cavalry joined the battle. Their pistols rang out, the pistoleers firing their pistols as fast as they could go before they hit the melee on the charge, their lances forward. Roland himself slammed his Lance into one orc, then wheeled away, reaching down quickly towards Ikaruga. "Come on!"

The pink-haired woman grabbed his hand, and he pulled her onto his horse behind his back, while other horsemen did the same for several other mage. More horsemen went down than got away, but they at least saved most of the remaining close combat mages and slowed the orc advance enough for the infantry to get set.

Laxus and Ranma heard the sound of sustained gunfire from behind them but they didn't retreat further, trying instead to break through and kill the remaining Shamblers. They did so, the last one going down to a lightning punch from Laxus that sheared through whatever anti-magic field it was creating, but by that point the orcs had pushed past them, almost pushing the infantry back to their starting point, a mile further down the gorge. This had completely isolated the two Dragon Slayers, and Laxus was now too tired to use his teleportation technique. They exchanged a glance as they both hit the same orc, turning its head into frappe before using the momentum to leap back towards the western side of the gorge.

"Yeah, I don't think this plan worked any better than the one Roland made when we met up with the DHC and you," Ranma said almost conversationally.

"Not his fault," Laxus shouted, his voice almost drowned by the roars of the orcs and the ongoing crack of the infantry rifles. "Shamblers aren't supposed to exist any longer."

"Let me guess, they're another one of those ancient weapons gone horribly out of control?" Ranma asked.

"From what little I know about them yeah, pretty much," Laxus said, wincing in pain as an orcish sword cut into his face, enough to leave a nasty scar but missing his eye by a hair's breadth. "You need to get out of here, Ranma. You can get back on your own, leave me here."

Ranma launched a Water Dragon's Roar, watching as it only went about half the distance he wanted it to go as more Shamblers began to move up through the horde of orcs. "Hell, no! I might think you're a prickly, sparky bastard, but that doesn't mean I'm going to leave you here. So let's just concentrate on taking as many of these bastards with us as we can!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Laxus roared back, his lightning claws lashing at one orc and then several more as the lightning arced between them. Like Ranma's earlier attack, it didn't go very far, but that only meant that it killed eight orcs instead of the twenty-four that he'd been trying for.

Just then the fire from behind them stopped, followed instantly by a feel of pressure that Ranma felt down to his bones. Laxus felt it too and looked around, wondering what kind of powerful mage had arrived, recognizing the feeling. Then both Ranma and Laxus watched in shock as the orcs between them and their friends simply disintegrated into millions of tiny boxes, which began to implode on themselves second later.

Through these tiny little boxes strode a man Laxus had seen numerous times before, but never like this. Each step he took cratered the ground underneath him, and the rock walls of the gorge to either side of his advance shattered, pressing backwards away from him like under some great weight.

The pressure he was pushing out, it was like thousands of tons of air pressing down on those around him. As the man came closer, the pressure grew and Laxus gasped, stumbling and falling to his knees.

Ranma felt it too, and it took everything he had to remain standing in the face of whatever it was. _And this is when we're not the target!_ Ranma thought wonderingly, staring at the man.

"Yo, Laxus," the man said, stepping forward. "Looks like you have a bit of trouble here. Children always go looking for trouble and often they find it only to not be able to get themselves back out. But it's a man's job to step in and aid his family when he can."

"Gildarts," Laxus muttered, pushing to one knee and staring at the older man, exhaustion now plain on his face.

Gildarts tapped him very lightly on the shoulder, but since he was still using his magic on the orcs in front of them even that was enough to send Laxus back down to the ground, gasping. He was barely able to stay on his knees with his hands pressed to the ground in front of him.

Looking over at Ranma, Gildarts smiled thinly, his eyes flickering in rage at seeing Ranma was even younger than Laxus. "Rest, kid. I've got this."

"Yeah," Ranma said, gasping a little as he tried to push himself to his feet against the pressure the other man was putting out unconsciously. "Yeah, I guess you do."

 **OOOOOOO**

Gildarts' fist smashed down on the top of Laxus' head, sending the blond boy down to his knees with a groan as he held his head. "You damn brat! How could you get involved in a war like this? What do you think would happen to your family or the rest of the guild if something happened to you!?"

"I did what I thought was right at the time, which is what Jiji's always telling us to do old-timer!" Laxus shot back, nursing his head and glaring up at Gildarts from his momentarily even shortened height.

To one side Ranma stood leaning against the side of the gorge watching them with half an eye. The other eye was on the progress of the troops moving into the Wall.

The Wall was a series of interconnected fortifications that looked almost as if it had been carved from one stone, with a central tower jutting up fifteen stories high and a series of ramparts facing down the shaft of the Trident, yet with no defense on its backside. It was obvious how it had been taken from behind so easily, but judging by the argument going on to one side among the Earth Shakers, that wasn't going to happen again.

He turned back to the Fairy Tail mage when Gildarts addressed him. "What about you, kid? How the hell did you get mixed up in this?"

"I chose to be," Ranma said with a shrug. "I ran into some refugees and decided to see what I can do to help."

"That easy, huh?" Gildarts asked, his lips twitching slightly. "What about your family or your guild. You ever think about them and what they'd say about you messed up in this bloody nonsense?"

"Don't belong to a guild; don't have a family," Ranma said in reply, turning his attention to Gildarts fully. There was no way he was going to go about sharing his otherworldly origins with anyone, especially someone he had just met. Besides the problem of his probably not being believed, it would needlessly complicate matters. "However, speaking of things I do have, can I have your autograph?"

"What?" Gildarts asked, laughing now. "You collect S-class autographs or something?"

Then he began to laugh as Ranma pulled out 'For the Wizard on the Go' and held it out. "Where the hell did you find a copy of that?"

"In Minstrel," Ranma said, holding the book out.

"I sold that manuscript to a publisher, and there were only like twelve copies of that book ever published." Gildarts took the book from Ranma, looking at it almost reverently. "Did it really help you?"

"Well, it tells me what not to eat, what's good to eat and gives me clues on how to deal with the most dangerous beasties, so yeah, it helps, old-timer," Ranma said with a grin, using the same teasing nickname that Laxus had. "And by the way, what you say about Vulcans in there is right on the money. They are worse than hyenas."

Even as he twitched at being called old-timer, Gildarts signed it quickly then turned back to Laxus before he could get away, continuing to remonstrate with him. He stopped again, however, when Narmenius and the other guild master came up to them. Both of them looked a little leery of Gildarts, knowing how strong the mage was, easily strong enough to become one of the Wizard Saints of Ishgar if he had had the attitude to match. As it was, he **really** didn't. Even if you discounted his inability to completely control his powers.

"Gildarts," Narmenius said, gesturing with his head. "Roland wants to talk to us."

Gildarts nodded and moved to follow the two older men before stopping as he noticed Ranma and Laxus were also coming along. He paused then and opened his mouth to tell them not to before thinking better of it. _Both of them have already seen far too damn much for kids their age, cutting them off from this meeting won't do any good_. Sighing, he simply shook his head and followed the two guild masters.

The mages were led through into the tower to near the topmost floor, where they found Roland already ensconced in what must've been the fortresses commander's quarters. The map that he had been looking at before they launched their attack down the Tine was once more on his table, this one larger and far more solid. "Gildarts," he said with a nod. "I knew you were on your way, but you made one hell of a good time."

"That's what happens when you're worried one of your family members will become fodder for the orcs," Gildarts said, looking to one side and glaring at Laxus, who glared back unrepentantly, before turning back to use the same glare on Roland.

"I realize why you might have problems with their roles in this war, but Laxus and Ranma were instrumental in allowing us to take control of the Tine in the first place. Without them we would've lost that battle, and the orcs would've had free reign of two Tines, possibly catching the king's army in the open after enveloping his brother's."

Roland's voice turned sour on that last point, but he shook his head quickly, moving on. "I've sent a message via Lacrima to the king. We'll be reinforced here with more infantry quickly, and the king will push his own army down this Tine here," he said, gesturing to the Tine whose exit the king had taken from the orcs already, much like the one the mages had been using. "With us in control here and with the Earth Shakers to throw up defenses on this side of the Wall, this invasion is as good as over. We'll need to push forward and wipe them out in the Tines, but with you here, that should be relatively quick even if they have Shamblers."

"Yeah those things, the Shamblers, what the heck's up with them? I could feel them trying to negate my magic. Never ran into anything like that before," Gildarts said.

At this Laxus and the other mages sweat-dropped as they shared a thought: _Wait, that was his magic being affected by the Shamblers? How strong is this guy!?_

"Shamblers are incredibly rare beasts. About two hundred years ago, the king at the time led an expedition to try and find where they came from, while the Fortress Wall was being built. We thought the expedition had found and destroyed the means with which they were reproduced, but it appears that we only slowed it down immensely. This is the first reported real sighting of them since that time," the Earth Shakers Guild Master replied.

"Then add that to the mystery of the missing guild," Ranma said. "Those things didn't move fast enough to surprise anyone, but if the mages came in fat and happy without expecting them…"

Narmenius scowled, but nodded. "Could've happened; could've really happened."

He shot a look at Ikaruga, who stood by Roland's side, a little too closely for his comfort, who nodded back. "I didn't know many of the mages from that guild very well, but I knew their guild master well enough. I would've said they wouldn't have been surprised by orc ambush, but if they didn't realize Shamblers were around, any mage would've been surprised. Just like we were." His voice was bitter as he finished, his lips peeled back in a snarl. "I lost fifteen guild members today, and the Earth Shakers seven. Twenty-two mages on top of possibly the loss of an entire guild!"

"And by last report," Roland said quietly but with steel in his tone, "we have lost something like five to seven thousand soldiers, and who knows how many peasants." Of the twenty-man patrol Roland had led when he met Ranma, only three were still alive, but he knew that other companies had taken even worse damage under the king's command or his younger brother's.

Ranma nodded, letting the words flow over him as he looked at the map, tapping his fingers down on the shaft of the Trident before walking them further into the continent. "It would be really interesting to see what else is out there," he said absentmindedly, not even aware he was speaking out loud and arresting the discussion. "I wonder what I could find. Where do these orcs come from, for one thing? What else is out there?"

Gildarts laid a hand on Ranma's shoulder, lightly for him, but more than enough to send any normal eleven-year-old boy to his knees. Ranma simply grunted slightly as he felt his spine and knees buckling. The older mage smiled internally, realizing the young man was quite a bit stronger than he looked. "I wouldn't if I were you, kid. There are far worse things than orcs or even dragons in the deep continent. I traveled there when I was in my twenties, and I barely escaped with my life."

"You didn't mention that in your book, old-timer," Ranma said accusingly as he looked up at the taller man. He did note, however, that Gildarts had seen his and Laxus' magic, but hadn't asked Ranma any questions about where Ranma had learned his.

"Course not. If I did, idiots like you might think about following in my footsteps," Gildarts replied to general laughter.

Roland smiled at the byplay before concentrating on Gildarts. "By Royal decree," he said formally, pointing at Gildarts. "S-class mage of the Fiore Mage Guild Fairy Tail Gildarts, you are hereby hired to aid in this war. The price of your recruitment is 300,000 gold coins per battle."

Gildarts whistled appreciatively before jerking a hand towards Laxus, who scowled, knocking it away his new lightning-shaped scar standing out prominently on his face for a second. "That's fine and all, but I want Laxus sent back to the capital at the very least. This is no place for a kid. I might not have been able to get here in time to stop him seeing the horror of war, but that doesn't mean I want him to see any more of it."

"I stopped being a kid when I started wiping out orcs by the score and saw the wreckage they left behind Gildarts!" Laxus said, growling and getting to his feet, thrusting himself chest to chest with Gildarts, though this turned out to be face to waist given the height disparity. "I'm not leaving, not until the fight for the Trident is done, at least."

After a second of glaring down at the younger boy, Gildarts shifted his glare over to Ranma. "What about you? Are you going to see sense?"

"I can spell it; I don't think I I'd see it unless you pointed it out to me in technicolor," Ranma said with a grin. "Besides, I'm not a part of your guild, old-timer, so you can't order me around, and I don't want to leave either. It would feel like I was leaving a job half finished."

Gildarts twitched several times at the continued use of the phrase 'old-timer,' but nodded. "Well, in that case, I think I'll just finish this war as quickly as possible."

 **OOOOOOO**

"The arrival of a mage of that caliber is beyond my expectations," mused a voice. Its owner was sitting high, high up the mountains, looking down at the Fortress Wall, while around him the bodies of several dozen men and women were piled, their features frozen in rictuses of horror. "With him here, this campaign is lost."

"Still, the orcs were but an experiment. There will be other ways to kill off humans in the future." With that the dark, purple-haired man turned, and from his back appeared two large, black, bat-like wings, and he flew away, heading up and further into the peninsula with no one the wiser.

 **OOOOOOO**

Twice during the night the mages were roused from their rest when the orcs down the two remaining Tines that they controlled tried to force their way back to link up with their fellows in the Trident's main shaft. At the same time the orcs coming west along the Shaft also launched attacks and their attacks were far larger. Despite that, they were still hurled back with massive losses.

With the riflemen on the walls, a steady supply of ammunition and gunpowder now coming down the Tine they controlled, the Wall was an almost impregnable fortress. Even if the attackers in the Shaft got past the first wall of the fortress, they'd find themselves in a killing ground in front of the second and then the third after that. And then there was the tower, upon which there was a Lacrima powered cannon aimed down the Trident's Shaft.

The next day the army began its push and Gildarts' words from the previous night came back to Ranma as he watched the mage simply walk down the Tine towards the king's army, his magic reaching out before him. The orcs tried to attack him, but the few Shamblers with this force couldn't overpower Gildarts' magic, even combined, which crushed them as easily as the orcs.

"Crash Magic, you say," Ranma said, his voice a drawl as he, Laxus, and the rest of the mages simply followed at Gildarts' heels. At the moment it was that easy, with Gildarts in the field there really wasn't anything they had to do at present.

Laxus nodded watching the ace of Fairy Tail at work. "Yeah, Crash Magic is one of the most powerful magics known. The problem is that Gildarts can't really control his magic. It's why he's always going on missions alone and is almost always away from the guild. Last I heard, Magnolia was actually thinking of trying to create some kind of magical transformation to change the city in a way that he wouldn't be able to cause so much damage. I honestly can't say if that's cool… or kind of lame."

"Yeah, I'm not to sure about that one either," Ranma replied. _Still, I can't help but think about what Gildarts is showing me here. I need to think about what magic can really do, and my training in my Water Dragon Slayer Magic in the future. I think my and Laxus' talks about how to better use our magic has barely scratched the surface._

A moment later, Roland barked a command, and the infantry and other mages swept forward around Gildarts, who stepped back with a smile, the last Shambler now gone to join its fellows. They had also just seen a flash of the banner over the orc horde's collective mass. So to keep Gildarts from committing any friendly fire accidents, the other mages and the army would take his place for now. He took a few steps backwards, accidentally bumping into an infantryman's gun with his elbow. The gun came apart into tiny boxes before Gildarts apologized quickly and reformed them.

The man looked down at his weapon askance before both of them heard a loud, thunderous roar. Gildarts watched as Ranma and Laxus raced forward, slamming into the orcs facing them like two out of control trains. "Lightning Dragon's Shattering Fang/Water Dragon's Drowning Claw!" the boys roared as one.

Watching the two of them hurl orcs around like they were so many papier-mâché dolls, Gildarts whistled a little. Their blows hammered like lightning, crushing and mangling like the waves of a tsunami. _Laxus has come a long way since I saw him last, but that other one, he's seen a lot of fights in his life,_ Gildarts thought. _They're both pushing near S-class for Fairy Tail and at that young an age that's amazing!_

It was the economy of movement he saw in Ranma, not in style but in how he used his opponent's momentum and moves against them, a skill that had to be learned rather than simply experienced which told Gildarts how much experience the boy had. This and Ranma's battle sense led the older man to his conclusions. _I wonder what the hell his life has been like up to this point. Hmm… maybe the guild's found another stray here_ …

Eventually the two armies attacking the orcs from both sides broke through to one another, the guns falling silent as the mages and on both sides continued to work. Ranma noticed absentmindedly that the new guild with the king had some kind of sword thrust through a crown. There weren't many of the new mages, but there were enough to make good the other guilds' losses.

Soon after that the battle ended. There was a moment of silence, which was broken by a roar of sound from the infantry and mages. They all thrust weapons in the air, roaring out their victory.

As the shouting continued, a man with a crown on his head rode through the throng. He was a middle-aged man, older but just as tall as Gildarts yet thin, almost to the point of looking sickly. Judging from his looks and the way his clothing hung on him, that was probably a recent thing. Still, he was very spry, hopping down from the saddle easily to engulf Roland in a hug. "Dammit! I thought I ordered you to not rush to the sound of the guns little brother!"

"I am light cavalry. I'm supposed to run to the sound of the guns. You look like you're not eating again Vicotronious. Don't make me sic your wife on you," Roland joked, though his eyes were serious as he looked at his king.

Ranma, Laxus, and even Gildarts gasped, while Ikaruga looked at them questioningly. "You didn't know? Lord Roland is the king's youngest brother, fourth in line to the throne."

As the foreign mages nodded at this revelation, Ikaruga moved to Roland's side, something she had been doing ever since he had saved her life day before. While Ranma wondered idly what was going on there, Gildarts concentrated on what this new information meant.

 _It was the third in line who messed up by the numbers in the other battle, right? The one who has the backing of a lot of the nobles and merchants? And I know the second in the line of succession is a child. A girl, to be exact which means she might be passed over entirely. And now the fourth has covered himself in glory. That sounds like a succession crisis in the making to me. Thank God it's not one I have to deal with!_

About fifteen minutes after the two armies met, the king was ensconced in the Fortress Wall's command center with Roland and Ikaruga beside him to one side along with the three guild masters. The third man was a short but well-muscled man wearing a suit of armor, a claymore strapped to his back, and a long wand tucked into his belt.

"So we have you two boys to thank for keeping the orcs from breaking out into the mountains?" Vicotronious mused, staring at Ranma and Laxus, who stood in front of him with Gildarts and a few of the mages and soldiers who had stood out during the battle today or the day before. Vicotronious looked a little bemused as he stared at the two young mages, but why was beyond Ranma.

"On behalf of my nation, my people, and all of Ishgar, I thank you," Vicotronious said, bowing his head. "But do not think that well-meaning words are the only things you have earned for your aid in this crisis. Laxus of Fairy Tail, step forward."

Laxus did so. For once his head was not adorned with his ever-present large headphones. They were strapped to his side and he bowed low but perfunctorily towards the king. After all, he wasn't from Pergrande and really wasn't that big on protocol anyway.

"Laxus Dreyar, you came to our nation to turn in a murderer. For that, you would have been rewarded. For your deeds here in this war, however, you will receive 100,000 crowns from me for every month you served. There is also this, to show our appreciation to others who see you."

He held out a hand, and a page of some sort came forward, holding a small box. The king opened it, and everyone there saw there was a medal nestled inside. It was designed to look like a starburst made of silver and white gold, with shades of bronze mixed in here and there. "The Star of Pergrande, the greatest medal I can bestow on a civilian," the king said, gesturing to Laxus to bow his head. "When you eventually follow your grandfather's footsteps and become a Wizard Saint young man, this will help ease your way towards being accepted as such by other nations."

Laxus bent his head, allowing the king to place the medal around his neck, while internally scowling. _Damn it, it follows me even here. Everyone thinks I'm following in Jiji's footsteps. What the fuck do I have to do to get out of his shadow? Still,_ he thought, his anger disappearing as the medal settled into place, _I don't think Jiji ever earned one of these._

At the king's gesture Laxus stepped back, fingering his medal lightly.

"And then there is you," the king went on, looking at Ranma. "The wandering mage, from somewhere in Minstrel or Midi, perhaps?"

Ranma shrugged, showing none of the awe or respect even Gildarts was showing the king. "Don't really know where I came from," he lied. "All I know is where I'm going."

"And where is that?"

"To see the world," Ranma said with a laugh.

"And get involved in further issues like this war?" The king asked shrewdly.

Ranma shrugged uncomfortably. "It's part of my code to help protect the weak from those who would take advantage of them," he said simply.

"An excellent code indeed!" the king said with a smile, while the guild master in the knight's armor grinned, surreptitiously giving Ranma a thumb's up. "Ranma, for you again we will give you 100,000 gold coins for every month you served here and access to both the Royal Army and the Royal Library if you wish it, and this."

The king motioned Ranma to bend his neck, and when he did so, he placed the same medal around it that he had already given Laxus. "If you ever join a guild, this could help you achieve the rank that your skills should demand more quickly."

Ranma nodded noncommittally. He really wasn't that much of a joiner. Not that the idea of joining up with Laxus didn't have a certain appeal, but even so he wanted to see the rest of the world first.

With that the king clapped his hands, and the interview was over. The same page who had handed the medals to the king gestured for the two other young people to follow him out, though they were quickly followed by Gildarts. "Now that the fighting here is done, what will you two do? And before you ask, Laxus, I'm **not** asking you that question, because I know for sure what you're going to do. You're going to go back to Magnolia and speak to your grandfather and father. You've been away from the guild for nearly half a year now, and Makarov's pissed as hell about that and what you got up to here."

Laxus rolled his eyes, but nodded. "I'll travel to Pergrande's capital and take a ship there across the Bell Lake and make my way home from Joya. But I'll do it on my own time, old timer."

"Fine, so long as you're home by the time I'm done helping the Pergrandians clean up here," Gildarts warned, twitching at the jab at his age. "If Makarov calls me again demanding to know where you are, I'll hunt you down and drag your ass back."

With that they both turned to Ranma. "What about you, Ranma? You'd be welcome in Fairy Tail, kid, and Laxus can even show you the ropes." Gildarts really wanted to make a stronger sell here, but didn't really know Ranma enough to think what he could say to interest him in joining the guild, since it was obvious that Ranma wouldn't care about having a family or home like most of the kids the guild had taken in.

"It's tempting, old timer," Ranma said with a grin, causing Gildarts to twitch once again. "But I don't think so. Not yet, anyway. I want to see a bit more of the world before I decide to try and settle down in one place. Still, I'll travel with you until the capital, Laxus. I think I'll be able to pick up the Straight Path again there."

"Traveling the road to wisdom, then? And yes, you can pick up the Straight Path in the capital," Gildarts said with a laugh before his eyes began to gleam craftily. "In fact, I'll do you both a favor. The inns in the capital are always busy, but there's an inn that'll let you stay there, not for free, but they'll find some way to put a roof over your head if they hear I recommended them to you. Just search for Melona's and tell them that Gildarts sent you."

The boys left about an hour later, after which Roland and Ikaruga joined Gildarts, the woman cocking an eyebrow at the Fairy Tail mage thoughtfully. "Melona's? Did you just send them where I think you sent them?"

Gildarts chuckled evilly. "Yep. That'll teach them to call me an old-timer."

"Well, they'll at least receive a kind of education there, in any event," Ikaruga said philosophically, before breaking out into laughter.

 **OOOOOOO**

Since Ranma and Laxus were in no rush they had decided to take their time traveling from the mountains towards Pergrande's capital city, which was oddly called Appledore according to Laxus. "Why Appledore?" Ranma asked, rather incredulous. "I'd have thought it'd be something to do with hawks or weapons or something, given how important the military is here."

"Yeah, well, no one ever consulted you about it, did they?" Laxus replied snarkily, before shrugging. "As far as I know, the capital is named that because the outer gates all have apple shaped designs on them."

"Yeah, but that sounds like a chicken before the egg thing. I mean were the doors decorated before the name, or because of it?" Ranma asked.

"Enough about the dumbass name," Laxus grunted. "I want to get in as much training as we can, so I think we should travel in the morning, find an inn, then spar for the rest of the day off and on."

Ranma agreed to that readily, and the two swapped ideas on how to better train their disparate Dragon Slayer powers. Ranma had some ideas based more around his knowledge of the body and training physically than anything else, whereas Laxus had been trained in magical theory from a very young age. He knew dozens of different exercises, both physical and mental, designed to bring out more of the user's magical ability. However there was a distinct carryover from the physical to the magical, at least in terms of Dragon Slayer magic: the stronger your reserves, the more the Dragon Slayer magic could help to reinforce your body on an unconscious level.

As they walked Ranma described various martial art styles to Laxus, while Laxus in turn explained basic magical theory and about Ethernano, the source of magic found in everything in Earthland. Ranma had of course come across that before, but hadn't really realized intuitively what that meant. _So, since I'm a Water Dragon Slayer, that means I should be able to control anything that has water in it, not just water itself… That has some implications for the future._

In turn, Laxus was eager to get in as much training with Ranma as he could. He had seen Ranma in action and knew there was a major difference between Ranma's skill level and his own. Laxus relied on his physical abilities, reflexes, speed, and raw magical power to overcome his enemies, and it worked a lot of the time. But Ranma had multiple styles under his belt he could use to match opponents of equal or at times greater strength or speed.

As Ranma put it, "There's a difference between a self-taught fighter or even one who's learned by watching others and someone who has spent years learning from the best to be the best." Of course, that just raised more questions in Laxus' mind given Ranma's age, but he didn't question things for now.

For the first week they traveled at this leisurely pace, walking in the morning, then sparring and comparing notes for the rest of it. Since both of them had been making up their attacks and abilities as they went along, this helped both of them immensely. By the end of the week they better understood both the limits of their Dragon Slayer powers and their weaknesses.

At that point their trek intersected the Straight Path and they began almost immediately to see signs for the capital. Walking down the now cobbled road, Ranma fell silent, thinking. Laxus smirked at him, reaching out to smack his shoulder. "I can see the smoke, Ranma. Stop before you hurt yourself."

Ranma shook his head. "I'd answer, but I doubt you'd hear me with those headphones of yours. And what's with the spikes, huh? Is that a fetish of yours or a fashion statement?"

"Hell, at least I know what good music is," Laxus retorted. They'd talked about music at one point, but Ranma hadn't ever even heard of any of the bands that Laxus knew, and most of those were famous all over Ishgar. "So, what were you thinking about?"

"Well, I was thinking. Ethernano is in every element right? So there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to eat and then use other elements… I mean, obviously it would be harder to use other elements, since they don't match the Lacrima, in your case, or the magic core Typhon woke in me, but it should be possible."

"Hmm… Okay, that makes sense, though I've never tried it before." Laxus nodded. "So, you want us to try and eat one another's attacks?"

"Yeah. I mean, it should be a fun experiment, and if it doesn't work then it's better to figure that out now," Ranma replied.

The next day they stopped at an inn barely another half-day's journey for the two of them out from Appledore. Once they had bought a room for the night, they went out into the woods and sparred again for a few hours. During a break, Ranma looked over at Laxus, swigging down some water from his canteen that tasted like the finest ambrosia to the Water Dragon Slayer. "So, should we try it?"

"Sure. Loser of the next match gets to go first," Laxus said, then without further warning launched an attack at Ranma, a lightning infused kick that nearly took Ranma in the side. He dodged and the fight was on.

Later, Ranma stood smugly across from a slightly more battered Laxus, who pushed himself to his feet with difficulty. "Ready?" Grunting, Laxus nodded, breathing and opening his mouth wide. At that Ranma launched a low powered attack toward him, a battering ram of water flashing out in a half-circle from his hand.

Laxus gathered himself, then began to inhale, sucking the magical water into his mouth until Ranma's attack cut off. For a moment, nothing happened. Suddenly, Laxus' muscles seemingly bulged out in every direction as if he had just gained two years or so in the span of a second. His eyes began to glow with a mix of his normal yellow lightning and the deep blue of Ranma's attack, and to Ranma's shock his skin too began to change. It seemed to gain scales almost, yellow and blue scales in places, in others it just looked as if scales were trying to push out from under his skin.

With a roar Laxus lashed out with a low-powered attack towards a large rock sticking out of the ground nearby. The rock disintegrated to an attack that normally would have just left a large scorch mark.

"OH yeah!" Laxus growled, then turned, his eyes lighting on Ranma, an arrogant smirk on his face. "It burns as it goes down, but otherwise that is one hell of a power up! Gonna have to definitely look into this more in the future. Now it's your turn…"

Gulping Ranma braced himself, and bare second later Laxus launched a lightning attack his way. Ranma opened his mouth, inhaling the attack in the manner Dragon Slayers could take in their element, and felt it hit him a second later. It tasted like nothing he had ever eaten, sparking and rippling down his throat, filling him with electrical energy from his hair to his toes.

"Guh," he groaned, swaying, concentrating on the feel of his magical reserves in a way that Laxus wasn't able to. Then he felt it, the magical energy of Laxus' attack somehow igniting his own reserves, spreading like a lightning strike on water.

On the outside Ranma's body underwent much the same transformation as Laxus had, though in his case the blue scales covering him were more prominent than the yellow, and his eyes began to glow light blue while lightning seemed to spark from his fingertips and hair. "Ooohh, okay! What a rush!"

The two Dragon Slayer's looked at one another, feral grins appearing on their faces. Then they launched themselves forward, fists raised. What followed wasn't so much a spar as a fight for dominance, both of them trying to pound the other into submission.

It only lasted about half an hour, however, before both of them began to feel woozy. The high they had been experiencing left them, and they felt drained, as drained as they had felt after the battle to gain control of the chokepoint four months ago. "Ooooh. Okay, I hear my bed calling me…" Ranma groaned as he sat up from out of the wreckage of a tree.

From where he had just been embedded in the ground, Laxus rose on unsteady feet, watching as Ranma tottered to one side, dropping to a knee before pushing himself back upright. He was tempted to launch a final attack at the other Dragon Slayer, but his own exhaustion told him not to, and he too turned in the direction of the inn. "Let's just go. Maybe if we get some actual food in us this feeling'll go away"

The after effects of having eaten an element not their own, however, continued the next day and the day after. If was only on the fourth day after their experiment that either were able to even leave their beds, and that with difficulty.

"Everything hurts!" Ranma groaned, rolling out of bed and falling to the floor with a thump. He pushed to his knees before pulling himself to his feet by digging into the inn's wall with his fingers, which he idly noticed would probably piss the innkeeper off if they didn't get out of here fast. The idea of moving quickly, however, almost made him want to throw up.

"Why, why did I ever listen to you?" groaned Laxus from his own bed, using the wall to first prop himself up in bed, then to push to his feet, kicking out lightly with one foot at Ranma's legs as he passed. He wobbled between one step and the next, literally drifting to one side, his eyes closing as his body demanded he go back to bed. "UGHHHhhhhhhh."

The two Dragon Slayers leaned against one another, then the sides of the hall and the balcony, with Ranma nearly falling over it to the entranceway of the hall below. Laxus stumbled forward, nearly tripping them both, and it was a very bemused innkeeper who bid the two young teens farewell after they waved off his urges to stay another day. Despite the wooziness and pain, neither Dragon Slayer was willing to lay around any longer.

Moving on toward Appledore seemed to help somewhat, being out and about without any other scents invading their noses, which they realized had also been bothering them after they were away from the inn. And they found a stream Ranma was able to duck himself into, gulping down water eagerly.

This helped the now-female Dragon Slayer somewhat, calming her stomach down, but she still felt woozy and uncoordinated as she stumbled forward. "That, that helped. Any idea how to…" Ranma paused seeing what Laxus had done.

Having noticed that taking in some of his/her own element had helped Ranma, Laxus had pulled out a Lacrima that was charged with a lightning attack from one of the other Fairy Tail mages, draining it in one go. He looked much better now, though like Ranma was still very woozy on his feet. "Let's just get this trip over with."

The two of them did not make very good time. In fact, they moved so slowly and haphazardly that they took one step backward for every two forward throughout the day. By the time they actually saw Appledore it was evening.

The capital city of Pergrande was not a sprawling city, but rather half city, half ancient fortress. It had walls still rising here and there over the city's normal two or three story houses, particular in the east, and there were still freestanding metal gates, each of them adorned with apple decorations, sometimes connected to bits of the wall, sometimes not. Within the city were larger stone buildings of six or seven stories with crenelated roofs. The castle was set to the northwest of the city, its environs separated from the city by another wall. And there were towers further to either side of the harbor of the large river the city sat next to, which eventually led to the inland lake.

Everywhere Ranma looked there were people bustling around: peasants, nobles, merchants, soldiers, sailors, foreigners, and locals. Ranma estimated that the place was slightly smaller than Bellum the city, but just as bustling with people, though he noticed there were more people dressed like nobles and fewer merchants here.

The two groggy Dragon Slayers started through the city, getting more than their fair share of odd looks for how they were stumbling about, but no one stopped them. Eventually, however, they reached the street where the inn Gildarts had recommended to them was. Here they received even more odd looks, and if either of them had been entirely there mentally they might have noticed that and the fact that there were no children or young teens around their own age here.

But they weren't, and they continued to stumble on their way to a sign that said simply 'Melona's.' They entered the door, passing by two large bouncers as they entered, only to stop and stare. The two bouncers also blinked, looking at the two youngsters in confusion, wondering what they should do here.

The entranceway opened immediately into a boudoir. Ranma had never used the word before or even understood what it meant, but he had seen it in a few of Nabiki's books, and this was definitely a boudoir. Everything was soft. There were dozens of cushions, a few scattered sofas, and the lighting was soft and inviting, helped along by the music coming from a magically powered musical device of some kind in the corner.

There were also women, about ten of them, all told, and their clothing screamed out geisha to Ranma. They wore the same kind of clothing Ikaruga had, only showing off a lot more leg and a bit more chest. The colors of their kimonos were also slightly louder, with flower patterns of green, pink, and orange predominating. Each of the women was young, possibly Ikaruga's age or younger, and beautiful. Their hair was in a myriad of different styles, their faces carefully marked with makeup to accent their features and hide what few flaws they might possess, their curves hinted at yet not entirely on display.

"Eepp!" Ranma said, blushing hotly and looking away while Laxus just blushed, staring, lacking both energy and inclination to turn away. "Um… I think we got our directions mixed up…"

"No, this is Melona's," Laxus growled, still somehow unable to look away, his blush slowly intensifying. "That old bastard sent us here as a joke!"

"Aww, who're the little cuties?" said one of the girls, catching the attention of the others. This early in the evening none of their regular customers had arrived yet, and two young people, a boy and girl, with the girl at least barely in her teens, entering and just gaping like this looked at least like good fun if nothing else.

"Hehe, the little redhead looks a little too young to be a recruit and look at how red she is, her face is almost the same color as her hair!" said another girl, getting up and moving toward the two young people. "But look at the blush on the little blond. Doesn't that scar of his make him look dashing? What's the matter, sweetie, see something you like?" she teased, moving in front of Laxus so he had to look at her, which forced him to stare at her chest, given their height disparity.

Laxus' blush increased to an alarming degree, and a small trickle of blood began to drip from his nose.

To one side of Laxus, Ranma found herself facing two of the girls, gleefully teasing her. One was running her hands through Ranma's red hair, the other was mentioning how strong she looked. "She could work as a bouncer here with muscles like that. It would be hilarious to see a tiny thing like you throwing around grown men," one girl said to Ranma.

"Er, I do that all the time anyway. No need, to, um, to work here for that. Um…can you please stop doing that?" Ranma asked, her eyes almost closing in pleasure as the other girl's hands moved through her hair. It was one of the nicest sensations she had ever felt and seemed to help with the queasiness she was feeling.

"Ladies, would you mind leaving the two of them be?" A slightly older, extremely cultured feminine voice cut through the chatter, her tone laced with amusement.

The crowd of girls around the two Dragon Slayers moved aside, letting the speaker forward. She was a middle-aged woman with deep blue hair and an amused, world-wise expression on her face. "You said something about having been given directions?"

"Erm…yes. Are, are you the only… Seriously, could you please stop that, miss? It's making it really hard to concentrate…" Ranma asked plaintively once more to the girl working her fingers through Ranma's hair.

"Lania, let the young lady talk, please," the woman said mock-sternly, amused to see Ranma actually leaning into the girl's touch.

"Madam, you have to feel her hair! It is just the silkiest I've ever touched!" the girl said in reply before reluctantly halting her ministrations.

With Laxus still red as a tomato and unable to form a coherent thought, which might have had something to do with the girl pressing into his back from behind, Ranma explained. "We um, we were sent these directions and told to find an inn called Melona's by a man named Gildarts. Is this the only Melona's in the city?"

The woman, who was the named Melona, stared at the redhead and then over at Laxus before her eyes narrowed suddenly, noticing how wobbly the two looked on their feet. "Erica, Lania, help the two of them to a chair. They look like they're about to fall over."

"We had a bit of an accident while trying a new magical technique on the road," Laxus explained, speaking up now thanks to Erica having moved away from him to pull Laxus toward a sofa. Lania also helped Ranma over to where both of the youngsters collapsed into the chairs with sighs of relief, their heads lolling back.

"I see. But there are a few problems here. For one thing, I am the only Melona in town, and yes, Gildarts is a well-known friend of ours. He even called ahead to tell us to expect two young men and paid for your first evening. However, we were given to belief they were both men, and I am afraid even if you were, both of you are rather **too** young for me to feel at all happy about letting you spend time with my ladies. You'll note I don't have anyone younger than twenty here. I don't hire children and I don't cater to them." Melona said, her voice both quizzical and firm.

"Could I have some hot water?" Ranma asked, his head rolling to one side as he looked at the still standing Melona. Another one of her women had gone to her knees in front of Laxus, her hands on his chest glowing white with healing magic, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.

A second later, half of Melona's girls fainted dead away at the sight of the curse being reversed while Melona stumbled, staring in shock. "My word… and you say this is a kind of curse activated through application of water? Is it…"

"A full body change? Yeah, all the plumbing's there, all the bits work and once I hit puberty I started to run into the monthly monster every time my time in that formed added up to a month." Ranma groused, then nearly moaning as Lania began to use a brush on his wet hair, her face somewhere between amazement and jealousy.

"I see. Well regardless, I still don't feel comfortable…."

"We didn't know what kind of place this was!" Laxus blurted, blushing and trying to concentrate on the discussion instead of the girls around them. "Gildarts recommend it to us; the bastard was just playing a joke on us, that's all!"

"Ahh, so you don't really expect to… Well, in that case I don't blame you for this," Melona said with a smile. "If you come back in a few years, however, I would be much more willing to allow one of my girls to educate you in certain manners."

Both of youngsters blushed once more, but then the healer spoke up, saying that their magical systems were all out of order, and they needed to rest. "I think they shouldn't even be moving Mistress, I'm astonished they are at all."

"Very well, we can put them up in two of the sound proof rooms on the top floor," Melona said, sighing. "We have been paid, after all. Even if I will not allow them to partake of all the pleasures we offer, we can at least give them a roof over their heads, food, and a bed."

"Ooh, how about this, mistress? Instead of giving them the full suite, how about we give them just the companion package?" Lania, a twenty-something brunette with a svelte rather than curvy frame, asked. "Seeing how they are both blushing and don't know where to look, they're both interested in girls already, and this way they'll eventually know at least in terms of romance what to do and what not to."

"A thought, my dear," Melona replied, while the two boys looked a little thoughtful at that, or as thoughtful as they could given how out of it they still looked. "For now, however, bed beckons."

The two Dragon Slayers stayed there for nearly two more weeks recovering. After the first night they started to have to pay, but neither had the energy to care.

During their stay the girls took turns spending time with them, teaching the young teens the softer side of romance and companionship. The girls here were not whores in the normal sense of the term. They were instead high-end courtesans, trained and vetted to act both on the societal and carnal side of things. They were intelligent, well-read, and excellent conversationalists, to go along with their beauty.

In this manner the ladies coached Laxus and Ranma on how to talk to girls, how to compliment girls, how to spot if a girl wanted you to cater to them or not, and numerous other skills. While it wasn't good for the two boys' blood pressure, it was still a good learning experience, if not one either would have searched out on their own.

This was particularly true for Ranma. He had never been really interested in learning about girls or romance in general when he was younger, and by the time he was, he was engaged to Akane, with neither having a choice in the matter. Under the courtesan's tutelage, Ranma learned a lot about how that relationship had gone sour, why it probably had been doomed from the start, and what he could have done to make it better.

At last, however, both boys were able to get up and move about as if they were cured of what Laxus was calling Element Incompatibility. As they did so, Ranma looked over at Laxus. "We need to get Gildarts back for this."

Laxus nodded agreement. "But what can we do? With his Crash Magic, Gildarts would kick our asses in a straight fight." Laxus absolutely hated admitting that, but the old guy wasn't known as the ace of Fairy Tail for nothing.

"That wasn't what I had in mind." Although Ranma would have loved the chance to spar with Gildarts, he knew he wasn't good enough to take him on. But there were other ways to get even with the older man. "Let's go talk to Melona. I've got a few ideas…"

For a few days the two of them toured the city or sparred while they waited for a passenger ship to arrive which could take Laxus down to the inland lake and then on to Joya. They also both made certain to avail themselves of the city's excellent armorers, in particular the Heart Kreuz brand, which made its home in this city. Laxus bought a set of greaves for his forearms and feet which contained lightning Lacrima. Using these he could refuel his energy reserves in a pinch. They were hellishly expensive, but Laxus felt it was worth it, since Heart Kreuz threw in a lifetime warranty and free resizing as he grew.

For his part, Ranma was tempted to buy guns but after a few mishaps with them, which burned through a lot of his money, he was told that Pergrandian magical guns were not nearly as good as the non-magical variety. Their gun metal was the best, but since there were so few Guns Magic mages in Pergrande, the market for metal treated with Lacrima dust, which made the metal able to take magical charges, just wasn't there. Ranma would have to order his guns from their Fiore branch, which would be even more expensive.

Ranma declined that idea. Instead he spent about two-thirds of his available cash on metal bars that could later be worked into guns for him. Ranma wanted to experiment with guns and Guns Magic more in the future, and those would be very helpful if he could find a blacksmith willing to work with him on the project. Though he did also buy two of the best local pistols he could.

On the third day after their recovery the two of them said farewell to Melona and her girls. Ranma walked with Laxus down to the wharf, where he was going to take a ferry down to and over the lake. The lake, named simply Bell Lake, was deep and the center of about half of the trade that went on between the countries of Ishgar, which made Bellum the trade power it was. Ranma likened Bellum to Carthage, maybe, with Pergrande being Rome, but luckily without the territorial ambitions.

"So where will you go from here?" Laxus asked as they walked. "Iceberg?"

"Yeah. I'm going to continue to follow the Straight Path. It's been a real learning experience from the first. You?"

"Back to Magnolia, bug my grandfather for some training, maybe, before trying out for the S-class exams. Not my father. He might be my old man, but he's not exactly good with teaching others." The fact that his father had been the one to implant the lightning Lacrima within Laxus was also something that stood between them, since Ivan hadn't warned Laxus how painful the process would be.

Ranma nodded, having heard about Makarov, Fairy Tail, and his father from Laxus before this. "Sounds like fun. I might look you up once I get to Fiore." Reaching into his ki space, Ranma pulled out an orcish ironwood weapon. The blade had been torn apart at the hilt, but the odd blackness to the normally grey ironwood was easily visible. "Here, a souvenir."

"You seriously have to teach me how to do that. You say it's not organized like a Requip space, but still, being able to whip out your weapon…" Laxus paused as Ranma burst out laughing before pushing the other young man in the shoulder almost hard enough to send him off the side of the wharf. "Oh shut up! You've been spending way too much time with those courtesans."

"Yeah, maybe, but you're the one who actually said it!" Ranma said with a laugh. "As for me teaching that to you, maybe. We'll see when we meet up again." _It'll be interesting to see if a mage from this world can develop a ki reserve like I had before I arrived, or if ki and magic are interwoven here._

The two stopped for a moment, with Laxus laying the orc weapon on one shoulder as they looked at one another. Laxus then thrust out his hand, and Ranma's fist met his in a fist bump. "I'll see you around, Girly Man."

"Heh, have a nice life, Sparky," Ranma replied, before turning away as Laxus did the same. Minutes later, they were both out of the city and on their way.

A bare day later Gildarts arrived back in the city after having done what he could for the war effort and made his way to Melona's immediately after arriving. He always stayed there whenever he was in Pergrande, and he wanted to check on how his little joke had gone.

Melona nearly tore his head off for a few minutes before charging him double her normal rate for an evening with one of her girls. Gildarts was a valued guest and rather a favorite of many of the girls, being both gentlemanly and always just as interested in talking with them as sleeping with them. But that didn't mean she was going to let him get away with putting her in such an uncomfortable position.

The next morning, however, Trish, the girl who he had requested, slipped out of bed quickly before looking down at herself with a scowl. _Ranma better have been right about this dye coming out with that soap he made, or else!_

While she stepped into the shower and quickly began to use said soap, Gildarts slowly woke up, rolling out of bed and pulling open the blinds to let in the light of day as she was finishing up. As he did, he caught his reflection, only to stare. "What the hell!?"

Gildarts had the tan of someone who spent a lot of time outdoors and for the most part it was a full body tan, since he routinely hit the beaches whenever he could. However at the moment that tan was gone, replaced by a pasty, extremely sickly looking white.

Trish giggled behind him. "Good grief, that is just not your color, Gildarts dear."

Whirling, Gildarts scowled at her. "What the heck is this?"

"A gift from Ranma and Laxus. They set this room up for you, though we didn't know how," Trish lied. "They didn't like your little joke on them. My word, we all feared the poor boys would die from blood loss the first few days. Although I'll admit some of the ladies had a bit of fun with teasing them."

Gildarts scratched the back of his head, which if he'd been able to look at he would have noticed that his hair was starting to fall out. It didn't spread everywhere, but where the back of his head had touched the pillow his hair had begun to almost shed from his head. "Yeah, I guess I can see that. In that case I'll just grin and bear it. By the way, did they leave together?" Gildarts was holding out hope that Ranma would have changed his mind about joining Fairy Tail. He'd feel a lot better if the boy was being looked after, regardless of his impression that the youth was more than a bit older than his physical age suggested.

"Nope," Trish replied, still laughing while getting dressed somewhat quickly so as to get out of the blast range. "Laxus left by ship, and Ranma took the Straight Path."

"Damn shame. Still, I suppose I'm the last person to tell someone they can't wander as they want to." Gildarts sighed, pulling his hand away from the back of his head only to stop and stare at said hand, which had come away with a clump of his hair. At the same moment Trish raced out of the room, closing the door behind her as she went, laughing all the while.

Out on the streets passersby heard the roar of, "You little **PUNKS**!" and then there was the sound of a small explosion and shattered masonry.

 **OOOOOOO**

Suddenly shivering, Ranma looked around before nodding decisively. _Time to pick up the pace, I think. That was an 'I will have my revenge' shiver if ever there was one._

With that Ranma sped up, racing onward. He passed the border to Iceberg quickly, and spent another hour or two passing through the lowlands of the country, which was wall-to-wall farmland. According to what Ranma had read, Iceberg was made of a huge escarpment which molded into several glacier tipped mountains in the north. The best farmland was found here, before the escarpment, providing much of the produce of the country. The rest of the country, however, was a center for meat production from herds of elk and moose, along with furs, and was a major exporter of Lacrima. The only country that produced more Lacrima was Fiore, though the variety of Lacrima found in Iceberg was better.

The fact most of Iceberg was to be found on an escarpment was proven out by the tall rocky mountainside looming ahead of Ranma, visible barely an hour after he left Pergrande behind. As he raced towards the cliff, Ranma estimated that they looked almost as tall as the mountains on Pergrande's eastern border.

After that the terrain turned into hills while the Straight Path slowly changed. No longer was it paved with stones made for an infantry army. Though it was still wide and well-marked out now it was well tramped dirt with ruts here and there for either wheels or sleds. Ranma saw carts equipped with both, and he figured that when it snowed here the sleds would be useful.

Ranma continued on as the trail began to slowly narrow, the hills and then the walls of the rock face of the escarpment closing in. Soon enough he had to leave the path slightly since there was an actual traffic jam ahead of him. Racing along he found that the pause was because the carts were each being hooked up to what looked like a massive pulley system, which was powered by some kind of Lacrima.

The reason for this was the steepness of the incline here. Mules and other animals would never have been able to pull the same load up it that they would be able to over flat terrain. Ranma, on the other hand, simply raced on, dodging in between the two lines of carts coming down and going up the crevasse. He heard some shouts and curses directed his way, but Ranma didn't really care.

A guard post like those on Pergrande's borders marked the top of the crevasse, a customs inspection team hard at work examining carts for contraband. Whatever that might be, Ranma had no idea and even less inclination to care. Not wanting to deal with that rigmarole he simply slipped by, none of the men and women there even noticing his passage, so busy were they with the actual carts to notice a young boy seemingly traveling on his own.

Ranma traveled on, realizing almost immediately how cold it was up here in comparison to below the escarpment. Not only was it at least fifteen to twenty degrees colder than the lands he'd been traveling in since leaving the eastern mountains, the land up here was practically barren. There looked to be no copses of trees or hills up here for as far as Ranma could see; it was simply a white plain from one side of the horizon to the other. The only thing breaking the monotony was some smoke or something in the distance, its source well out of sight.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ranma raced in that direction, coming upon the source of what he'd taken to be smoke as the sun went down, which it did very early up here. The smoke turned out to be steam coming off a small lake. According to the locals it was directly over the top of a semi-dormant volcano of some sort. Around the lake was a town: part fishery, part resort. There were a lot of children around the place, a lot of families and Ranma was hailed in a friendly manner several times as he walked around.

Reaching the lake's shore, Ranma whooped and jumped in not caring about his clothing, joining the dozens of other people already swimming in this side of the lake. There were a series of buoys marking out the portion of the lake you could swim in and diving down, Ranma saw it marked out the path of a very fine net too.

Rising to the surface, Ranma, gleeful to be able to swim in his male body, swam around for a while making certain he stayed warm so the dampness couldn't activate his curse. _Nice place. Really nice place. And it's got a lot of ready water right here too._

Looking around, he also saw small magics being used in a lot of places. The fishermen seemingly comprised a small local guild of some kind, though he doubted any of them had any offensive magics to speak of. There were also a lot of Lacrima around the town, more than he'd seen even in Appledore. _Yeah, I think this looks like a good place to stay for a few months to train myself further in my Water Dragon Slayer Magic. I've got a lot of ideas on how to use my magic for things other than direct attacks now, and I want to experiment a bit with that._

 _I also want to start exercising with my new pistols, sit down and write up what I can remember about the guns of the American Wild West. Given the tech level here, I bet they could start making real rifles instead of muskets if given a bit of direction. Don't know if I like the idea, but I want some real pistols of my own, so we'll have to see._

 _And my staff and sticks, I want to work them into my style at need, plus work on my general martial arts skills._ Ranma had decided to nix the idea of nun-chucks and had decided instead to turn the two sticks of ironwood he'd bought for that purpose into Escrima sticks. The Filipino martial arts style had always appealed to Ranma since Genma and he had run into an American Marine who used it, and they had taken some of the moves and integrated them into their own Anything Goes style. The sticks could be devastating in the right hands.

The staff could be too, but Ranma had some more plans for that one. _After all,_ _there's other Holder type magic out there beyond Guns Magic, even if I haven't run into any that were really impressive._

With that in mind, Ranma hopped out of the lake, heading towards a small public changing area. Before the water in his hair had time to cool, Ranma had changed into a dry set of clothing and busily dried his hair off to match. From there Ranma walked around the town looking for either an inn or a place to rent. He found a house for sale, and, after breaking in somewhat to inspect it, he found the owner and bought it. It took most of the remaining pearls he had from Typhon's cave, but Ranma still had about a third of his Pergrandian coins to fall back on, so that didn't matter, really.

What did matter was that several people had noticed him pulling out the cash to pay for the house. As he was going back to the house, several muggers attacked him out of the dark of the town. One of them was a massive man, who loomed up behind Ranma and grabbed him in a bear hug, hauling him into an alleyway. There he was joined by two more men, each of them armed with thin daggers. "Give us all your money, kid, and you might walk out of here alive."

Ranma simply stared at the man who had spoken, shaking his head. An instant later as the man began to bellow another challenge Ranma broke the grip around his shoulders easily then kicked up over his head, smashing a foot into the large man's face. Using the momentum from that hit Ranma pushed himself forward, fists thudding into the chests of the two knife-wielders, who both went down like the large man.

Staring at the wreckage of the small group of thieves, Ranma shook his head sadly. "Y'know, by the time I'm finished on this peninsula I want every freaking bandit, robber, or slaver to have a freakin' phobia about attacking people with pigtails. So, sorry, guys—well, I'm not, really—but you're going to become examples."

Ranma left the three trussed up in their underwear by the wharf. The steam coming off of the lake kept them from freezing to death, but it certainly wasn't comfortable. He also set up a sign right in front of them which said, 'Stupid thieves, please aid in the cure,' with a large stick Ranma had shaped like a cricket bat next to it.

After that bit of impromptu fun was finished, Ranma walked back home, entering with his new key instead of through a window as he had before. Inside he made for the bed, which, along with a few appliances in the kitchen, was one of the few pieces of furniture in the place. There was no refrigerator; after all, what would be the point? But it had a bathroom, a fireplace, and a bed, which was enough for him. After all, he was only going to be here for a few months anyway.

 **OOOOOOO**

About three weeks after leaving Appledore, Laxus opened the door to the Fairy Tail guild. "Yo, Jiji, I'm back," he said casually.

The attempt at nonchalance didn't save him as everyone stared at him for a moment before he was hammered to the floor by a giant fist descending on him from above. "What do you mean, 'yo, I'm back,' huh!? What's this report I have about you being involved in the Orc invasion in Pergrande! You have some guts, worrying me like that!"

The same fist lifted Laxus' now bruised and somewhat flattened body up, pulling him towards the owner of both fist and voice as the rest of the guild cheered. This consisted of a few dozen men and women of various ages, the youngest of which was a brown-haired girl aroundseven years old **.** Others were middle aged, including a few that Laxus knew pretty well.

The owner of the giant fist was actually a quite diminutive, elderly looking man. In his early sixties, Makarov Dreyar barely came up to his grandson's knee, but that diminutive size belied the magical power within him. He was a Wizard Saint for a reason, decent at numerous Caster Magics and sole owner of the Caster-class magic Titan, hence the large fist he'd just used to flatten Laxus.

Laxus thumped to the floor in front of the bar and had barely a second to get his bearings back before his grandfather hugged him tightly, his little arms squeezing Laxus' head hard enough to make most people wince, and also shattering what little remained of his headphones that hadn't been smashed flat by the punch earlier. "Damn it, boy, I was so worried about you! Don't do that to this old man's heart, please!"

Rolling his eyes, Laxus gingerly raised a hand to pat the old man's back. "You owe me a new pair of headphones, old man."

After Makarov had finished first bawling his grandson out and then bawling on him for a bit, he urged the boy to seat across from him at the bar, waving off the other guild members for now. They could ask Laxus questions about his time abroad later. Right now there was something Makarov wanted to tell him, and he wanted to hear about Laxus' time away himself. "Before you tell me about it, Laxus, there's something you need to know."

Putting his beer stein down, Laxus wiped his lips, looking at the old man. "Must be something, Jiji, or you'd never let me have beer. What, you postponing the S-class exams or something? We in debt again? Or no, I know, the Magic Council wants to come after us again for all the damages our members cause during missions."

"No, nothing like that," Makarov replied, his voice serious despite his grandson's attempt at levity. "This is more serious and also more personal." Taking a deep breath, Makarov prepared himself and then took the plunge. "While you were gone, I was forced to expel Ivan from the guild."

For a moment it didn't register, then it did, and Laxus was on his feet, the stool under him and the ones to either side of it turned into ash by a sudden flash of lightning. "What the hell, Jiji!? What the fuck did dad do?! You've never expelled anyone from the guild! If this is about…"

"It wasn't what he did to you, as horrible as I found that at the time," Makarov replied sternly, standing up on the bar's counter and glaring face to face with his grandson. "I know you volunteered, though I also know he tricked you into it."

"Damn it, Jiji, he's your son! He's my dad! Why the hell did you expel him!?" Laxus bellowed, no longer really able to think clearly, his mind confused with rage, grief, and sorrow.

Makarov's next words, however, cut through his anger. "He was experimenting on unwilling members of the guild and the citizens of Magnolia Laxus!" the old man bellowed, causing every head in the guild to turn, some of them flinching. "Haven't you noticed a few people are missing? They're dead, Laxus. Ivan killed them in his experiments."

Laxus slumped down, holding onto the edge of the bar to keep on his feet as he stared at his grandfather, seeing the truth in his words. Finally he nodded, pushing himself to his feet. "I, I'm going to need some time, Jiji. I'll, I'll be around. Just, give me some time. Whatever else he was, Ivan was my dad."

"And my son, Laxus. Remember that," Makarov replied. "I am as sad as you are about this."

"Yeah, yeah…" Laxus said, turning away and walking off in a daze. All thoughts of mentioning having met a real Dragon Slayer had fled from his mind and wouldn't return for a very long time.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma spent seven months by the heated lake, trying to make a few breakthroughs in his training as a Water Dragon Slayer. He also turned eleven but that was more an incidental thing really, after all this was his second time around, and while he might have liked to have a birthday, he had the first sixteen years of his life to get used to not having one. If pressed he'd probably admit to more trepidation than joy at growing up again, because of a certain issue looming in the future thanks to his female form.

In any event, what mattered was his training. While several of the breakthroughs Ranma wanted to make eluded him, Ranma's control over the water element grew in leaps and bounds, as shown by a little martial arts exhibition match he had organized on the day he had decided to finally move on.

Standing on the steaming waters of the lake, Ranma waved his hands at a large group of kids lined up along the shoreline. Each of them had small water pistols that Ranma had built for them for just this exercise. That this had also created an entirely new game for the kids that resulted in many people being splashed like he always had to deal with was just a bonus. _At least they don't have to worry about changing genders each time they get hit by water!_ "Everyone ready?"

A cheer answered Ranma's words and when he lowered his hand, the kids all began to fire at him with their water pistols. Ranma stood there waiting, then began to dodge, his hands flashing out to gesture at a few streams of water each time. When he did, the streams bent away. Some of them impacted the lake below him, others were bounced back entirely to the shock of the squealing kids. Then Ranma dropped his hands and began to concentrate, using just his mind to bend the water away from him without accompanying gestures. He couldn't stop all of them, and more than one of the kids cheered as Ranma transformed into his female form, but he was still able to redirect most of them.

Satisfied, Ranma opened his mouth and began to suck the streams of water into his mouth. At that point most of the children ran away squealing, knowing Ranma was going to start attacking them in turn now. Those that didn't were nearly swamped by a wave Ranma sent at them. "All right, brats, that's enough! Thanks to the lot of you, hope you all had fun, and you can keep the water pistols!"

That caused another round of cheers, and the kids began to shoot at one another. Many of the adults around them rolled their eyes or winced, realizing what would happen in the near future.

For her part, however, Ranma turned away, walking through the steam coming off the lake, slowly traversing it from one side to another, ignoring the line of buoys as she did. Each time she ran faster, then began to perform a kata, still balancing on the water as she did. _Yep,_ the redhead thought several hours later as she hopped ashore, ignoring the gawkers she had attracted. _I think it's time to move on. Time to find some mages or something. Need to find someone to practice my new skills on._

The next day, bright and early, Ranma sold the house back to the realtor before moving on down the Straight Path once more. Away from the lake, the cold weather up here in Iceberg closed in again, causing Ranma to groan as it hit him, but he was able to handle it well enough. But once more, as he had noticed before hitting the resort town, there was literally nothing around. The land of Iceberg was almost uniformly flat and pretty empty too. He could spot some bits and pieces of human habitation well away from the road: a large farm here, a few riders and a herd of deer there, but that was it in this portion of the country.

This continued for two days, during which Ranma covered a lot of territory and fell back into his normal traveling routine, traveling during the morning, exercising during the afternoon, and hunting at night before camping out. The cold continued to increase as he moved north, following the Straight Path. It would turn back south after hitting the capital city of Iceberg, which was called Ice Den.

After the two days, the scenery around him began to change, becoming rockier and more broken. Ranma also began to see other roads meeting up with the Straight Path here and there. Many of them had signs denoting that they led to mines. There were hundreds of them scattered around, with a new mine every twenty to thirty miles, which to Ranma was barely a five minute run.

Three days after that he started to see signs for the capital, as well as inns here and there. He stopped in at a few, no more eager than a normal person would be to camp out in the cold if he had an alternative. One day he asked the innkeeper as he was leaving, "Excuse me, but how much further is it to Ice Den?"

The innkeeper smiled at the young man who had paid in gold Pergrandian coin for his stay. Pergrandian coinage was considered the best in Ishgar since it wasn't diluted, though Ranma hadn't yet learned that. "It's about another two days for a man with a horse lad. On foot, four to five if you're fast."

Ranma mentally translated this to possibly a little under a day's travel at his normal pace. Deciding to speed that up, Ranma pushed himself that day, racing along far faster than he normally would to try and reach the city as soon as he could. As he ran he saw more signs of human habitation and actual signs of the city.

But despite that, his first sign of the city wasn't actually the city itself, but of what was going on within it. There was a bright flash in the distance, and then a monstrous boom that reverberated in the air. Ranma blinked, quickly turning away for a second as the flash detonated, then turned back, staring. _It almost looked like a nuke, but not quite: the shape was all wrong. What the fuck is going on!?_

With that in mind Ranma raced forward, covering himself with the Umi-Sen Ken just in case. As he went he continued to hear noises: monstrous roars, barely heard screams, and other less definable noises. Finally, as the light of the blast faded to nothing, he saw what was causing it: a massive creature rearing out of the city, or perhaps it had landed on the city; Ranma couldn't tell.

The thing was immense, twelve stories tall at least, dwarfing most of the buildings in the city. It was built like a demon almost, with massive shoulders, long arms reaching down to its knees, spikes coming out from various parts of its torso and neck, and long legs ending in birdlike feet. A mane of spiky hair and two horns to either side of a plate of bone on its forehead along with a pair of deep-set eyes completed the image. As Ranma watched, it bellowed, lashing out and down at something, possibly an archer or mage that had tried to fight it, crushing an entire city block.

"I wanted a challenge, but this is kind of ridiculous…" Ranma muttered, before racing on without a pause. He reached the outskirts of the city, then concentrated on his legs, where magical circles began to appear. An instant later a geyser of water shot out from his feet, launching Ranma up towards the beast like a rocket.

The thing had just a minute to blink in surprise before Ranma launched his fist forward. "Water Dragon's Titan Punch!" A fist almost as large as the beast's own smashed into the demon's face rocking the demon back several paces.

Shaking the blow off, the demon roared a challenge, one of its hands flashing towards Ranma faster than he would have thought something that size should have been able to move. But Ranma dodged it anyway, smacking his hand onto it, and using its momentum to redirect his body higher into the air. There he pulled out the two pistols he had bought in Pergrande, forming a Guns Magic spell he had created on his own from stories about it within them. "Blinding Flare!"

Two flares of light as bright as the beast's own attack lit up the sky right in front of the demon's eyes, blinding it. Then another massive fist of water three times the size of the first slammed into the side of the beast's head, hurling it off its feet and away, out of the city.

Ranma let himself fall for a moment before summoning up what he called the Water Dragons Forceful Step, little geysers shooting down from his feet to slow his descent. At the same time he bellowed at the top of his voice. "Any survivors who can hear me, get under cover! This isn't over yet!"

Then the monster was on him once more, hurling itself forward and lashing out with a fist the size of a normal man. Ranma again thrust out his own hands to redirect his body out of the way, further up into the air, his mastery of the Aerial style allowing him to use the energy of his opponent's attacks to go where he willed.

Now he began to launch smaller, more concentrated water attacks, mixing them in with a few Moko Takabisha. One of the water attacks penetrated the beast's hide over its shoulder, but the others didn't, simply bouncing off. The ki attacks did some more damage, searing bits and pieces of the thing's hide, but not enough, which made Ranma rely more on his magic attacks.

But the thing was simply too large and too durable. It could take every attack Ranma launched and absorb them, which he realized within a few seconds of the fight. _And I'm probably a goner if it lands even one clear hit on me,_ Ranma thought, his arms tingling from the effort of pushing himself up and away from the demon's ongoing attacks. _And it's too damn cold for me to launch either a rising or descending Shoten Ha. The cold air will cancel out any heat from its or my auras too quickly. Even if it didn't, I doubt the wind alone would do much damage to its hide. No, I'd..._

"Water Shield!" Ranma roared suddenly, interrupting his own thoughts as he saw the demon's mouth start to glow and redirecting all his available magic power to a defense. The beam it fired sliced straight through the wall of water Ranma had conjured up. But the wall, being as thick as the demon's arm, absorbed enough of the blast to allow Ranma to drop downwards underneath it. But because of the light of the energy beam he couldn't see the kick which launched him backwards like a tiny bouncy ball out of the city.

The demon snarled, and then seemed to debate between going after the little water-using pest or continuing to stomp the city of Ice Den flat. Then a large claw of water slashed towards it through the air, slamming into its chest. It was the same attack Ranma had used to cut ironwood trees and hordes of orcs, only magnified to the greatest degree he could currently manage. Yet against the demon, it only opened a long, thin gash.

Still, that was enough to get its attention, and Ranma grunted, staring up at the thing as it leaped after him. "Now if only I could convince myself that getting its attention was a good thing!" Desperately, Ranma rolled away, then kicked off the ground, landing on top of the demon's fist as it passed through his former position, racing up it towards the demon's face. When its other hand flashed towards him, Ranma did the same to it, lashing out back at the first arm with a new attack. "Soryu No Kussaku Tsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!"

This attack concentrated the same kind of power behind one of Ranma's giant water fists into an area the same size as his real one. Racing along the new arm he glanced back and was gratified to see blood gushing out from the deep wound, which looked like that of a small bullet perhaps against the demon's hide. "Still, if you bleed, I can kill you, you giant shit!" Ranma roared in delight.

The demon roared, and Ranma's world exploded in agony, the sound so loud it hit his Dragon Slayer senses like a physical thing. Whether that had been its intention or not, the demon immediately took advantage, another giant fist hammering full on to Ranma, and this time he couldn't try to offset the force or dodge. The blow hit his side like an avalanche, hurling Ranma off the demon's other arm and away.

Desperately Ranma launched out another Water Step to slow his descent, his entire body in pain, his ki healing working overtime to repair the damage to his arm and shoulder. Even his Dragon Slayer durability and the toughness training he'd put himself through since arriving in Nerima couldn't take hits like that.

He looked up just in time to see the demon launching another energy beam his way. "Water Dragon's Boosted Step!" he shouted desperately, powering more magic into his Water Step and launching himself up and away. _Have to throw out the attacks at a faster speed. Have to do this beast some real fucking damage. Can't take another hit like that one and stay in the fight._

His mind working overtime, Ranma cut his power to the Water Step a second later, using his aerial style to slow his descent as he hid in the Umi-Sen Ken. Landing, however, Ranma didn't realize that while the Umi-Sen Ken hid him from the senses of anyone around, it didn't do anything to conceal footprints he might leave behind in the snow. And the demon was quite a bit smarter than it acted, because it turned to stare right at Ranma, launching a kick down at him.

However this little break had given Ranma enough time to work his mind through the problem, and when the demon launched its next attack it was met with a new defense. "Water Dragon's Whirling Armor!"

Ranma coated himself head to toe in several inches of water that was swirling as fast as he could make it, so fast it was actually hurting his head to keep it moving that quickly. The speed he could power the water of his armor equaled that which could sheer off metal or tear through armor.

Even as the impact of the demon's kick hurled Ranma away once more, his Water Magic armor shredded its foot, tearing apart its toes and a goodly portion of its birdlike foot. The pain of it took a moment to register, then the demon roared out in agony, dropping to one knee, its eyes locked on the little form it had just kicked away.

Groaning, Ranma got to his feet and made to nod his head, only to wince as a headache began deep in his head. That armor had taken a lot out his ability to use his magic, and Ranma knew he had to wait a bit to use his magic attacks again. So instead, he raced forward, his ki healing again working overtime to repair his pulped bones. He ignored that, concentrating on the fight, a wide almost vicious grin on his face that would have looked more at home on a dragon's than a human's face. "Come on!"

The demon saw him coming and roared a challenge, launching another energy blast his way. It seared the ground for miles, but Ranma leaped to the side, rolling into a pile of snow, and burst out of the other side far enough away from the blast that he didn't even have to fear changing from the slush it caused along the main stream of energy.

Then he was close and leaping up, lashing out with another speed enhanced Water Blade strike that slashed deeply into the thing's uninjured leg. It roared and tried to hit him, but once more Ranma touched the first claw that was about to hit him, flipping up over the rest and landing once more on its wrist, racing upwards.

He dodged twice more, bouncing between its arms and always heading up, but again the demon powered up for an energy attack. Between one second and the next, Ranma leaped for open air, again dodging the attack, but now falling behind the demon. Rather than lose the progress he'd made, however, Ranma launched a new type of attack he'd been working on along with walking on water. "Water Dragon's Grappling Chains!" A chain of water latched onto the demon's hair, and Ranma swung himself back upwards.

He had just cleared the demon's shoulder when it reached behind its shoulder with one arm. One of its claws caught him straight on, and concentrating on the grappling chain Ranma couldn't conjure up another water shield or even dodge. The claw punched straight through Ranma's stomach and lower intestine before bursting out his back, just barely missing his spine. If it had, Ranma would have been crippled instantly and possibly dead from the pain. As it was, the wound was still mortal, but a slow thing instead of an immediate one.

Ranma screamed in agony, blood coughing out of his mouth as he shuddered and gasped, stuck on the demon's claw like a bug on a cat's. His vision blurred, and his powers failed him as the thing slowly pulled its hand back over its shoulder, holding him up to look at him.

Yet even on the verge of death, Ranma wasn't finished. His mind was still ticking over, his emotions kept in check by his almost automatically falling into the Soul of Ice. _Not going down. Not yet, not yet, wait for it…_

When the claw he was stuck on passed by the demon's head at the optimum angle for a final attack, Ranma brought his hands forward, whispering the words, "Kijin Raishu Dan."

The vorpal blades of the Yama-Sen Ken slashed out, lashing into the thing's face, mouth, and eyeball. The demon's eye burst under the blow, and its mouth was opened from lip to the back of its jaw. The rest of that side of its face was slashed to the bone, and a stray blade cut its ear off.

They should have cut through the thing's head, launched from that close and given how the vorpal blades normally cut through anything in their way. But the thing's bones were unbelievably tough, and though the vorpal blades bit deep, even cut out one of the demon's teeth and badly chipped its horn, they didn't penetrate its skull. They didn't kill the demon. Instead, with a wailing roar at feeling more pain than it ever had since being created by its master, the demon hurled Ranma away, its hands reaching up to its ruined face.

Sailing through the air, Ranma tried desperately to command his body to move once more, to just move to do something, but he couldn't do more than raise his arms: everything else refused to obey him. _Damn it! Well, if I can't save myself…_ "Then you can always take one with you…"

Reaching out with the last of his mental and physical ability, Ranma grabbed at the water around him, any water, and formed into a giant blade. "Water Dragon Slayers Secret Art, Blood River Blade!"

The demon looked up as it felt the blood of its mangled face being pulled away from where it was continuing to gush down its slowly healing face. While it couldn't regenerate, the demon's healing speed was beyond anything human. Yet even as its face healed and its eye-socket scabbed over, the blood from its wounds had been gathered to join a blade hovering right over its head.

In desperation the demon jerked aside, but it couldn't evade the blade entirely. Instead of slicing down into the demon's head from above, the blade dropped moving as fast as Ranma's speed-enhanced water attacks to slice into the thing's upper arm. And unlike the vorpal blades, the speed enhanced water and blood sword somehow, possibly because of the magic in the demon's own blood, was able to attain enough speed to slice through it's bones as easily as it's skin.

The demon roared in agony and a new feeling it had never felt before: fear.

As its tiny tormentor continued to fall towards the ground, his head now lolling back into unconsciousness, it could sense more mages arriving from the city. Even injured as it was, the demon could have probably killed them all and ravaged the city. But the fear it was feeling for the very first time acted on it like it would on an animal. Instead of staying and fighting through the fear, instead of punishing the humans for their temerity of injuring it, it turned and leaped away, fleeing north, away from the humans, away from the one who had caused it such hurt.

It never saw Ranma's body slow its descent, or a mage wearing elaborate brown robes that were rather bloody and torn poking his head up over one of the craters his fight with Ranma had made. The mage stared over at his colleague, who wore similar robes, only in green before looking back to the retreating demon then to the young boy and back again. "It, it's leaving. I don't, I don't believe this!"

"I don't care!" the other man said tersely, looking at the young man who had saved their city from further destruction. "Levitate him for me again. We need to get him back to the castle and the others. I can't save him on my own!"

Nodding grimly, the first mage gestured and Ranma slowly rose into the air while the other mage worked his magic. "Come on, lad! You're not going to die on us now!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Adam De Soule, the King of Iceberg, was a young man only recently married, and hale of body and mind. Despite that, he didn't look much like a king at the moment. His crown was gone, his arm was in a sling, and blood crusted the side of his face and one of his legs. Half of his palace was also in a shambles, wrecked during the sudden attack of the demon Deliora. This had forced him to claim a nearby noble's mansion for himself in his efforts to try and organize after the attack.

An attack which would've been far worse if not for the young teenager Adam was currently watching his Court Mage operating on. There were few real guilds in Iceberg as Pergrande, Seven, or Fiore understood the term. There were a few, but most of them didn't really take jobs as guilds would in other countries, instead staying in a single area and doing anything and everything that the locals needed magic to do. This ranged from making certain mines were safe to animal husbandry and other small magics.

On the other end of the scale where the Court Magi, six mages and their apprentices. Each Court Mage could take up to fifteen apprentices, but rarely took more than five. All of them had different magical styles: Smoke, Wind, Snow Manipulation, Requip, and Healing. It was one of the healers and the head Court Mage named Tristan, an older man who had previously been in the army before ascending into the Court Mage position a few years ago, who had saved the boy's life. And now they were working tirelessly to try and keep him alive

"He can't be more than twelve at the most," Adam almost whispered. "And yet he had such magical power. He nearly defeated the demon all on his own! And saved thousands of my subjects' lives in the doing. Tell me," he said, looking over at one of the healers who was taking a rest. "Tell me that we can at least make certain he does not die for his efforts!

"The boy will live," the older man replied, not even looking up from his meal, guzzling down a potion to help him replenish his Ethernano reserves while wolfing down food. "How, I don't know. Frankly, he should've died the moment his stomach was pierced like that, from the pain if nothing else. But he will live. His healing ability is beyond anything I've ever seen. It isn't perfect regeneration, but with our magics aiding the effort it has healed his wounds at the cost of severe Ethernano depletion. He'll have a nasty scar on his back and stomach the likes of which…" The man shuddered. "Well, it will be ugly. But he will live."

"I think we should get in touch with the Institute. Brain could perhaps tell us more about his healing ability and where he came from as well," another Court Mage said from nearby.

The king looked at him coldly, and the mage, third in terms of seniority of the Court Magi, waved his hand quickly. "I'm not saying he's a threat, Your Majesty, I'm just saying that he may become one. A young person like that with such powerful magic within him, who knows if he'll be able to control it? And we have seen how dangerous he could be."

The king shook his head. "No. We will leave the Institute out of this." He glared coldly at the mage, making certain that his words sunk in. Adam had begun to suspect many things about the Institute and of Brain himself. _I won't let him near my nation's savior if I can help it._

Sweating slightly under the king's gaze, the mage bowed his head, but still vowed internally to contact Brain. His agreement with the other mage would not allow him not to, and as scary as the king was trying to be, Brain could be far more dangerous.

 **OOOOOOO**

Outside the mansion, a boy was currently pleading to be allowed to talk to talk to the Court Magi. "Please! I want them to take me on as a student!"

The guard he was talking to groaned. "Kid, at the moment all the Court Magi are busy with the relief efforts in one way or another. Wait until after this tragedy has been put right, at least, then come back if you still want to."

"I can't wait that long!" the boy shouted, before trying to get past the guard.

A hand grabbed his shoulder and hurled him backwards. "I just told you to leave them alone! Four of them are busy trying to heal our savior, and the others are scattered around the city. If that boy dies because you interrupted them, what do you think the king will do to you?"

The boy gritted his teeth, but nodded. "Then I'll wait here for them to come out."

"What's this, then?" said a new voice, and both the guard and the boy turned, watching as two of the Court Magi moved towards them. One of them was looking exhausted, leaning on the other fellow heavily, who nodded his head towards the guards. "Master Tibold will need to be shown back to his house. Once there, he will need a guard." The weaker looking man made to protest, and the other shushed him brusquely, gesturing out to the city. "By orders of the king he is to rest for two full days before being allowed to join the relief efforts, whatever he says."

The commander of the remaining guards sent two of his men to their barracks, which had also been wrecked during the demon's rampage, to grab two more men from the series of tents set up around it. Before he could tell the mages why the boy was here, the boy in question launched himself forward to kneel in front of the two Court Magi, bowing his head to touch the ground at their feet. "Please! Take me on as an apprentice. I need instruction in magic.

"Do you have magic at all, boy?" said the weaker looking man, staring down at the youth.

Hesitantly, the boy brought his hands together, tapping one hand into the other as he created a tiny distorted statue there. It was nothing much, but it at his age and given the face he created it at all it was a good sign of the magic the boy held.

"Ice Make Magic, very interesting. And a powerful ability; very interesting indeed." _I wonder if I should tell Brain about this one too,_ the tall, more able-bodied mage thought.

Before he could say anything, however, his weaker colleague gestured for the boy to stand up. "What is your name, youngster?"

"Gray, Gray Fullbuster."

"And why do you want to learn magic?" Tibold asked, his eyes narrowing. He knew the name Fullbuster, since Silver Fullbuster had been a Court Mage years ago before marrying and settling down away from the court.

"That demon killed my family! I want to kill it!" the boy said fiercely, gnashing his teeth.

"Foolish boy," said Tibold, though not unkindly. "That demon would have wiped out the entire city without even trying, including all of us Court Magi. Nothing we could do against it hurt it at all. It was only that foreign youth's arrival that saved us. And you want to hunt it down?"

"It's been hurt! If it can be hurt, it can be killed. And it'll be easier now without it having an arm, after all," Gray reasoned, though there was no sense of reason in his eyes.

"Perhaps, but none of us are Make mages. The closest we have is a Snow Manipulator, and matter manipulation is nowhere near the same as creation." The as yet unnamed mage Tibold was leaning on seemingly paused in thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.

He was about to open his mouth and mentioned the Institute, but Tibold spoke up once more. "Ah, don't you remember, Clisto? There is an Ice Make mage we can send him to. Ur Milkovich lives in the far North, in a town called the unimaginative name of Glacier, and she is a powerful mage. She was offered a position as Court Mage a few years back, but refused. If not her, you could go to Fiore. I would sponsor you to one of the guilds there if she doesn't take you as an apprentice."

As Gray nodded his head rapidly, the weak mage leaned down, pressing a small coin pouch into his hand. "Go with this guard. He'll outfit you for a few days travel. If you can feel the cold at all, you're not an Ice Make mage. But on the other hand if you can get to Glacier in the first place that will probably convince Ur to take you on as an apprentice."

The boy nodded resolutely, and the older man stared into his eyes. There was a fire there, but whether it was a conflagration or something that would go out like a candle of at the first onset of difficulty he could not tell. "Go," he said, pushing him towards the other guard. "And now, get me home, Clisto."

Frederick rolled his eyes while internally cursing the other man. Knowing that such a young prize would slip through Brain's fingers, and thus the reward for pointing the boy in Brain's direction through his, irritated the man, but there was nothing he could do now without drawing suspicion his way.

 **OOOOOOO**

Several weeks later found the king once more looking down at the young boy who had saved his city. The youth had not awakened yet. The mages all stood around him, examining the boy closely with a new addition to their number. One that Adam tried very hard not to glare at.

Brain was a middle-aged man with tan skin, silver hair, and the look of a scholar, complete with robes, glasses at present, and his hair neatly tied together in a ponytail going down his back. In his hand he held a simple wooden staff. Brain seemingly gave off the feeling of an elderly professor.

At the moment, however, there was something in the older man's face that made the king very wary of him. Coupled with what Adam feared the Institute truly did to the boys and girls it brought in, this had caused him to issue orders that Brain was to never be allowed alone with the boy.

"The young boy's regenerative abilities seem entirely based on food intake. Or rather, caloric content?" Brain mused, looking over the notes that some of the other mages had made and looking down at the boy. "Show me what his insides look like, please."

One of the mages did so. Since healers had to be able to see and understand what they were doing, many of them had learned how to use spells that could do this. "Fascinating! And you said that he was pierced through the stomach and back?"

"Stomach and back on a diagonal through the body. His large intestine was nicked as was his lower, but not by much, and the puncture erupted out of his back here," the mage said, gesturing to one of his fellows and pointing at the right space.

"And yet he's fully healed now?" Brain asked.

"Fully healed and still suffering from severe magic deprivation. It's strange, it looks to be a weakness of both the body and the mind, which makes me wonder if this healing and regeneration of his is some kind of blood-based magic rather than a Caster or Lost Magic."

"Yes, I agree with that sentiment. That regeneration ability is fascinating, and one that could be an incredible boon to the rest of mankind if we could find some way of harnessing it," Brain said, glancing towards the king.

In reply Adam stiffened, gesturing Brain away preemptively from the bed. "No," he said simply. "I will not let you take the boy to be experimented on, Brain."

"Your Majesty, I would never suggest he be experimented on as you seem to mean the term," Brain said, shaking his head, his tone mildly affronted and sad. "But the Institute is the correct place for him. Think of what we could learn from simply interacting with the boy.

"Now," Adam said again. "If the boy decides to go with you when he is hale, hearty, and rested, then I will accede to it. But not now."

"And that brings up another point we have to be aware of," Brain said, swiftly changing tactics, a fact that made the king's eyes narrow again as he fought back another urge to glare at the older man. "The youth's magic power is insane by all accounts. Even now we can see the size of his reserves, though they are currently empty. A young boy like that with reserves of that nature, he won't be able to control himself. Think of the carnage that that Crash mage does occasionally, or some of the Wizard Saints when they were younger. He might be able to rise to such lofty positions, but that doesn't change the fact that he will not be able to control his magic now."

"You weren't here to see the battle against Deliora," said one of the other mages dryly. "I'd say the boy was in perfect control the entire time. Terrifying magical power, yes, I'll agree with that, but I don't think he needs any lessons in how to control it."

This debate ended abruptly as Ranma stirred on the bed.

 **OOOOOOO**

 _I lost,_ Ranma thought, the first thought that percolated through his mind as it slowly came together from where it had scattered in unconsciousness. _I lost._ Whether it was his own personality, the training Genma had put him through, the warped sense of honor that Genma had tried to instill in his son, or the fact that Anything Goes demanded that he take on any challenge and beat it, Ranma hated too lose, hated it with a passion. Regardless of who he fought, if he lost that was a major blow to his pride.

After a moment of self-recrimination and rage, Ranma slowly clinched a hand, the effort of it nearly throwing him back into blackness. _I'm going to get stronger. Until I never lose again, I'm going to get_ _ **stronger**_ _!_ _I am going to get so strong that the next time I see a demon like that, I'm going to be able to rip it in half! I swear it!_

With that resolution in mind, Ranma slowly opened his eyes, blinking and nearly closing them as the lights around him pained his eyes. "You're all right, my young friend," said a voice from one side, a hand touching Ranma's shoulder gently. "Can you hear me?"

Ranma licked chapped lips and said in a croaking voice, "Water?"

Quickly some water was brought, and the mages watched fascinated as Ranma gulped it down. They could stood literally see the water funneling into his magical reserves almost immediately, like drops in the desert. "More!"

"Bring in as much water as he can take," the king ordered. "And make certain the kitchen knows we have a hungry mouth to feed."

Ranma was quickly brought a pitcher of water while other servants went down to the kitchen for more. But as luck, Ranma's luck, anyway, would have it, the servant who brought him the pitcher tripped, sending the water onto Ranma's face and upper body, triggering the change and soaking the sheets.

"Oh freaking God damn it, haven't I spent enough time in this body!?" Ranma groaned, gritting her teeth against the pain that shifting like that had caused. Her wounds might have been healed, but she was still sore, and shifting when he/she was sore was always painful.

"What, what just happened?" Adam asked askance, staring at the young girl. Her chest, a somewhat decent sized one that made her look several years older than the rest of her body, stood out prominently thanks to the wet sheets clinging to her body.

"Hmmm… It looks like some kind of magical transformation, or perhaps the male body was an illusion," Brain mused, reaching forward with a hand to touch the nearest breast.

"Touch me and I swear I will gnaw your hand off!" Ranma growled, gnashing his teeth fiercely. So fiercely, in fact, that Brain stepped back a pace along with everyone else around the bed, along with several of the other mages who had been about to do the same thing. "Yes, it's magic. It's a fucking curse. I change into a girl when splashed with cold water; warm water changes me back. No, it doesn't change anything in my head, and that's all I'm going to tell you lot, you bunch of pervs!"

"Yes, well, someone get him, er, her some hot water," Adam requested, staring at the servant who had tripped on nothing. That worthy blanched, then raced off to follow the order.

After about several gallons of water, Ranma's magical reserves were refilled to a decent level, and Ranma was back in his male body after a single application of hot water. But physically he was still weak and had to be helped to sit up, though he was able to feed himself afterwards.

"Thank you," Ranma said as he ate. He looked around at them, then nodded slowly. "The king or lord of the town, I suppose?"

"That's right. My name's Adam, of the house of De Soule, and I welcome you back to the land of the living. What is your name, young man?"

"Ranma, Ranma Oceana. The demon?" Ranma asked, using a name he had decided to use after Typhon's death in the old dragon's honor. It wasn't as if anyone would recognize the Saotome name anyway and in a way it just added to the feel of starting anew in this world.

"The demon is long gone. Its name is Deliora by the way, and it has been a plague on us and Seven for several years now, appearing and disappearing without warning and never leaving any trail to follow. You wounded it sorely, my young friend. So sorely that it retreated rather than finish the destruction of my capital, for which you have my eternal thanks."

Ranma blinked at that, then slowly a smile spread across his face _. So, not a defeat, but a tie_. Ranma knew that was sort of lying to himself, but he could live with that right now.

"Where did you come from?" Adam asked next. "Are you a member of a guild somewhere? We weren't able to find a guild mark on you."

"No guild; I'm a wanderer. I'm just walking the Straight Path, though I seemingly have been pulled into trouble a lot of the time I've been doing that."

"Oh really, tell us about it," Adam said, leaning forward.

Ranma shared had happened in Pergrande, which caused the king's eyes to widen, and when asked for proof somehow pulled the Star of Pergrande out of his pants pocket. Yet even without that, the boy's details about the war matched what he had been told via the communication Lacrima all kings had access to. The fact that the boy wasn't trying to take all the credit for the war was also mark in his favor. "So let me get this straight," the king said, interrupting the boy's tale. "You simply fought a war because it was the right thing to do? You're not Pergrandian or even from Bellum, correct?"

"Nope," Ranma said, slurping down the soup he'd been given as if it was the finest meal he ever had, which it was. Soups and other liquid-style meals tasted a lot better to him these days than they ever had before.

 _And you attacked the demon because you wanted to save people,_ the king thought. _That sense of honor is commendable. And the boy has indeed shown a talent for finding trouble. Perhaps, perhaps there could be a way to utilize this in the future._

With that thought, Adam stood up. "That, I think, is enough questions for now," he said, patting Ranma on the shoulder. "We'll leave you to your food. But once you're back to a hundred percent I'll want to speak to you then more formally."

Ranma groaned. "I really don't need another medal or anything like that. They seem kind of pointless to me. But if you want to pay me for it, do you have any books on dragons?"

"I'll have one of my Magi's apprentices go through the library and look for them," the king said, looking quizzically at the boy's odd request. "But I'm afraid that you will have to bear the burden of another medal regardless. My people need to see me rewarding our savior, after all. Beyond that, start thinking about what else you would like as a boon."

"A PR thing. Ookay, I can understand that." The king looked quizzically at the acronym, and Ranma elaborated. "Public relations thing."

Adam's mouth worked for a moment as he mouthed the words, then nodded slowly. "Yes, that is exactly what it is. A most apt description. I might have to steal that one from you."

Ranma waved one hand airily, though even that minor a movement took a lot out of him. "Go right ahead."

The king laughed, and without further ado exited the room, the Court Magi following him, including a very reluctant Brain.

As he followed the others out, Brain's mind was working furiously. The boy's power was incredible for one so young. Indeed, Brain rated him as almost S-class already and he was barely a teenager. And there were also some minor mysteries about him besides the odd curse. The fact that he seemed to not have not one but two Ethernano reservoirs within him: one that powered his magical power, and the other which was seemingly not connected to the other for some reason. That was the main one that fascinated Brain.

But it was the boy's combat ability that fueled Brain's desire to have this boy within his clutches at the Institute. _I must get him among my other tools. He could be the perfect final piece to the Oracion Seis. Yet the king has made his position plain. I won't be able to get my hands on him through legal means. Still, that simply means I'll have to resort to illegal ones._

That evening, Brain returned to Ranma's room, a simple spell putting the guards he passed asleep and covering his movement from any scrying eyes, if the king was paranoid enough to go that far. Inside the room, Ranma was asleep again, with no one watching him, as Brain had known would be the case. _Excellent._

Moving towards the bed, he pulled out a needle. _Just a little bit of this in his blood stream and his own magical power will act up, going out of control and lashing out at anything like a living bomb. Once that is done, the king will have no recourse but to let me take the boy to the Institute._ With that thought, Brain stood beside the bed and reached out to take the boy's arm, intent on pulling it out so he could place the needle against one of Ranma's veins.

Instead Brain found himself pulled forward as Ranma rolled over, nearly collapsing over the boy.

Only his other hand gripping the side of the bed prevented that, and he pulled his arm out of the boy's grip with difficulty. _Strong! Very strong even without his Ethernano reserves being back to normal. I'll have to be more careful._

Backing away, Brain waited several minutes while Ranma seemed to calm down putting one arm under his pillow as he turned onto his side. The instant the boy settled, Brain moved forward again, pulling up the boy's shirt, which had been given to him by order of the king, and placing the needle against his skin.

Then he gasped as Ranma swiftly shifted away, the needle skittering across his skin, but not penetrating it. An instant later one hand rose quickly to grab Brain's hand, hurling him away.

Brain flipped in midair, using a small burst of magic to right himself as he stared at the boy. _Has he trained himself to such a level that his body will react even when he is unconscious?_

Angrily, Brain moved back towards the bed, this time moving towards the boy's foot. It wasn't ideal, as it would take a bit longer to spread through his system, but there were veins in the foot and leg.

This proved to be a mistake. The moment Brain readied the needle to plunge it into the chosen vein, a kick lashed out at his face, smashing into it with bruising force. Then the same foot came back forward, hammering into Brains chest with another kick. Still groggy from the initial blow, Brain couldn't dodge the second, and it hurled him away, his body stopping by slamming into a bookcase.

Several books and various art pieces fell to the ground, and Brain cursed at the noise this caused. An instant later he felt a few of his sleep spells shattering. _Dammit!_

He glared again at the boy, then leaped for the window, escaping out the window just in time before the guards could see him. The two guards glared around the room, noticing where a few books had fallen, but seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Brain had even been able to close the window behind him. "What do you think that was?" one of the guards said to the other.

"No idea, but whatever it is it isn't important. Let's let the boy sleep some more."

Ranma just slept and ate for three days and, though he didn't know it, frustrated Brain every night. Brain tried numerous times to get his concoction into the boy's bloodstream, then, when that failed, tried to tie him up with his magic powers. But even asleep Ranma shattered the bindings, the magical backlash causing a loud cracking noise. And each night there were more guards, which drained Brain more every time he had to keep casting sleep spells over them.

Eventually Brain decided to just give up. _I'll attack the boy openly on the trail once he leaves the city,_ Brain thought to himself. That this would allow Brain to take out his frustration on the boy was a mere bonus. There was no doubt in Brain's mind that he could beat the boy, but not without being seen if it happened anywhere near Ice Den. _I'll trail him for several days then attack him when we're well away from anyone._

For his part, after three days of simply eating and drinking, Ranma was on the mend and able to stand and move around unaided once more. Once this was reported to the king, Adam ordered Ranma to be bathed and clothed appropriately and started to put together the formal ceremony where he would reward Ranma for his aid against Deliora.

Ranma practically tuned out most of the ceremony, only bowing his head when told to as the king personally placed the medal around his neck. This one was made of a small peridot, with a tiny, near useless light embedded within its center. The rest of it was in the shape of an iceberg made of gold and copper.

"Further," the king was proclaiming, and Ranma tuned back to hear what he was saying rather than trying to think of what he wanted to do next in his training. "I will grant you two boons so long as they be within my power to grant."

Ranma nodded quickly, glad that the king had understood he didn't want any more money. "Your Majesty, I would like to have access to some Water Magic Lacrimas, as well as a few lightning ones, and whatever kind of Lacrima should be ground into powder to be used in the making of magic guns. Beyond that, if any of your court mages know how to use the magic Requip, I request permission to learn from them for a few days."

There was out mild susurration of noise from the crowd of peasants and nobles from the city who had come to see their savior be rewarded, a chuckle, Ranma thought, as more than one of them shouted that he had come to the right place. These people took a lot of pride in being the center for Lacrima mining obviously.

"An easy enough request to fulfill. We will have pouches of twenty small Lacrima of each requested type prepared for you, and the proper substance for guns ground down as well. And as for your second request…" The king gestured to one of his Court Magi, a fat looking older man with an eye patch over one eye and his leg currently in a cast. "Mage Garibaldi here knows Requip magic. He specializes in large things, but he will be able to teach you the ropes of the magic if you are learned in the first place.

Ranma nodded, looking at the mage eagerly. "Then that and continued access to your library is all I ask, Your Majesty. And thank you for the largess."

Unfortunately for Ranma, again the library here in Iceberg didn't really help much in terms of his search for information on dragons. It didn't even mention the country where dragons and humans had lived together, and seemingly didn't really have any books from before the creation of Iceberg as a country. There were some tales of dragons, and one of them in particular grabbed his attention, mentioning how a white dragon had been seen far to the south of Iceberg. Another one that also grabbed his interest was about a dragon to the west whose scales shone like metal in the sun. Since this had been in an actual history book, Ranma though the sightings might have been real ones, but since both had happened some four hundred years ago, it didn't really help him.

On the other hand, there were several books which helped Ranma better understand the nature of magic and the elements between bouts of helping the locals rebuild. There was, like in his old world both opposites among the elements, and a hierarchy. Water had a weakness to Lightning, which was one reason why Ranma and Laxus' attempts to power up by eating one another's attacks. It worked for a short amount of time, but would never be sustainable for Ranma. Laxus on the other hand might have been able to eventually get a permanent power up. But Lightning was only connected to Light magic whereas if Ranma raised his mastery of the water element to a high degree, he would be able to absorb ice or mist magics just as he could water.

The books on magic and understanding the magic within an individual's body were, while dry as a textbook on taxes, even more interesting and Ranma spent several months using the meditation practices they outlined. It dealt with a way of visualization and incorporating the mage sight skill Ranma had taught himself in Desierto to actually see the magic in you and interoperate what you were seeing. While it had no direct combat application (since even by the time he left it took Ranma several hours to enter the proper state to use it) the long term implications were astonishing.

His Requip training went much better. Within days, an astonishingly short amount of time Garibaldi was quick to tell him, Ranma had learned how to use Requip magic, and quickly began to store things in there. He put his two sticks, his staff, which he still hadn't decided what to do with just yet, the metal he had taken from Heart Kreuz blacksmiths in Pergrande, and all of the Lacrima pouches in there.

These amounted to several small bags, about as large as his fists put together, filled with tiny Lacrima. One of them was labeled for the construction of magic guns, and the man who had handed them to him urged Ranma not to experiment with the ground crystals overmuch. "It takes a skilled Smith to work Lacrima into the metal in the appropriate amounts so that your guns don't crack or shatter," the man said.

Ranma nodded, promising not to waste the effort they'd gone to. He had decided to hold off on that for a bit anyway. He wanted to spend some time sketching out what he remembered of guns from his old world, which would take a while.

So it was that Ranma left Ice Den with the gratitude of both its populace and king helping him on his way. He raced on down the Straight Path once more, thinking only a few things at the moment. _I want to find a place to stop again and train for a while, and I want to get the hell out of this country. I've seen enough snow to last a lifetime._

So quick was Ranma's passage that he didn't notice that he was being followed. Behind him Brain was following Ranma via a magic carpet, waiting for an opportune moment to attack the boy mage.

However, on the second day of following the youth, Brain stopped as he noticed a messenger raven in the air coming towards him. Holding out his staff, he allowed the raven to alight on it, where its skull burst open into a small, furry looking creature. "Master Brain!" said a harried and distressed voice. "This is Crimsoneti at the Institute. There has been an accident here! The entire Institute is, is almost gone! We've lost thousands of books of research and all of our test subjects! You have to get back here quickly, or we might not be able to save anything!"

Brain gasped in horror, staring first at the messenger raven, then down at the boy he was trailing, debating which was more important. Eventually, however, he decided to turn aside, racing through the air straight south rather than southwest as the Straight Path went. _The tools I've already gathered, the young people I've already begun to manipulate, and the research there are worth more than that boy is, curse it. But we'll meet again, young Ranma. And when we do, I will dissect you for what seeds of greatness are in your blood._

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma passed through the rest of Iceberg easily, again falling into his regular traveling method, only this time instead training with his Water Dragon Magic, he trained with Requip. Because he didn't really have any inherent talent for it, it was slightly more energy intensive than if a mage who did made use of it. Still that was nowhere near as much as its equivalent ki space would be. Beyond that, it was also incredibly useful. Ranma loved it. Having access to anything he wanted from his Requip space with a mere word was enormously helpful and just plain awesome in Ranma's perspective.

He was again attacked by animals a few times, but up here in Iceberg, those seemed few in number. Further he was quickly able to find people to sell their pelts to for more food.

In this manner Ranma left Iceberg behind within two weeks of leaving the capital city, coming down the escarpment into Stella. This portion of the escarpment ended far more gradually than the side which faced Pergrande, and every day Ranma felt the air around him getting warmer. When he finally left the last vestiges of snow behind, Ranma let out a loud whoop, throwing his hands in the air and laughing wildly. "No more snow for this guy!"

Ignoring the looks of a few passersby traveling into Iceberg, Ranma kept on going, leaving them behind as he held out a hand murmuring, "travel log." The book that Gildarts had written appeared in his hand along with a notebook that Ranma had started. Looking through the two of them, Ranma refreshed his memory on the nation of Stella. It was one of the two primary metal producers of Ishgar, with major mines around which towns and even cities had eventually sprung up. It was a kingdom with a king and queen currently, from what he had read about it in Pergrande, and a strong central government like both Iceberg and Pergrande.

Ranma immediately noticed that the Straight Path here was just as good as it was in Pergrande, with the addition of steel rails along the sides of it, which were supposed to be used for carts. There were also far more magical cars here than he had ever seen before, powered by Lacrima that Stella presumably traded with Iceberg for. And the trains that Seven had developed truly flourished here. Ranma passed several places along the Straight Path where it intersected with train tracks within his first two days traveling through the country.

At that point Ranma pulled out a few notes he'd made in Iceberg after talking to the Court Mages and the king, as well as a few blacksmiths. They'd all mentioned a few names, blacksmiths who were willing to work commissions.

There was one name that several of them had mentioned, a young up-and-coming blacksmith in the town of Pittsdown who was noted to be willing to work with mages to create customized weapons. With that in mind, Ranma began to ask directions to that city, only to find that it was already on the Straight Path. The town itself was an interesting place: most of the buildings were situated around a small iron mine, built of stone and steel for the most part, with the majority of the decorations being made of metal too. Asking directions, Ranma was soon pointed in the direction of the man he wanted.

William was a young redheaded man around twenty years of age, with the wide powerful arms of his craft, who seemingly preferred to wear short sleeve shirts underneath his blacksmith's apron. After shaking the man's hand, Ranma asked if they could sit down a bit to go over some weapons designs, but William held up a hand, looking a little dubiously at the young boy. "First, the money, please. I charge 180,000 gold coins for custom pistol-work and 240,000 gold for rifle-work."

"Even if I'm providing the missiles and materials?" Ranma asked.

William frowned at that, then gestured for Ranma to join him at a small table set to one side of the entrance to his shop. As they entered the man flipped his sign to closed, smirking at Ranma. "I prefer not to be bothered by other customers when I'm talking to one already." He took a moment to look out the window for some reason, then moved over to Ranma and sat across from him. "Okay, you've got my interest, but this better not be an elaborate joke of some kind. What are we talking about here, and what materials will you be providing?"

Ranma held up a hand, intoning "Lacrima, smithing." The bag of Lacrima dust appeared in his hand and he set that down, before continuing to bring out other pieces of the guns. The ironwood stocks made William smile, and then he blinked at the ore from Pergrande. "They even have the Heart Kreuz Metalworks stamp," he whispered, reaching for the metal bar and holding it up to the light as he held out a hand. A flare of magic appeared in his hand, reaching back towards a wall, where it grabbed a small looking glass, pulling it into his hand.

He held it over the metal, but Ranma couldn't tell what he was looking at. The device showed a series of letters and numbers indicating the makeup of the metal in question to the mage-smith. "Pergrande always does better gun work than we do; comes from being the first to really develop gunpowder, and their metal follows that. We provide better raw metals that then they can, of course, but they do fantastic work with it."

Setting the metal bar down, he picked up the ironwood stocks, looking at them, hefting them in his hands, and nodding thoughtfully. "These are built for an adult's hands, but I suppose you'd want to grow into them?"

Ranma laughed. "I can handle them as they are right now. I'm a lot stronger than I look."

The blacksmith set that mystery aside for now to study the Lacrima dust, nodding in approval at the mix. When he spoke this time his voice was actually respectful as he addressed the young boy. "All right, I can definitely use these. And if you're providing the materials, that takes out a major portion of the cost. In fact, if you want I'll buy the remaining dust and metal off you afterward. That'll get rid of the rest of the cost. So what exactly are we talking about here?"

"Sketches," Ranma intoned, activating his Requip magic once more, pulling out several bits and pieces of sketches and laying them out on the table for the man to look at. "The problem is that I'm trying to create from memory something I saw once on a ship that I explored when I was younger."

Ranma ignored William's raised eyebrow at that, having gotten used to being underestimated thanks to his/her apparent age. "It was a wreck. I have no idea where it came from, but I found a gun that looked as if it had a cylinder somehow which contained the musket balls like this," he said, pointing to one sketch. "It looked as if it should pop out, but the thing was so rusted I couldn't pull it out at the time. I wish I'd known Requip, but I didn't when I was there, so I had to leave it behind."

Leaning forward, William looked at the designs, frowning thoughtfully and asking questions, some of which Ranma could only guess at, never having held a gun in in his old world save when he was dealing with Yakuza. A history of crushing them in his hand to terrify their former owners wasn't really helpful when trying to describe how other, older types of guns worked.

Despite that, William became more and more enthusiastic about as he realized what Ranma was describing here. "If we can build this," he whispered, "this could revolutionize gun smithing. Hell, if I can figure out a way to somehow power the bullets forward without using magic, I'll be rolling in gold. Hmm… Some kind of inner chamber for the powder, maybe?" He looked sharply at Ranma. "This could be huge, do you know that?"

Ranma shrugged. "I know, but if it's all the same to you I'm more interested in my own weapons."

"That's fine," William said, waving a hand. "That is more than fine." Then he looked at Ranma closely. "Will you want to be part of the construction process? A lot of Gun Mages and swordsman think that if they are part of the process and are able to imbue the pieces of the guns with their own magic they last longer."

Ranma nodded firmly at that, looking at the redheaded man closely. "Will that be a problem?"

"No, since I don't actually have any other customers the moment," William said, looking a little shifty. He looked at Ranma, then sighed. "Before we get involved, you should know that I am being pressured by a criminal organization to create weapons for them. I've refused them several times, and they've practically run off every customer who comes my way. They probably have someone watching my shop even now, so they know you're already here. If you don't want trouble…"

He broke off as Ranma laughed loud and long. "That doesn't worry me at all!" Ranma said between guffaws. "In fact, how about I get rid of that gang for you, and you knock another few thousand gold off of the price?"

"If you do that, I'll knock my price down to only 20,000 per pistol and 40,000 for the rifle," William said, standing up and holding out his hand while also wondering if the boy was actually serious about that. "Leave these drawings with me for a few days, and I'll see if I can come up with a complete design. If I can't, I won't take the commission."

Ranma nodded and shook the man's hand, saying, "That's fine and dandy, but I'll still run those morons off for you. Can you give me a starting place?"

William did, telling him about an inn in town, and Ranma smiled evilly and walked out of the shop. He was back the next day, and William looked up from where he had been working on the designs. He looked Ranma up and down, then said simply, "I heard that there was a bit of a trouble at the 'Stallion's Hoof' last night. A certain criminal element was discovered with a lot of contraband on the property, and arrested to a man?"

Ranma smiled beatifically. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You need to work on that whole acting innocent thing," William said, before both man and boy broke out into laughter.

After a second Ranma's laughter trailed off, and he looked at William searchingly. "Before we go any further, there's something you need to know about me. You see I have a curse…"

William shrugged his shoulders as Ranma demonstrated his/her curse, understanding why Ranma had mentioned it. After all, during the smithing process they would be around water cold water and steaming water occasionally. But he didn't see a problem with it. "Though," he said, after saying that aloud, "if a woman named Stephanie enters the shop and you're in your female form, you're probably in for a grilling. Now that you've run off the gang, she's certain to try and restart her flirting with me."

"You're not in favor of that, then?" Ranma said, leaning down to look at the designs and unconsciously flashing her chest towards William, who flushed and looked away. Despite being only twelve at this point, Ranma was definitely an early bloomer.

"No, I'm not. I've been corresponding with another blacksmith, a woman named Lathia in a town a few miles to the west of here for years. We're actually going to meet come summer. For all that she's good-looking Stephanie's a bit of a bitch occasionally."

That caused Ranma to laugh, and the two of them began to point out parts of the design in greater detail.

It took the two of them several weeks to finalize the first version, and William understood then how long it would take to make a final design and why Ranma had brought so much raw material with him. There would be a lot of trial and error to this process. _So much for making a profit,_ he thought ruefully _._ "It's pushing autumn. Even if everything goes well, you know it might well be summer before we have a finalized physical version?"

Ranma nodded. "That's fine. I'll see if I can rent a room or apartment someplace and be back tomorrow morning."

 **OOOOOOO**

Laxus looked over from his solitary chair at the young redheaded girl his grandfather had inducted into the guild a week back. Watching her lay into Gray because he had stripped again, he wondered where she came from. _It's obvious she's had a hard life, but she seems to have borne up with it._

Seeing her skill and strength made Laxus feel better than he had in a while. The guild didn't seem to be bringing in any really strong members, but Laxus reminded himself again that strength alone wasn't enough, you had to have skill as well, which was something he'd seen again and again serving with Ranma and the Pergrandian troopers.

He wondered idly what Ranma was doing and then remembered something that he had mentioned about the slavers he'd met. _A girl wielding a sword with red hair. That could be coincidence, but…_

Hopping up from where he had been sitting on the steps leading up to the S-class area of the guild, he laid a hand on the girl's shoulder gesturing for her to join him at the bar. The girl followed somewhat hesitantly. She knew who Laxus was, of course, but this was the first time the boy had made any move to open a conversation with her. The other kids, Levy, Cana, Droy, and Jet, all looked astonished, but made no move to follow as she sat down with Laxus at the bar.

"You probably already know me, but I'm Laxus Dreyar, the old man's grandson. And I know you're Erza Scarlet, but I'm wondering why of all the guilds in the world you wanted to join Fairy Tail." Laxus watched as Erza stiffened a little, and he wondered idly what she would say, if anything.

To his surprise, she spoke about an old Fairy Tail member who taught her magic named Rob. Hearing that, Laxus looked over at his grandfather.

The old man was nearby, cautiously watching Laxus interact with the younger girl and wondering what was going on in his grandson's head. Laxus had become something of a recluse since their talk about Ivan, only interacting with one or two of the other guild members normally since then. He nodded, and Laxus turned back to the girl.

"There's no simple way of saying this, so I'll just blurt it out. Were you a slave once?" Laxus asked bluntly. He was always the sort to rip the Band-Aid off quickly, and figured it would work in this discussion too. Nearby, however, Makarov grimaced, shaking his head and vowing to kick his grandson's ass for this later as he got up, about to go and interrupt his grandson's interrogation.

Erza flinched at that, looking away, which was answer enough.

But when next Laxus spoke he threw both her and his grandfather for a loop. "Do you remember almost being rescued by a young boy in a forest?"

The redhead jerked upright, staring at Laxus in shock. Makarov too stopped where he had been about to intercede, wondering again where his grandson was going with this.

"I was! He was so brave, and he was throwing around these magical attacks like little balls of power and other things." Erza replied, becoming more animated as she spoke about the incident that gave her the courage to lead the rebellion against her captors. "But he was only one boy, and he couldn't fight them all. Then he transformed into a girl when he splashed into the water! It was so weird! I've never seen or heard of anything like that. I asked old Rob, and he never heard of anything like that either."

"I met him on one of my missions," Laxus said simply. "He mentioned you, how you tried to fight for your freedom. And that was the last thing he saw before he fell unconscious."

"He's alive!" the girl gasped. "Is he part of the guild?"

"No," Laxus said with a shrug. "He is more of a wandering sort." He frowned once more, wondering if the girl knew where she had been held captive, but decided not to ask. "Still, if you freed yourself from slavery that means you're strong. Fairy Tail needs stronger mages among our numbers." He stood up, gesturing for the girl to follow him once more as Gray and a few of the others gaped at him. "Let's go see how strong you are…"

 **OOOOOOO**

William's estimate of how long it would take to create a real revolver had been off by quite a bit, or, as William argued he had been accurate, it had been Ranma's understanding that had been wrong. They were able to create a first test revolver by the summer of the year after Ranma's arrival, which allowed him to celebrate a birthday with a friend for the first time since arriving in this world, both William and his girlfriend Laitha being there. And yes, Stephanie had turned out to be a bitch, but one Ranma hadn't had to deal with thankfully.

But it was nearly another half a year after his birthday by the time they had come up with a finished product for Ranma. The process had also used up all his available metals, Lacrima dust, crystals and about a third of his ready funds.

Despite that Ranma couldn't begrudge the added time, since by helping William around the forge, he learned some of his trade, though he had no real gift for it. There was a vast difference between martial arts construction, and, as Ranma thought of it internally, martial arts magical blacksmithing. But even that was unimportant, as while the second winter of his stay with William broke, Ranma could only stare in wonder at the guns that William had finished.

The two pistols looked like Colt revolvers, large handguns with cylinders to one side of them. Each small circle in the cylinder held a small amplification Lacrima in a metal web. Those cylinders could be charged with magic, so as to help to refine the shape of the spell. These could include spells like Impact, Knock Out, or Flash, like he had used in Iceberg against Deliora.

The guns themselves were magnificent things, the barrels slightly longer than a normal Colt revolver. The grips and stocks were made of Ironwood. The shafts of the pistols and all of the metalwork gleamed lightly with the embedded Lacrima dust from Iceberg.

"Try them out," William said, looking at the weapons with something approaching glee.

Ranma did so, aiming the pistols towards a series of targets set up in William's backyard. He concentrated for a brief second, magical circles appearing around his wrists and then moving into the guns, disappearing smoothly into them.

"Smooth action!" William said breathlessly. "And now…" He fell silent as Ranma fired.

Each bolt did something different, the cylinders turning smoothly as Ranma worked the triggers, the Lacrima in them working perfectly. Flash went off, nearly blinding them both, Impact shattered instead of simply hitting the target, and so on. After the last cylinder was spent, Ranma turned to William, laughing as he sent the pistols into his Requip space. "That was fantastic!"

William nodded slowly, then looked down at one of the guns he had made for himself during the process. Gesturing Ranma to one side, he moved forward, taking a pistoleer's stance, both hands on the weapon and firing that way even though he really didn't have to, since the targets were so close.

Like the magical version of the weapon, his version moved fluidly each bullet, another creation of William's, leaving the cylinder easily with the pull of the trigger. "Amazing!" he said after the last bullet smashed into its target, holding up the gun and staring at it. "These will revolutionize gun technology!"

"Next!" Ranma said holding up the rifle.

This was again like something out of history. It looked like an early sniper rifle from World War I, save without any place to load it. Instead of having amplification Lacrima in the cylinder it had six Lacrima set in the grip, and then four more set equidistantly down the barrel. But it allowed for most if not all of the same 'shaped' Gun Magic spells. It worked perfectly, though Ranma of course couldn't test the sniper round or the scope in William's small backyard.

After William tried out the non-magical version, Ranma looked at him closely, speaking a thought that had been growing in him over the months they worked together on this project. "I think you need to move," he said bluntly.

"What, leave Pitt-town?" William asked, looking aghast.

"Yes," Ranma said. "These guns, I think they could make you famous, but they could also do a lot of harm in the wrong hands. And I think Pergrande is the best nation to make the most use of them. They're the only nation in the world that has musketeers as their main infantry force, right? What do you think infantrymen would pay to have a weapon like this? And you'd be protected from more…sinister elements there."

William winced a little, knowing Ranma had a point. After all, they had been approached twice more by other criminal groups during the winter. Ranma had dealt with them both easily, and with these weapons in hand William felt he could do the same now, but that didn't mean he wanted to deal with that, and it would only be a matter of time until someone with Magic he couldn't deal with came along. "This is sort of like painting a target on my back, isn't it," William mused.

Ranma nodded firmly. "Go to this girl you been communicating with, and both of you move to Pergrande. Tell your neighbors whatever story you want to: that you were driven out because of the constant attempts to control you by criminals or whatever," Ranma said reaching into his Requip space for money.

He held out a large bag of cash, opening it to let William look inside, and William gasped as he stared into it. That was more money than Ranma had paid him for the commissioned work, and in Pergrande coins. "They'll get you to Pergrande. Once there, go to the palace. Tell them Ranma sent you, and he wishes you to talk to the king or Roland. You remember that name?"

William rolled his eyes, but repeated the name several times to convince Ranma he could.

"Good," Ranma said, slapping the man on the shoulder. "Seriously, these guns could be a major difference maker in Pergrande, and I don't want them falling into criminal hands."

"And what about you?" William asked.

Ranma hefted the rifle to his shoulder, sighting down it before looking back at William with an evil little smile on his face. "Well, I've been following the Straight Path for the…" He paused, thinking. _It's got to be pushing on two years or so now, but…._ "Um, what year is it?" he asked, somewhat sheepishly, dropping the rifle from his shoulder.

"It's March, 777," William replied.

"So it's been a little over three years since I started my journey," Ranma said thoughtfully, counting the time he had spent with Typhon in that assessment. "Anyway, I've been following the Straight Path all that time, and I don't want to deviate now."

"You're going into Bosco," Williams said, then began to laugh somewhat manically. "I can think of no better place for you to baptize those weapons of yours."

The two men exchanged a handgrip, and then headed into William's shop.

Ranma helped William prepare for the trip, and was still there doing so when Laitha arrived. She was a very good-looking brunette woman, with a streak of orange in her hair that followed from one eye all the way down to the bottom of her hair, which hung to her rear, and like William, she was built like a blacksmith. The two of them began to talk quietly, but Laitha immediately understood the implications of William's new designs, especially the fact that they could be used with non-magical rounds and people using them. As such she firmly agreed with Ranma that they needed to move to Pergrande, overriding William's half-hearted desire to stay in his hometown with a ruthlessness that Ranma could never have matched.

The next day Ranma helped them buy two horses, knowing quite a bit more about animals then either blacksmith, and sent them on their way with a written note to Roland to talk to them. _I'd love to see orcs try to get past a more modern infantry force with those in their hands,_ Ranma thought gleefully. He spent a few minutes watching the two blacksmiths go, then turned his attention back to his own journey, once more setting off down the Straight Path.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma's first impression of Bosco was that it was almost as woody as Bellum, but it had no ironwood trees, and the forest was different too. Instead of being a place of massive trees as far as the eye could see, there were lots of shorter trees interspersed with boulders or spires of rock. It wasn't quite like anywhere Ranma had ever been before. It also didn't have any guard post at the border or any people living near its border with Stella.

A day's journey into Bosco, the Straight Path once again became a barely there path of dirt and gravel, showing how much trade, or honest trade, Ranma reflected, the country did with Stella. Yet at the same time, just like in Stella, Ranma began to see a lot of offshoots from it heading deeper into the countryside here and there.

Ranma was in his female form, as she marched down the road, whistling a tune to herself as she did. His/her plan to fight the slavers was simple: get herself captured, find a camp site or slaving band, wipe it out then rinse and repeat. Ranma figured that a slave-based economy couldn't survive for very long if the slaves were revolting and the slavers had all been wiped out. And Ranma's normal reticence to not kill other humans, he had decided, did not extend to slaver scum.

The redhead had thought it would take a few days before she saw her first slaving band, but it actually only took a single day's journey into Bosco before she was accosted. From out of the woods ahead of her on the Straight Path three men moved quickly to bar her way, all of them armed with spears that they pointed at the young teenage girl. "'Ere now, wassa pretty little thing like you doing wanderin' these woods alone?" one man leered.

Ranma leaped back in surprise, one hand going to her chest. "What do you want? This is a free road; you've no right to stop me!"

""fraid not, dearie. Nothin's ever free. You're gonna have to pay the toll, and it's a steep one round here," said another voice from behind her, and Ranma whirled, again feigning shock at seeing three more men behind her.

Before Ranma could try to run, one of the first trio had hurled a net over her, weighted with rocks on its edges. Ranma could have easily just ripped the net out of the man's hands or shredded it, but instead she squealed and tried to bolt to one side, the net getting messed up in her legs so that she fell to the ground.

"She must be touched in the head!" said one of the others, shaking his head. "Going 'round 'ere on her own? That's just begging to get a collar round yer neck."

"Maybe she's got a fetish or summat, and wants to be a slave," said one of the others, leering down at Ranma, who shivered a little at that, folding her arms are over her chest.

"Or maybe she thought the Straight Path was safe," said one of the others looking around nervously. "You know the royal family patrols it. And she might not even be Boscan. We're close to the border."

"And we'll be well away 'fore any patrol can come along," said one of the others, sighing and shaking his head. "Grow a spine, would ya?"

Ranma decided at this point to make a show of struggling in the net. This elicited one of them to hit her in the back of her head, and Ranma began to feign unconsciousness, despite the fact she had barely felt the blow. She continued to hear the slavers talk as one of them hoisted her onto his shoulder, smiling internally at the information they were giving her. _Morons, not even checking my pulse, or even thinking a lone girl traveling alone was too good to be true._

It turned out that the royal family was trying to exert power over the slave trade in an effort to shut it down. The current king was pretty much a weakling, just like the merchants who controlled the mines liked it, but inbreeding had done its job too well in his case, and he had not been able to produce an heir. That meant that the crown would pass to his niece, a woman who had married into the royal family of Stella and who had two boys already and a third child on the way.

She also had **views** on slavery, and rumor had it the monetary backing of several of her relatives to try and do something about it. Because of her influence and some other anti-slaving sentiment in the court, the small royal army had begun to try and flex its muscles.

This didn't bother the big time operators or the mines, but the small time slavers like this group were feeling the pinch. And the merchants who controlled the mines were the true power in Bosco. With them and with the slavers themselves, along with the fact that they had to work through the weak king, the queen-to-be was not making much headway.

 _Well, I might not be able to hunt down all of the merchants, but I can sure as hell do something about the slavers,_ Ranma thought. _And maybe the mines too, though that'll be more chancy than relying on just myself._

Ranma feigned unconsciousness for the rest of the day as the slavers used multiple horses to put distance between themselves and the Straight Path, with Ranma being moved from one horse to another like a package. Soon, however, she felt the horses slow down and heard new voices in the distance. _About damn time. I'm getting tired of just hanging here like this._

A second later Ranma heard a brusque, angry voice, a loud tapping noise underlining its words. "You return with only one slave? You were supposed to watch the Straight Path for groups of individuals using it, not just one."

"We might have if rumor didn't say that the royal family had begun to patrol the Straight Path," said one of the men who had abducted Ranma. "Besides, look at her. She's young, pretty, and I bet innocent as hell. Hell, she even tried to talk us out of takin' her, and me and the boys didn't try to sample the goods first. That should make the price higher, right?"

While Ranma fought back the urge to kill everyone within range of that person's voice at the very idea of someone sampling her, the brusque voice went on in a slightly less angry tone accompanied by more tapping as the voice's owner came closer. "Get her off that horse and wake her up."

Wincing and praying that the water was cold, Ranma felt herself be lifted off of the horse and then splashed with, thankfully, cold water. She gasped dramatically, coming awake and staring around her as fearfully as she could. "W, what's going on! What do you want from me? You can't just abduct me like this! I'm a free citizen of…"

She was interrupted by someone smacking her across the face. The blow was so weak Ranma barely even registered it, and it took all her acting skills to remember to move her head with the blow.

"We'll have to break her of this attitude, of course," the man in front of her drawled lazily. He was a fat frog of a man with bejeweled hands pressing down on the top of a cane. "Still, you're right; she's pretty enough. The pleasure houses will pay a good coin for her. Not my preferred trade, but it actually does pay better per head than the mines."

"What are you talking about? You can't do this to me, I'm a free…"

At that point one of the guards slapped Ranma again, and she allowed her body to stagger sideways, still chained with her hands behind her, and stayed silent for a moment.

"Whenever you speak, you will be punished. If you try to escape, you will be crippled. If you try to fight back, you will be killed. That is a slave's lot in life, and you, my dear, are now a slave," the fat man said as if he was discussing the weather. "Bring her to my chambers. I will break her tonight. There are many ways to do so and still leave her intact."

Ranma decided then that being passive was no longer in the cards. "Right!" she said crisply, standing upright. "That's about enough." With a flick of her wrists, she snapped the iron chains around her wrists as if they were tinfoil, using the end of the chain that had bound her to the other cuffs on her legs as a weapon to slam one of the guards backwards, his neck broken. She then raised a foot, smashing apart the iron cuffs on her ankles with an ease that should have terrified the people around her.

Despite that they still charged forward to attack her, but they weren't prepared for someone like Ranma. With the chain as her weapon, Ranma went through them like a scythe, only taking the opportunity to knock out the fat man for later questioning.

It didn't take her long to knock out, incapacitate, or kill all the slavers in the camp. There were only fifty, and not of one of them was a mage or even that good of a fighter. During the short fight Ranma noticed that there were other slaves here too, who looked on in shock and then dawning wonder as Ranma decimated the slavers.

Once that was done, Ranma grabbed the fat man, chaining him up to the entrance to the slave pens, and then looked in on them. "I need this one alive for questioning, but I might've left some of the others alive," she said coldly.

The old Ranma would never have thought of doing it this way, but the new Ranma had learned that this realm was hard and harsh, and its justice had to be equally so. Handing the slavers over to their former victims was perhaps the purest form of justice there could be.

One of the slaves, a tall, broad shouldered man who looked to have weathered his slavery better than the others nodded. "I'll see to them." Ranma looked at him, and he tapped his chest. "Former soldier here. I was betrayed into slavery by my former officer. Trust me, after hearing tales of what we were going to go through in the mines, I have no mercy left in me."

Ranma nodded grimly, though the other slaves didn't look nearly as bloodthirsty as the soldier did. Looking around the camp once more, Ranma could tell this wasn't really a main staging area for the slave trade. It looked more like a waypoint, and Ranma cursed. "I don't suppose any of you have any idea where you are going to be sent next?" she asked as she opened the gate to the slave pens.

Once more the soldier nodded. "There are what they call training centers that most of the slaves have to pass through before being sold on to the merchants who control the mines. This is a waypoint to one of the larger ones, though I'm sorry I don't know where it actually is. You could look around for maps, I suppose."

Ranma nodded, then gestured again towards the fat man. "Like I said, I want him alive, but the others are all yours."

The soldier nodded and pointed Ranma in the direction of the fat man's hut before taking the keys from Ranma, who had taken them from the fat man in the first place. With them in hand, he began to free his fellow slaves of their chains, and Ranma let him to it.

A few hours later Ranma was actually quite surprised by what he had found in the hut, because what he found was signs of organization beyond what he had expected. _Remember this, Ranma, old boy, er, girl now, blech: this isn't some new thing here. Slavery's been a way of life, a major part of Bosco's economy_ _for a long time. Hell, even the common man probably don't see much wrong with it. Suppose I'll just have to educate them somehow._

There were indeed maps, numerous maps. There were marks for salt mines here and there, coalmines, and numbers and dates next to them. There were even little marks on the map, which matched to notes he found in a notebook that the fat man had been keeping, indicating where slaves needed to be sent, what the going price for them was, and other such things.

The maps were also all marked out with lines going through them, and the sites of several other camps were marked. Heading out he talked to the soldier again, who helped Ranma orient herself in terms of where she currently was on the map. From there Ranma began to question the fat man.

Fearful of being turned over to the ex-slaves, the man told her everything he knew. He pointed out where the 'training center' this waypoint served was, as well as the distribution point said center usually used. He also told Ranma there were hundreds of training centers and waypoint camps all over Bosco, constantly moving as their people took in slaves, broke their spirits, and then passed them on to the distribution centers, which then in turn sold them to the mine owners. Those distribution centers, on the other hand were permanent and they rarely if ever moved.

He also passed on a rumor that there was a Dark Guild backing the slave trade. Ranma frowned at that. He'd heard of Dark Guilds, guilds of mages that had been declared outlaw due to taking illegal jobs or other similar activities. Though why anyone would simply declare a Dark Guild illegal rather than forcibly disbanding and arresting them all if they were guilty of such crimes, Ranma couldn't understand. _They probably do that, but the survivors of such a move still call themselves by their original guild name._

Ranma nodded occasionally as the man spilled everything he knew, before smiling a thin, almost psychopathic smile. "Is that all? I could've figured out most of that from looking over the map and talking to your slaves. You're going to have to say something more to make me re-think handing you over to them..."

"Wai, wait, there's more!" the fat man said pleadingly. He looked at one of his ring fingers and tapped one of them in particular, a large, very gaudy thing with an equally large clear green gem set into it. "This isn't an emerald, it's a communication Lacrima! All of us have one so we don't poach on one another's territory. We also sometimes team up to go after particularly juicy targets."

"And what targets would those be?" Ranma asked, reaching out to the man and pulling the ring off his finger quickly, shuddering a little at the slimy feel of the man's hand.

The man clammed up, and Ranma glared at him before looking over her shoulder at the soldier. "Can you find any red-hot pokers? Or maybe a small dagger? I've never tortured someone before, but I have a very active imagination. I figure we can make it up as we go along."

"Wait!" the fat man said, desperately afraid of this young, red-haired girl who had seemingly wiped out fifty men without even being injured in the process and with no magic that he could see. "We, we sometimes band together to cross the border into Stella. Sometimes we even raid ships going down the tributary from Joya to Fiore, though we mostly just deal with the pirates if we want to do that."

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it," Ranma said, before her fist lashed out with a blow that none of the others could see.

The fat man's head was flung backwards, and he dropped into unconsciousness.

Standing up, Ranma looked around the slaves. Some of them had been here for a while; they were barely able to look other people in the eye and trembling. Luckily for Ranma's sensibilities, and the lives of the slavers he had merely knocked out, there weren't any women among them. "If you lot can get over the border into Stella, do you think you'll be safe there?"

The ex-soldier nodded. "If we can just get to the Straight Path we might be able to link up with a royal scout patrol. Some of their officers are crooked as they come: hell, look at what happened to me. But not all of them, and for certain not all of the soldiery will go along with anything anyway."

"All right," Ranma said with a nod, before looking back down at the maps and the notebook, as well as the communication Lacrima. The communication Lacrima wasn't going to be any real help in hunting down the slavers, however it might let Ranma listen in on any of the slavers' plans.

Ranma helped the slaves get to the Straight Path, but then left them there, heading back deeper into the woods until she was far enough away from them to be certain that she was not being observed. With that done, she dumped warm water over her head thinking, _my female body will be the stalking horse, my normal body the hunter._

In his male form Ranma hunted three more training centers in the next few days, ranging through the woods of Bosco like a wraith. After destroying his third camp, thanks to the communication Lacrima he had grabbed Ranma learned that the slavers had realized that something was going on and were moving camps around randomly. All of them knew something was going on, a mage after them was the guess, and there were calls to the Roanoke Guild to protect them. Ranma smiled grimly when he heard that, clicking the communication Lacrima off.

Unfortunately, with his prey drying up, Ranma had to go back into his female form and play the victim again.

This time, Ranma was accosted two days after changing, heading down a small path from one fortified farm town to another. The two farm towns were among others that Ranma had seen in Bosco which had carved out farmland from the forest and didn't seem to be have anything to do with the actual slaving or mining. They were not against it either, selling their food to the mines, but they didn't seem to be raided for slaves so long as they kept to their own areas.

Moving as slowly as a normal person could along the road and pushing a cart with some things added to it that added to her disguise, Ranma found herself once again trussed up and captured. This time her story was that she had been a runaway trying to get to the nearby shoreline to see if she could hail down a ship and get out of Bosco entirely, over the Straits to Minstrel, to avoid an unwanted marriage. According to one group of slaves that Ranma had freed, that was actually quite normal, though few such runaways actually made it. They had been sailors out of Minstrel who had run into a group of pirates who had sold them to the slavers, where they were quickly freed by Ranma barely a day into their captivity.

Since Ranma hadn't used his female form after that first slave camp, none of the slavers had any suspicion of the young redhead being a threat, and she was pushed into a small cave complex along with numerous other female slaves. Some of them looked at her askance, and none of them approached her, busy with their own thoughts and sadness. But neither was Ranma molested by any of the slavers. Apparently all of these slaves were going to be sold as they were to a brothel that was connected to one of the slave mines. The merchant who owned that complex preferred to do his own breaking in rather than have the slavers do it for him.

The moment it was dark out, Ranma broke her bindings easily, then shattered the lock on their cage with equal ease. Turning to the astonished gazes of a few of the slaves who had woken up at the noise of metal being crushed, the redhead held up a finger to her lips. "Stay quiet and stay here for now until I come to get you."

"W, who are you?" whispered one of the women, staring at the redhead in shock. After all, she hadn't seen any sign of magic being used there.

Ranma thought for a moment, thinking about her plan and wondering which form she should give the name Ranma to before shrugging. "Just call me Red for now." With that, she held up her hands and muttered, "Pistols."

Brief rings of Requip magic appeared in her hand, and an instant later, she was carrying her guns. Then Ranma was out of the small cave and into the rest of the camp.

Jumping here and there through the camp, unseen by any of the few guards on duty, Ranma quickly found the barracks for the slavers. She entered it and removed all of the weapons inside, stowing them in her Requip space for now. This noise woke up a few of them, but Ranma knocked them out just as quickly and silently. With that done, she locked the door from the outside, placing an axe haft into the doorway so it couldn't be opened, and then moved on to find where the male slaves have been kept.

Here she ran into problems. Quite a lot of the male slaves had already been broken via drugs or magic. Their eyes were listless, unresponsive even, as Ranma killed two of the guards and opened their cage. Only ten out of the two hundred slaves Ranma could count in the male portion of the caves were willing to fight, and Ranma shook her head, ordering them to hold that position.

When she left them, however, Ranma's good luck failed her. "Intruder! Someone trying to free the slaves! Get her!"

Ranma turned, seeing someone in a long tailcoat rushing towards her. Between one step and the next there was a flare of magic, and the image of the man shifted into that of a giant bear, roaring forward on all fours.

At the man's shout, the door of another log cabin, which Ranma hadn't explored, was smashed open and five more men came out, grabbing at guns. "Guns Magic Flare!" one of them shouted, aiming into the sky.

As a flare went off in the sky, Ranma gunned down the charging bear with her own pistols, then opened up on the mages behind him, who ducked back into cover, shooting back wildly. All of them were Gun mages, so none of them tried to close the range as the shapeshifter had.

Other slavers were roused by the commotion and raced out of their various huts, making Ranma realize that there were more of them than she had expected. _Crap, I thought most of the small huts were storage areas!_ "But there aren't enough of you, still, to make any difference!" Ranma shouted. Holding her pistols down by her sides for a moment, she concentrated, not on trying to shape different spells per cylinder, but to shape a spell that affected the whole gun. "Rapid Fire!"

With that Ranma's fingers flashed as fast as she could make them, the cylinders of her two Colt revolvers spinning like small dervishes as bolts of magical energy shot out from each chamber. Barely formed into the shapes of magic bolts, they still lashed out at their targets with deadly force. Dozens of men went down, and smoke began to rise from her Colts before Ranma put them away and leaped forward to meet the first few that were rushing towards her.

After the fight was over, Ranma ran into a second problem. None of the slaves were courageous enough to lead the others to safety. Instead, Ranma had to stay there for over a week helping to train the few that were willing to fight for themselves to defend the others. During this time more of the men began to work through whatever drug they had been given, joining the others, and by the time she left, Ranma was somewhat pleased with their progress.

But still this had been a bad sign, in Ranma's opinion. She had hoped to somehow start a slave revolt, but it didn't look as if that was going to happen, and she knew that her best chance of doing real damage was to keep moving, not to be pinned down in one place. _Unless… I suppose I could have better luck at the actual mines,_ Ranma thought as she finally left the camp.

Two weeks later, Ranma, once more in his male form, was much happier. He had hit three different salt mines in close proximity to one another within those two days, and the slaves had quickly turned on their masters. Apparently whatever concoction broke the slaves to the masters' bidding initially couldn't be used in the mines since it also inhibited their movement. There the mine owners used brutality and magic chains to keep the slaves from revolting.

That, and there were **far** more slaves in the mines in comparison to their overseers. In the camps, there were often three or four slavers for every slave. In the mines, there were often as many as twenty slaves to one overseer.

 _All right,_ he thought to himself, leaving the third mine under command of the freed slaves. _So we hit the mines instead of the actual slavers. And it's time for me to practice my Escrima skills too. I think I've got my gun skills as honed as they can get against this rabble._ That was, after all, the other reason why he was in Bosco: to hone his skills with magic and his weapons.

Ranma hit four more mines over the next month, celebrating his fourth birthday in this world. He dealt with ten mages in that time, shapeshifters and Gun mages for the most part, with one mage who could manipulate trees, but none of them were a challenge. They all wore the same kind of cloaks with the mark of what looked like an evil ent on the back of them. Ranma supposed they were members of the Dark Guild that was backing the slavers, but he kicked himself for not thinking about taking one of them captive to question them about where their base was.

At this point his purloined communication Lacrima began to inform him that panic had set in deeply among both the slavers and the merchants. Ranma had given his name while acting in his male body and attacking the mines and the merchants were all fearful of him in that form. The slavers, on the other hand, were utterly terrified of his female body, no longer willing to even come close to anyone with red hair. Bloody Red, they were calling her, and they were utterly terrified of the young woman with the immense strength and insane Gun Magic skills.

However, this didn't mean that the slavers had pulled in their horns. As Ranma continued to head southwest, the slavers began to organize into larger and larger bands. And, according to one of communications that Ranma had picked up, they weren't just worried about Ranma either. The royal family had apparently been in contact with some of the mines that Ranma had freed and were shipping in food and weapons for the ex-slaves.

And the slavers weren't about to take that lying down. Fortunately for them, there was a target available. The woman who was next in line for the throne, Rose by name, was traveling to the capital of Bosco from her husband's chalet in Stella. Her route took her first via a sailboat down the straits of Joya and then down a road from one of the small ports that served Bosco.

The pirates had missed their opportunity, something that caused a lot of grousing among the slavers as Ranma listened to them over the Lacrima, but several slaver bands had decided to band together to attack the convoy escorting Rose. They'd take a lot of hard knocks doing it, but if they could capture Rose as well as her kids, the royal family would no longer be in any position to threaten them.

By this point Ranma had a good enough grasp of the lay of the land to figure out where he was in relation to the attack being discussed, but he was well out of position to get there in time to stop it. But thanks to his speed and the fact that for once his trip was not interrupted by either slaver attacks or animal attacks, he arrived on the heels of the attack. Bursting out of the trees, Ranma was among the attackers before they could realize what was going on, his sticks flashing in every direction.

Escrima was a highly mobile style of martial arts, somewhat like capoeira, where a user used one stick to defend and the other to attack, while using his or her legs freely. Ranma had picked up a lot of capoeira with Genma, who had molded it into their family's aerial style. Now, after several months of training with them, the sticks moved like a part of his body.

Using one stick as a pole, he flipped himself forwards over several slavers who apparently were also mages as they turned their guns on him, getting in among them before they could fire. One stick flashed out in a thrust, the other coming up in circle as he kicked out at the same time, rolling away on the ground. His first three victims fell, and Ranma smashed his sticks to either side, sending two more mages flying with their ribs shattered.

Within moments all of the gun using mages were down, and Ranma leaped forward to engage the next group.

He was interrupted a second later as a voice shouted, "Surrender, or she dies!"

Looking over, Ranma noticed that there are ten dead slavers by what looked like a royal carriage (small, with lots of filigree; so ostentatious Ranma wanted to puke) mixed in with the bodies of five other men wearing uniforms. As he watched, a pregnant woman in a periwinkle blue dress was being hauled out of the carriage's door. Another slaver was trying to hold a dagger to her throat, but she was struggling mightily.

Without even thinking about it, Ranma lashed out with water magic. An incredibly fast, thin beam of water shot from one finger to impact the man's forehead, hurling him backwards in a welter of blood.

As the second slaver gaped, the pregnant woman swiftly reached down and grabbed a sword, handing it back over her shoulder to a young boy, who chopped down at the arm of the other slaver with more eagerness than skill. When that slaver collapsed screaming at the pain the pregnant woman kicked him in the head before getting back into the carriage, pulling a rifle from somewhere inside. The young boy took a position in the doorway while she began to fire from one of the carriage windows. "Get on with it, whoever you are! We can look after ourselves!" the woman shouted boldly.

From the sounds of it, Ranma knew there was a fight going on on the other side of the carriage too. But before he could see what was going on, more slavers were on him, and he had no more time to think about that.

Ranma was everywhere after that, using his aerial style to the utmost, feet and sticks flashing out. Every time someone got a hit through to him, there was a stick to redirect it, and then the other would come around, ending the attacker's assault one way or another. His sticks served as blunt objects, shield, even a mount to flip himself away from, always whirling in his hand. He never stopped moving, and the slavers did more damage to one another than they did to him. His fists and sticks moved so quickly and fluidly that none of the slavers could get past his defenses.

The fight around the carriage also began to turn against the slavers as two royal guards hopped over the top of it to join the young boy. But Ranma continued to pull in more of the slavers, until they finally realized they weren't getting anywhere and broke. When they did, five of the eleven remaining guards grabbed horses and made to ride them down before being called back by their commanding officer.

Now that the fight was over, the man in charge, a grizzled looking sergeant type got his people helping the wounded or formed up around the carriage. Many of them looked unnerved by the amount of blood and brain matter that was currently dripping down from Ranma's ironwood sticks, as well as from his feet, but Ranma ignored that.

As he looked at the carriage, the woman poked her head out of a window and, after exchanging words with one of the guardsmen and the young boy, she opened the door descending to the road. The young boy quickly took her hand, moving beside her, and Ranma realized that they had to be related by their looks. He winked at the boy, who flashed back a grin before his mother spoke, sizing him up and frowning for some reason. "You would be Ranma the Reaper, I presume? You are… **far** younger than I expected."

"Is that what they're calling me now?" Ranma asked, ignoring the comment about his age. He knelt down to pull a piece of cloth from one of the dead slavers, wiping his sticks for a moment and shuddering slightly in reaction as the adrenaline left him. He always did this after a big fight where he knew he had taken lives, but he was unfortunately slowly getting used to the feeling. It still didn't feel good, and Ranma prayed it never would, but there was a certain amount of grim satisfaction of a job well done nowadays.

"Indeed," the woman said, before looking around, her teeth gritting angrily. "The slavers have gone too far this time! This will be the impetus I need to get my uncle off of the throne and more. But before that, would you mind escorting us to the capital, young man? And what guild are you with? I know of no guild that is even allowed to operate in Bosco, let alone that would act so brazenly against the slavers here."

"I'm not with a guild. I'm just a traveler following the Straight Path. I wanted to test some of my new magical and martial arts techniques so I figured, why not hunt some slavers?" Ranma said with a laugh, knowing exactly how most people would take that flippant response.

Rose didn't disappoint, gaping at him for a second before shaking her head with a laugh. "Well, I suppose there are worse reasons to try to single-handedly overthrow an entire economic system."

"There's that too," Ranma said shrugging his shoulders as if it didn't matter to him, which it didn't. The economy of Bosco was less interesting than the weather to Ranma.

Rose gestured for the soldiers to start moving the group along before moving back to her own the carriage. Despite that, the pregnant woman continued to look at Ranma thoughtfully over her shoulder before hopping up into the carriage with the aid of her son, still seemingly bemused by his age.

It took their party two days to travel what Ranma felt would have only taken him barely half a morning, but they eventually arrived at the capital city of Bosco, a smallish city for what it was, bursting up out of the forest with only a few dozen yards of cleared area around it to the south from which they were coming. As they came close, however, Ranma could see that there was a lot more area cleared on its other side, with numerous prosperous looking farms. The people working those farms weren't in chains, which Ranma supposed was a good sign.

However, Ranma was surprised to see that the farmers noticed they were coming. When they made out the image on the carriage, a pink rose with a circle of swords around it, they stopped their work and began to wave, even shouting happily.

This continued as they entered the city, where hundreds of people shouted or even greeted the woman by name. "Duchess Rose, Duchess Rose, magic save Your Majesty!" shouted the crowd.

"She seems popular," Ranma said, jogging alongside the man in charge of the guards.

"Aye, she is. Slavery might've been all a part of Bosco for a long time, but that doesn't mean it's popular," the man supplied. "It's just that everyone tries to convince ourselves that it's really the only way to keep the mines running. After all, who would willingly work in a salt or coal mine? But with the other countries around us starting to pressure us economically away from it, and considering slaving's a hanging offense in most other counties in Ishgar, the push began years ago to try and move away from it."

The soldier spat to one side. "It's a bad sign when the other countries compare yours to Sin and Enca."

Ranma nodded thoughtfully, and the trip continued through the city, gathering more and more people as they went.

The King of Bosco was an old man bent with age, with palsied hands that trembled as he spoke to his niece and the crowd of courtiers and others. A lot of those courtiers did not look happy and Ranma marked them out, noting a few of the guards doing the same. Six of them in particular were staring at Rose with hate in their eyes. They sent similar looks at Ranma. In reply Ranma merely grinned, crossing his arms so that his sticks were thrusting up over his shoulders as he glared back at them with an insouciance that seemed to both infuriate and terrify.

"My niece attacked on our roads, her soldiers slain, her ladies killed by the slavers who infest our country. Long has this infestation been seen as part of our economy: a, a necessary evil," the king was saying, his voice barely a whisper that you had to strain to hear, his palsied hands trembling further with each word. "This must stop. This must stop. But I know I no longer have the strength to do it. So I, I officially abdicate the throne," the man said after a long hesitant moment, reaching up to his crown and holding it out to his niece.

There was a loud mutter at that, a roar of protest and shouts of dismay from more than one of the courtiers, but it looked as if Rose had expected this. She simply took the crown from her uncle's head and placed it on her own before turning to the crowd as the old man continued to speak. "May your regency in favor of your son be long and fruitful, my dear."

The moment he stopped speaking Rose shouted, her voice a gunshot echo in the room in comparison to his barely heard whisper. "Guards! Close the doors."

The guards hastened to do so, and the courtiers began to realize that perhaps protesting so volubly was not the best of ideas. At the same time she touched a small ruby inset on the arm of her uncle's throne, which suddenly glowed with magic. "I hereby order a communications blackout over the city."

The ruby-colored Lacrima pulsed, and Ranma felt a wave of magic passing over him, but then it was gone. _Interesting. There's more that can be done with Lacrima than I expected, or perhaps I should say, magical engineering._

Ranma stood and watched as the newly crowned queen quickly organized her troops, pushing the courtiers this way and that. Those with known slaver ties or merchants who owned the various mines found themselves quickly surrounded by guards and herded into one corner, while the others were brought forward to speak to the new monarch. The queen took several moments to talk to that group in a much quieter tone of voice as a nurse came in to help her uncle away. Her hands resting on her belly, the queen should've looked peaceful and serene, but there was nothing serene about her expression as she spoke to either that group or the next. Though she didn't honestly say much to the second group, simply laying down the new law of the land.

Later Ranma was invited to talk to the queen personally with only one of her advisers present. "You've done a lot of good in my country, Ranma," Rose said, gesturing for Ranma to sit across from her at the long conference table. "And I hate to ask you to do still more, but I'm afraid I must."

Ranma laughed. "Your Majesty, I want to see the slave trade smashed. My idea was to simply go around freeing slaves and either killing or capturing as many slavers as I could. If you've got a better idea, I'm all ears."

"Unfortunately, thanks to your actions we're stretched thin at the moment. Bosco's standing army has never been that large. After all, the merchants and slavers didn't want an enterprising royal to get ideas above their station," Rose said, her voice grim. "But your freeing so many slaves has given us an opportunity. I ordered several of the few companies of troops we have to help protect the mines with freed slaves and to guard food shipments to and from them and other things of that nature. And because of the brazen attack on me, I can ask our neighbors to lend us some troops."

"However, there remains one major threat that we cannot match alone. The Dark Guild Roanoke. It hasn't moved against us yet, presumably because it was waiting for you or this Bloody Red that I've seen reports of to come to it. However, once word of my ascension gets out, they'll either attack the capital directly, or start to attack the freed slaves at their mines."

"Do you know where they are?" Ranma asked intently. "I was never able to find out where their camp was, though trust me, I looked."

"Actually, we do," said the adviser. He looked like a scholar, with small glasses perched on his nose, looking sort of like an affable owl to Ranma. But owls were predators too, and he smirked at Ranma, the light catching his glasses to give him a very evil look for a second. "Their camp is actually a permanent installation. It's called Dark Falls and is over towards our border with Seven, well off the beaten path, of course, but I can tell you what markers to look for. However, I have to warn you that there are over a hundred and fifty mages there, possibly as many as two hundred. Our reports on their numbers vary wildly."

Ranma shrugged his shoulders. To him two hundred regular mages was nothing. So long as they didn't have someone like Gildarts, Laxus, or the Court Magi from Iceberg, anyway. "I can handle them," he said calmly. "You think they'll have slaves there too?" Ranma was always worried about the slavers trying to use the slaves as hostages against him like those two attackers had tried to do with Rose, so this was a major concern.

"I have no idea," Rose said, shaking her head. "That guild is one of the reasons why the other countries have been pushing us to end the slave trade. They've been raiding over the borders into Seven. Hopefully you'll find quite a few of them still there rather than having already been shipped to the mines. If not, then we will have to find them among the mines you haven't attacked yet." Ranma nodded and pored over the map with the older adviser for a few moments before quickly taking his leave. If he was to get there before word of Rose's survival could reach them, he had to move quickly.

 **OOOOOOO**

Later that evening Rose used a dedicated communication Lacrima that connected the kings of Ishgar to one another. She started with her neighbors, asking for aid first from Fiore, then from the others each in turn.

The King of Fiore agreed to send aid though not in the form of troops. Instead he would send a request to some of his better mage guilds, Fairy Tail in particular, for mages to head into Bosco to help. "After all, it isn't as if you're worried about collateral damage," the short, middle-aged King of Fiore said with a laugh before cutting the connection.

Seven, Joya, and Iceberg all agreed to send troops. Stella did as well, of course, given Rose's relationship with their royal family, though their troops would be under the command of their own officers and move out from their borders to try and scour the woods of Bosco for slaving bands. Seven and Joya's troops would arrive and be added to the forces already protecting the mines Ranma had freed.

Iceberg's troops, too, would arrive and bring with them magical technology to add to the cleansing of Bosco's slave system. Iceberg, after all, relied on free miners and Lacrima powered technology to run their mines, and there was no reason Bosco couldn't do the same.

Iceberg's king, however, had a question before he consigned his troops to be commanded by Rose's officers. "I have to wonder what exactly pushed things past the tipping point here, Rose. You say some of the mines have already been liberated, but I know your uncle would never have done that, so who did? Did you go behind his back to attack the fat cat merchants directly?"

"Ah, no," Rose replied sheepishly. "In that we were helped by a wandering mage named Ranma."

At the name Ranma, Adam started and then began to laugh. "So he really did go to Bosco. Interesting."

"You know him?" Rose asked.

"Somewhat, yes. He saved my life and those of many of my citizens. You've no doubt heard how Ice Den was attacked by the demon Deliora. What you might not have heard was that a young mage boy was able to turn the demon's wrath aside, injuring it so severely in the resulting battle that it retreated rather than finish the job."

"That was Ranma?" Rose asked, then laughed. "Suddenly I don't feel nearly as guilty about putting so much on his shoulders." Then she frowned thoughtfully. "Do you know where he comes from?"

"No, but Vicotronious might know more," Adam replied with a shrug. "As far as I know he's simply a wandering mage, but he fought in the war with the orcs and has always acted honorably, if somewhat mischievously at times, according to him."

"Interesting... So he will have earned the respect and gratitude of three kings, or rather, two kings and a queen," she said with a self-deprecating smile.

Adam leaned back thoughtfully. "You're thinking of offering him a Ranger's badge?"

"If the boy is going to keep going around Ishgar and sticking his nose into matters like this, or just run into them regardless, I think it would behoove us to use his unique abilities as best we can. While also giving him access to aid he would otherwise never get…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma found the area the Dark Guild Roanoke and their slaver associates used as their primary base to be strangely beautiful. It had a strange new tree Ranma had never seen before, as tall as red trees, but very thin, like elm almost, mixed with equally thin rocky spires jutting out of the ground and small streams running through it everywhere.

As he moved deeper into this odd area, Ranma noticed several watchers on a few spires. Circling around the two he had spotted in the Umi-Sen Ken, Ranma spotted what had to be the main base, but instead of closing right away, he decided to scout out the area first.

Doing so, he frowned for a moment. _There aren't any watchers set before the actual entrance into the base? That's either a trap of some kind, or I'm missing something._ Sighing, Ranma continued to search around the area, getting in close, directly between the two guards he had noticed, to get a glimpse of the actual camp.

The camp in question was stuck between five larger than average rock spires with several streams traveling around it rather than through it. The camp was the most solid and permanent looking of the camps Ranma had seen in Bosco matching the mines themselves, with several large log cabins made out of the surrounding trees, most of which looked to be of decent quality. One of them wasn't, and that one was separated by the rest of the camp by a spiked barricade. It was also much smaller, and it had four guards on it. _Wonder what that's about?_

Night fell, and Ranma continued to scout out the area, frowning as something was niggling at his danger sense. _No choice. I need to figure out what I'm sensing here. And that means I need more senses._ Finding a place near where he thought more guards should be but where he was hidden in shadow, Ranma came out of the Umi-Sen Ken and breathed in deeply, allowing his sense of smell to do its work. A moment later he found them: two different scents, one that smelled of blood, and the other overpoweringly of onions.

Quickly pulling the Umi-Sen Ken around himself, Ranma moved towards the spire where the one smelling of blood was and leaned against it as he stared toward the camp, directly underneath a rope ladder. _I'd guess they couldn't see the top of the spire from there. I wonder how the guards are supposed to communicate with the camp? Still, this gives me a good idea on how to start the party._

With that thought Ranma turned and leaped upwards, gently landing about halfway up the spire of rock, which was something like seven stories tall before leaping upwards again. As Ranma had known, the man on top of it was somehow invisible. Landing lightly and soundlessly, Ranma looked around him and spotted what looked like a shimmer in the air in a small chair set there for the watchers. Moving behind it, he estimated where the person's head would be and then quickly reached out with both hands around it.

He messed up somewhat, grabbing the man over the eyes and mouth rather than the neck and mouth. But before the man could do more than struggle, coming out of his cloaking magic Ranma corrected, going for a chokehold while covering the man's mouth with his other hand.

The man struggled futilely for a few minutes before falling silent, coming entirely out of his cloaking technique. Ranma pulled the unconscious man out of his seat and was debating what to do with him when a voice spoke up from the ground below the spire. "Time to switch up, Istan."

Ranma chanced a glance over the side of the spire and saw another man standing there, his features barely discernible in the dark. He wasn't carrying a torch, something that Ranma was very happy to see. As Ranma watched, the man called up once more. "Istan?"

Before he could continue, Ranma leaped down on the other side of the spire, circling it before the man could decide to yell again or try and sound the alarm. Grabbing the man from behind, Ranma smashed his face into the rock of the spire so hard he collapsed like a doll with its strings cut.

Leaving the body behind, Ranma moved around the camp, taking out both the guards on duty and the ones they were in the process of replacing, or vice versa. With that done, Ranma moved back to the spire he had attacked first, which had the best view into the camp from its top. Pulling out his rifle from his Requip space, Ranma lay down and popped up the sniper scope, staring into the camp, which was well lit by several fires and torches. _Ten men moving around, four guards on that one shabbier looking building, none on the others. All of them are dressed much the same: red cloaks and staffs at their sides, but a few of them have guns too. Guns Magic or regular guns?_

As Ranma watched, however, some of the guards seemed to realize that the relieved watchers hadn't returned to camp and sounded an alarm. Cursing, Ranma began to fire, the rifle's powerful magical bullets taking two of the alert guards in the back of their heads. By the time the other guards had roused the camp, Ranma had shot down four more, causing the others to dive into cover.

From the doorway of one of the lodges a giant fireball rose into the sky, illuminating the area like it was day. With that several dozen shooters began to fire in the direction they thought Ranma was. None of them had the range, however, and Ranma took out three more for their trouble.

By that point the entire camp was roused, and Ranma counted about forty or so mages running around frantically. Several of them charged straight towards his vantage point, following a particularly large man. Two of the others following him threw their hands forward, and suddenly two large wood golems appeared, shambling forward slowly.

Grinning, Ranma decided that the time to abandon his hide had come, and he leaped down to meet the group charging him. "Water Dragon's Claws!" he roared, slashing forward. From his hands large claws as tall as he was formed as he leaped down, and he lashed forward with first one hand then the other, sending the golems flying, shattered under the impact.

"I don't know who you are, stranger, but you'll regret attacking the Roanoke Guild!" the man in the lead bellowed, lashing forward with a fist the size of Ranma's head. "I'm going to crush you with my Transformation Magic! Rock Form!"

"What is it with villains and trying to make speeches?" Ranma asked, then shot out a single finger. _Thank you, Ryoga, you ass, for using this on me so often._ "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

With a touch of his finger the rock form of the man shattered, exploding him and sending his bits and pieces flying. Before the mages following behind could raise their staffs to cast whatever magic they used, Ranma was on them his ironwood sticks, lashing out all around. One of them had a moment to shout, "It's the Reaper!" before he went down, his skull crushed.

Then Ranma was racing on, his sticks disappearing to be replaced by his revolvers. "Guns Magic! Rapid Shot!" he bellowed as he ran. Each revolver fired as fast as a machine gun, downing several mages still in the camp. One of them had been trying to conjure up a large fire dragon of some kind, but died as Ranma's shot found his neck.

"Shit, it's Bloody Red too!" wailed one of the mages, having seen that shot and connected it to Ranma's female form. Ranma thought it ironic really, considering that he had yet to actually change gender just yet in this fight.

An instant later Ranma leaped over the short row of spikes marking the edge of the camp and was in among three of the mages before they could retreat further. Two of them flew away from him from the power of his strikes, the last died from friendly fire as several Guns Magic using mages hosed down his location.

"Try to pin him down!" shouted one voice authoritatively from somewhere within the camp. Given the number of voices shouting out spells, Ranma couldn't figure out where that was coming from.

But whoever it was seemed to be some kind of authority, as the other mages immediately became more organized, firing not just where Ranma was, but all around him as well, forcing him to leap into cover behind a small guard post by the entrance to the camp. Ranma could probably have toughed his way through most of those spells, but why take the risk?

Once under cover, Ranma gestured, and one of the streams that passed by the camp came alive, bursting out of its bed and slashing through the camp to one side, smashing houses and mages alike. That caused enough confusion for Ranma to leap out of his hiding place and close in further.

"Poison Magic: Death Cloud!" shouted the same voice, and a gaseous substance of some kind shot towards Ranma, as tall as he was and twice as wide, trying to envelop him. Ranma dove to the side to get out of the way, flinging a torch that had fallen nearby into the poison gas.

"NO! Get back GAH!" The cloud exploded, the fire spreading quickly through it back to the man who had conjured it up, hurling him and several of the men around him away.

Smiling grimly, Ranma moved in, sticks raised.

Without those who Ranma assumed had been their three aces, the poison and fire conjurers along with the Rock Transformation mage, the surviving mages of the Roanoke Guild were no match for Ranma. Once the last fell to a blow from his Escrima sticks, Ranma moved around the camp, ransacking it for anything useful. It turned out the poison user had been the guild master, as denoted by a heavy gold chain with the image of a chained woman that he wore under his robe. He had some papers on him in a code that Ranma couldn't make out, several large communication Lacrima in his pockets, and numerous small jewels, which Ranma pocketed, putting the rest in a small bag to be handed over to the queen.

After meeting with the team of cavalrymen who would be taking possession of the base and its ill-gotten gains, as well as the few slavers and mages that Ranma had left alive, Ranma was asked politely to head back to the capital to see Rose again. Seeing as he needed to head to the capital anyway to pick up the Straight Path, he had no issues following this order.

When Ranma arrived at the castle he was immediately ushered inside to see the queen in a special room set to one side of the throne room. To his surprise, Rose was alone, sitting at a small desk with a large communication Lacrima set into it, and she quickly gestured him into a chair across from him. The crystal was glowing slightly, but what spell it was using, Ranma couldn't tell. His mage sight was one technique that Ranma hadn't been able to train very well since coming up with it in the first place, and he hadn't found any books on the subject either.

"Hello, Ranma," she said softly, smiling at him while shaking her head internally, as she saw once more that the boy was barely a year older than her oldest son, if that. "How did it go? Was it as easy as you thought it would be?"

"Once I took them by surprise, yeah. Some of the mages had some nasty tricks, and if they'd been able to organize they might have been a threat. But taken by surprise and simply reacting to my assault, it was relatively painless," Ranma said, before going into detail about the battle.

Rose was silent during this, simply tapping a finger thoughtfully on a box in front of her which Ranma hadn't noticed before, hidden as it was by the giant Lacrima. "So, we have a mage in front of us who can perform espionage, use Gun Magic to an incredible degree, water magics which come from what most would term a Lost Magic, and is an incredible combatant even without his magic," she mused aloud, staring into Ranma's eyes before abruptly changing topic. "Truly, I cannot thank you enough for all that you have done for my kingdom these past few months. I know that you never asked for or did it to be rewarded, but you will be nonetheless."

Ranma shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "I'd only ask that I be allowed access to the Royal Library here." Unlike in other countries, there weren't very many libraries at all in Bosco, and only one, the Royal Library, would have any real magical knowledge about anything beyond Bosco's history or small sundry affairs. Ranma had taken the time out of his one-man war on slavery here in this country to look for it, just as he had taken time out working with William to do the same in Stella.

"You will receive access to my library, but I also have a proposition for you, Ranma. You see, Bosco doesn't have a Mage Guild of our own. We have mages aplenty, but most of them quickly go dark, joining the slavers. And thanks to your depredations, most of them are either dead or in jail now," Rose said calmly, making no mention of the flinch Ranma couldn't quite hide when she mentioned how many slavers had died. "I hope to use this opportunity to complete the sweep, as it were, and install a new guild, the name of which I am still deciding on. Perhaps the Gardeners or the Flower Guards."

As Ranma winced at the names, Rose laughed, the sound noticeably girlish for a woman of her age and a mother of two besides. "The name is debatable," she said, still chuckling at his expression. "But I would like to offer you the job of guild master."

Spluttering in shock, Ranma stared at her but Rose went on evenly. "You are very young yet, that is true, but you are powerful, skilled, and extremely honorable. A certain efficacy with paperwork can be instilled in the future, and you would do well in the role, I feel."

Ranma shook his head rapidly. "I'm sorry, Rose, that is, Your Majesty, but I'm really not interested in that idea at all. For one thing, I don't think of myself as a leader like that. I'm not saying I couldn't be that in the future, but not now. And for another, I don't want to be tied down to one place. I want to continue my own journeys. Being tied down and having others around like that I'd have to be in charge of, that would cut into my training time."

Rose giggled, once more shaking her head with a laugh. "You are so, so **blunt**! You know I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of people that would talk to me like that now that I am queen. My husband and family don't count, of course. So, what are your goals?" she asked, leaning back. "You say you want to keep training and traveling; is that all?

"Well, sort of," Ranma said, looking a little sheepish now. "I want to get stronger and explore the world. I don't really have a goal to that I need to reach by getting stronger. I mean, that's kind of stupid to me. The goal of getting stronger is to get stronger." This was another thing that his father had instilled in him, the need to become better in the art.

"And help people?"

"Well, yeah," Ranma said with a shrug. "That's part of my Code, helping people. But not helping them walk across street or anything stupid like that, but the Code says that I need to help those who are weaker protect themselves from those who would prey on them. I've got power; that comes with a lot of responsibility."

"And if in so doing you irritate those in power, as you did here with the merchants and slavers?" Rose asked, leaning back and smiling a small, secretive smile as she steepled her hands in front of her on top of the box. "I can tell you that several of the surviving merchants, the ones who I simply removed from their ownership of the various mines, have put a price on your head."

"That's their problem, not mine," Ranma said with a grin. "Hopefully anyone who comes after me will be worth my time. Frankly, I thought I would have to do something about the King of Bosco when I first heard about the slave trade. I was surprised and quite happy that I didn't have to," he finished, nodding his head towards Rose, who laughed at his honesty.

"And you still don't want to be my guild master?" Ranma shook his head again, and the Queen smiled brightly, tapping the box again with one finger before looking at the Lacrima in front of her, touching it with her other hand. "Well, gentlemen? What do you both think?"

Three images appeared in the air above the Lacrima, each hologram being directed out a facet of the it. Two of them Ranma recognized, Adam and Vicotronious. The other he didn't recognize, though he did resemble the young boy that Rose been traveling with, so much that he could only be her husband.

The oldest one, Vicotronious, smiled at the youth. "Hello once more, young Ranma. I understand you have chosen a last name since we saw one another."

"I did, Your Majesty," Ranma said, bowing his head, though his eyes narrowed as he looked at the King of Pergrande. "I don't know what this is about, but before you all get to the point of this interview, did you meet a young man named William who…"

"I have," Vicotronious said, interrupting Ranma quickly. "And his far-reaching concepts are one reason why I have no objection to what we will discuss here. You saw what could happen there with yours and William's creation and decided to put William and his knowledge where both could do the most good. It is still a bit of a genie in a bottle, and it will get out eventually, but not very quickly, and when it does, we will have planned for it."

At that point Vicotronious looked around at the others. "I will explain at the next King's Conclave. To say it is revolutionary is an understatement. It could very well mean that Pergrande will never again face a threat from the orcish menace and that perhaps the time to deal with Sin and Enca will finally arrive. However, we are not talking about that topic right now, but rather Ranma's suitability."

The others looked interested at that, but nodded agreeably, looking back at Ranma.

"I too have no objection. You saved my capital and my people from a demon who almost literally tore you apart simply because it was the right thing to do. That shows both fortitude, courage, and a level of honor that I would like to see in our Rangers," Adam said next.

"Rangers?" Ranma asked cautiously, looking around them. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm being set up for something?"

"Because you are," Rose said, though she once more had to tell herself to look past the young boy's age. Ranma glared at her, but it washed off the motherly queen with an ease that irritated him no end. "Oh, don't look at me like that, young man. I'm a queen, and royals of all sorts have to realize how to get the best benefit out of people, not just for themselves, but for their nations."

"You see, Ranma, about two hundred years ago the Kings of Ishgar realized they needed a group of people that could handle problems that traveled across borders," Vicotronious said, taking center stage as the senior royal present.

"I thought the magic guilds could do that," Ranma interrupted.

"They are allowed to cross borders if they are in hot pursuit of criminals, but even then very few mages truly cross borders. And for the most part, mages are flashy, or…." Adam said

"One trick ponies," Vicotronious said, nodding at Adam. "Able to do one thing extremely well. In your friend Laxus' case, for example, a magnificent fighter. But could you see him having the patience to entrap so many slave gangs as you did in Bosco, or staying around to train and protect the slaves?"

"Or, God forbid, Gildarts," Adam said, shaking his head. "He could've beaten the demon but would have done just as much damage as the demon to our countryside and possibly my capital doing it. And neither of those two worthies would have the ability to sneak around as you have. Even if they saw the need which Gildarts wouldn't have. He would help people in need if he ran into them, but he certainly doesn't go looking for trouble. I mean no disrespect to the man, but Gildarts has never seen it as his place to do that. And I have never met this Laxus fellow."

"And frankly, not all of our Rangers are mages. We as Kings can't show favoritism like that, and even a mage like you can't be asked to solve any issue that comes up," Rose said, rejoining the discussion. "For example, I don't think you'd be a good fit to sort out a multi-country embezzlement scheme, just off the top of my head," she said, sending a wicked smirk over at Victronious, who grimaced irritably. There was a story there, but not one Ranma was interested in.

"The Rangers," she went on, now taking command of the discussion, "are people who the kings can trust to do the honorable thing, who can speak for the kings in areas where we cannot go, and who will find problems and deal out justice as they see fit."

"The Rangers can be our eyes and ears, our hands, even our daggers in the dark," Victronious said. "There are only five of them at present, and only one of the others is a mage, as Rose said. We would like you to be a sixth."

"So this doesn't have anything to do with my strength but rather my versatility," Ranma mused. "Still, while I can see why you want to use me like this," he said, glaring halfheartedly at Rose, who simply smiled beatifically at him, "what's in it for me? I mean, fine, yeah, I'm definitely not one to back away from a fight or care overmuch about jurisdictions or laws if I see a problem that needs fixing. But that's a far cry from being your specially chosen troubleshooters."

"You misunderstand," Victronious said with a small smile. "Rangers aren't chosen from people who we want to use to solve issues, they are chosen from people who will find those issues and solve them regardless. Trouble magnets, I suppose you could say, which seems to be an apt description of you, yes?"

As Ranma held up a hand like a fencer signaling a point, the older king went on. "This is also a way to give you some protection from your own activities, as well as occasionally, yes, using you. Can you tell me that's such a hardship? Being asked to do what you would be doing otherwise and perhaps with a bit of backup as well?"

Ranma frowned, thinking, then nodded slowly. "All right, I understand your points, but still I'd like to know what's in it for me."

"Access to every royal and magical library, regardless of nation," Rose said quickly. "And information resources you can call on for your own ends at need."

"A small stipend for your expenses and unlimited funds for weapons if you need them," Vicotronious said. "I know you've already used all the money I gifted you with."

"The ability to poke your nose in anywhere if asked, and the ability to tell anyone below a king what to do, or call them to task," Adam supplied.

"I still feel like I'm being railroaded here," Ranma said, scratching his chin, his eyes for once showing his real age in such a way that startled Rose, who now felt much better about this than she had, having had second thoughts about it due to his age. The unlimited funding for weapons was nice, but it was the access to information that really interested him, while another aspect called out to the puckish nature inside Ranma. _The ability to call anyone below a king onto the carpet, hmmm?_

And he wasn't entirely blind to the fact that this would also allow the kings to place a halter on him. A very small, very light halter, but still a way to control Ranma in some fashion in the future. Or so they might think. _Still, it would make them feel better._

"Say I agree. How much control of my movements are you people going to try to use?" Ranma asked, as he thought about that point.

"None," Rose replied simply. "As Vicotronious said, we don't choose Rangers from people we have to direct all the time. As far as I know there are no issues in my country other than the slavers, which you've already solved, so you can go where you will."

"I have no pertinent issues that I would need your help for, Ranma," Vicotronious said before looking over at the King of Iceberg.

Adam shrugged his shoulders. "I would've liked to have had you on hand to hunt down Brain, but I'm afraid that that trail will no doubt have gone cold by this point," he said ruefully.

"Brain? That tanned guy with the long hair? The one who tried to be nice, but it was as if he looked the word up in a dictionary and didn't really understand what it meant?" Ranma asked after a second, going over his memories of his time in Iceberg's capital.

The King of Iceberg blinked, then guffawed loudly, slapping something out of the image which let loose a loud smack. "Yes!" he gasped between laughs. "Exactly." He shook his head. "The man was a brilliant magical researcher and head of the Bureau of Magical Development. However, I never liked the man, and there were very dark rumors about the Institute. These were possibly borne out a few days after you left, when we received news that the Institute had suffered a massive magical accident of some kind."

Nodding at that Rama turned his thoughts back to the discussion at hand. _So being a Ranger wouldn't really cramp my style; they would simply point me in the direction of problems that I'd probably like to get stuck into anyway sometimes, and it would all be major stuff too. It might take time away from my training, but not much. And access to all those libraries and information sources…_

"Fine," he said at last. "So long as you realize I still want to travel around, and I might be just as liable to tell you lot where to stick it if you make a request I don't like, or if a request goes against my personal honor, I'll sign up."

"You are precisely the fourth Ranger to say something like that to me," Vicotronious said mildly, his eyes sparkling with laughter before looking at the others. "It never gets old," he said to them. They looked a little surprised before laughing as well.

"Does this Ranger thing give me power in countries that aren't represented here?" Ranma asked, gesturing with his hands to include all of them.

"It does. You have to be nominated by three kings, but you can act in all the countries of Ishgar," Rose's husband said, speaking up for the first time. His part in this hadn't been explained to Ranma, but he probably served as some kind of observer or something. "And Bellum and Desierto have no kings or even a centralized government in the latter's case. Even Fiore had to agree to let Rangers operate as they will in its borders."

Ranma slowly nodded, then made the move sharper than it had been, signaling that he had reached a decision. "Very well. I'll be one of your Rangers."

"Good," Rose said, gesturing for Ranma to come around the desk. From the box in front of her, she pulled out a small brooch the size of three fingers put together, in the shape of a leaf. There was a Lacrima set into the leaf to one side of the main stem and some incredibly small writing on the other, which was inset slightly from the outer edge of the leaf and the stem.

"This is the sign of the Rangers," Rose said formally. "These Lacrima are extremely rare communication and projection Lacrima, like the ones we kings have access to. They all allow us to project our thoughts to you, as well as to project our images out of it when you call on that ability."

Ranma was reminded of a very old show about a Shogun who went around in disguise solving problems and then whipping out his signet of office at the last minute to force the guilty to fess up. He smiled at the memory, then knelt down in front of Rose as she directed him to.

She pressed the brooch into his hand, then cut the finger of her other hand with a tiny silver dagger and dripped blood onto the slightly recessed side of the brooch with the words engraved on it. Ranma gasped as he watched the brooch almost writhe in his hand, growing and then shrinking, a warm vibration beginning to permeate the air around the two of them.

This was magic of a type Ranma hadn't seen before, an enchantment of a device, and blood activated to boot. Looking at Ranma's expression, Rose smiled. "One of the Kings of Minstrel actually created these when the need for Rangers was apparent, but the technique has long since been lost."

Holding her hand out over the brooch and pressing two of her fingers down, set into the recess where her blood continued to congeal, Rose continued to speak, her voice falling into an ultra-formal cadence. "Do you, Ranma Oceana, agree to be our voice where we cannot go?"

"I do," Ranma said, his voice too becoming formal, realizing that this was no longer the time for comedy.

"Do you, Ranma Oceana, swear that you will always be on the lookout for evil, that you will defend the weak from the powerful, that you will uphold the rights and duties of the honorable regardless of personal cost?"

"I do," Ranma said.

"Will you swear to never be corrupted, to always be true to your code of honor, and to always search out those in need?"

"I do," Ranma said this time even more firmly.

"Then take this brooch Ranma, and be known as a Ranger."

Looking sweaty and pale, Rose leaned back, one hand going to her pregnant belly. "That," she said, gasping lightly as the light of the brooch faded, "was more than I expected it to be."

Ranma nodded slowly, looking at the brooch now. Her blood was gone, having somehow been sucked into the thing, but for a moment the writing gleamed on it, and Ranma could understand it, despite it not being in the modern dialect. "'Thus always to tyrants?' 'To bring a light to the darkness?'"

"The King of Minstrel who devised these was an interesting fellow, and the problems the Rangers were called upon in those days were quite a bit more…deep, I suppose you could say," Vicotronious said, trying to come up with a single sentence that could really describe the guild and various other kinds of wars going on at the time. There was a reason why Minstrel didn't have very many mage guilds, after all: they had wiped each other out.

Ranma nodded, looking at the brooch before slowly conjuring up his Requip magic, putting it away for now. He stood there somewhat awkwardly, uncertain how to end the interview.

"You are going into Seven, correct?" Rose said, still looking a little pale, leaning back in her chair and gasping in air as if she had just run several miles. Which, given her current condition, would have been an unbelievably bad idea.

Ranma nodded. "The Straight Path goes into Seven next."

"Good. In that case you'll be able to continue to be the slavers' greatest fear made flesh." Rose smiled again, though there was nothing nice about it this time. "We have found evidence in some of the writings in various camps and mine complexes that you attacked that bandits and others in Seven have been sending slaves over the border. Not all of them are bandits: some are merchants, others innkeepers. Find them, hunt them down, and on the authority of the Kings of Ishgar and turn them over to the nearest authorities if they can be trusted."

"If not," Rose went on coldly, "send them back to Bosco any way you can. I believe that sending such people into the very mines that they consigned others to would be the most appropriate punishment possible."

Ranma smiled grimly. "Sure, I can do that. But first I want to check out the library here."

 **OOOOOOO**

Glancing around the port, Erza frowned, shaking her head. "It isn't as neat and orderly as the ports in Fiore are, Shishou."

Shrugging his shoulders, which weren't widening nearly fast enough for him, Laxus looked around too before directing the younger girl to follow him with a grunt, pulling off his headphones as he did so, listening to the passersby. "Bosco's always been a sort of wild place, though given the fact we were hired in the first place, I suppose this queen—what was her name again?—she wants to change that."

"It's Rose, Shishou," Erza said, falling into step with the older and taller boy.

"What've I told you about calling me that, squirt?" Laxus growled, still only paying attention to the young redhead with half an ear. The rest of his mind was concentrating on the discussions he was overhearing.

"To only call you that when we're training. Sorry, it's just as force of habit, and just calling you Laxus feels disrespectful," Erza replied.

"Bah, whatever. Leave it for now. It sounds as if there's a mage already in the country who's done a lot of our job for us," Laxus said.

"Huh… By the way, Laxus, are you sure this was an authorized mission? It's the first mission I've ever heard of that's required us to leave Fiore," Erza asked worriedly

Laxus looked down at Erza, scowling. The fact was, Laxus had sort of grabbed this mission before his grandfather could actually approve it. He doubted the old man would have, but the chance to get stuck in with the slavers was too good a chance for him to give up. Not because he particularly cared about the slaves, though he found slavery itself reprehensible, but because this way he wouldn't feel bad if his attacks got out of control. _Erza might object if she notices, but I know she's killed people before; it's there in her eyes. And it's best to remember that the rest of the world isn't as nice and cuddly as Fiore is._

"I'm positive, brat. Besides, can you look me in the eye and tell me you don't want to be part of this mission?" Laxus asked.

As he looked at her, the young redhead looked away with a scowl and Laxus smirked. "Now come on, we need to get to the capital and find out more information about the job," Laxus said, breaking into a run. Grumbling, Erza switched to one of her newest armors, a cheetah-striped suit complete with ears and tail, and raced after her master.

As she did, she reflected on their odd relationship, for what it was worth. Laxus wasn't exactly outgoing at the best of times. But he had taken Erza under his wing, sort of, and had begun training with her to better master her magical powers and to learn how to fight better. The redhead knew her swordsmanship had grown by leaps and bounds, and her general toughness had increased immeasurably.

 _Maybe with Laxus' training I'll be strong enough to… No, stop it. Don't think about them. You'll never be strong enough to face him, and he would kill Sho, Simon, and the others if you tried. Best to keep the secret and keep away. At least that way you can protect them, Erza._ With that, Erza shook off that thought to go back to thinking about Laxus.

Laxus taking her under his wing had hurt her relationship with Gray and Cana at first, but they had come around, realizing that she in turn was willing to help them, and that Laxus' training was a little too hard for them to take right now in Gray's case. _If only Laxus would open up to the rest of the guild, but he just doesn't want to be around them most of the time._

With their magic aiding them it only took the two mages about an hour to reach the capital. From there the two of them found the palace, where they were ushered in immediately. The two of them talked to the pregnant queen for a time, who looked rather bemused by their ages, particularly Erza's. "My word, they grow mages younger and younger these days, don't they? Are you certain taking such a young girl against slavers is a good idea, Laxus?"

"Positive, Your Majesty," Laxus replied firmly. "Don't let her or even my age fool you; we're some of the strongest mages in Fairy Tail right now, even if we aren't quite S-class." _Something I'll solve the next time the exams come up!_

Rose frowned, but nodded. "I suppose I should have already have learned not to judge a book by its age, and far be it from me to question someone who earned the Starburst of Pergrande."

Laxus scowled slightly at that, but whatever reply he might have made was interrupted by the grumbling of Erza's stomach. He rolled his eyes while she blushed as brightly as her hair.

But Rose simply laughed. "I see that whatever her prowess, some things remain the same, mage or non-magical. Why don't you go and get a bite to eat from the kitchens, dear," she said, addressing a girl who was possibly the same age as her youngest son. "We only have to go over a few details, after all."

Erza looked up at Laxus, who nodded once, and she bowed before exiting the room quickly. Stopping a nearby servant, she found where the kitchens were and made her way in that direction.

A floor above the kitchen, Erza rounded a corner and ran into a boy a little older than her. He was coming out from a room with double doors, sighing as he did before Erza ran into him, her head colliding with his chest.

Erza fell backwards, her head ringing as if she had crashed into a steel plate. In contrast, the boy only made a light 'oof' sound, not moving an inch despite the impact.

Ranma looked down at the girl who had smacked into him, shaking his head. _Come on, Ranma. Just because this library was a dead end isn't any reason to not be aware of your surroundings._ The library in the palace here was barely half the size of that he had seen in Iceberg, and not a single book there could help him find out about dragons or magic he might be able to use.

Shaking that thought off along with his disappointment at it, Ranma reached down to the girl. "Hey, sorry about that. Are you okay?"

Nodding while rubbing her head, Erza looked up, blushing slightly as she took in the boy's good looks and muscled body. There was also something about his features that tugged at her memory for some reason, but she couldn't figure out why. "Um, yes. I, I'm all right, thank you."

The boy reached down and pulled Erza to her feet, armor and all, with ease, causing her to blush more as she realized he was actually quite a bit stronger than he looked. "Th, thank you, and I'm sorry. It was my fault, truly. I should have been looking where I was going. Please hit me!"

Shaking his head, Ranma looked at the red-haired girl, wondering why she was reminding him of something, before shaking it off. _Guess it could be because her red hair is the same color as my female body's. Weird that. I thought most redheads were really just gingers like William._

He flicked her in the forehead before laughing and turning away. "There you go, now we're even." With that he walked away and Erza did the same. Then Ranma turned looking over his shoulder as he decided to practice one of the skills the courtesans in Appledore had coached him on. "By the way, I love your hair!"

Erza blushed and stammered at that, unaccustomed to people complimenting her hair like that. By the time she had recovered the boy was gone.

Later, after having eaten, Erza returned to the hall outside the meeting room where she had left Laxus, only to have him walk by her halfway there, gesturing for her to follow. For a second Erza didn't follow, too busy staring. _Is, is Laxus grinning?_

"Come on, girl!" Laxus barked over his shoulder. "We're heading back to the port. Our mission's changed from hunting down the remaining slavers to hunting down their pirate allies."

"Hai, Shishou!" Erza yelped, moving to follow him. "Um, Shishou, are you in a good mood?"

"Yeah, you might say that. Turns out a friend of mine is alive and kicking harder than ever. Now come on! I mean to make certain the pirates around here learn to fear the name of Fairy Tail!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Hunting down the various slavers in Seven hadn't taken Ranma very long, thanks to the information Rose supplied him. After that he was free to restart his search for information on dragons and his training.

For his own personal search, the libraries he found in Seven at first were only slightly better than the royal library in Bosco. There were more of them, though, and there seemed to be a small mage guild in every town Ranma traveled through. Ranma could easily see why Seven had become the center for what was called magical engineering. There were trains here just like in Stella, far more numerous cars, and magic itself was simply much more prevalent here than it had been anywhere else in his travels so far.

But the libraries in Seven, even the ones with restricted sections in them that he could access now as a Ranger, were so far almost a complete dead end in terms of dragons. He wasn't ready to give up yet, since he had yet to reach the nation's capital or its more populous northern sector, but at present he had decided to set that search to the side.

Despite that, Ranma found a lot more about magic that he hadn't realized before, which gave him thousands of ideas about where to take his own training in magic. He also found out quite a bit more about the history of Ishgar and the world in general. But there was very little about dragons or where they could be now.

The one thing he did find out was the fact that the dragons had all disappeared four hundred years ago, long before most of the countries of Ishgar had been created as they were today. After that there was only one credited account of a dragon, and a report about the dragon in question.

Its name was unknown but it was as black as midnight with blue highlights here and there on its armor. The dragon was massive, described as blotting out the sun with its wings, and it had utterly devastated a city at the time during a fight with another dragon, which it tore apart ruthlessly. There were also other hints of this same dragon being involved in other fights or sightings before that, but after this last one, even it had disappeared.

He did finally learn a lot more about demons, having wanted to since his run in with Deliora. He also discovered that most of them had been created by the same Dark Mage, Zeref. He had lived at the same time the dragons had disappeared, or perhaps for a long time before that, but he too had either died or gone missing.

That was interesting, as was the fact that he was worshiped as a Dark god of magic by many mages, and that there was a persistent rumor from such people that he could be awakened, or found, or resurrected: it varied wildly. Still, there was nothing solid there to go on, and Ranma decided to concentrate his magic and his time elsewhere.

He was coming back from one such library trip when an elderly gentleman hailed him from a stall. "Can I interest you in an apple, young man? An apple fresh from the tree?"

Ranma waved him off, but the man persisted, trying to draw him in. He then flashed a small garnet ring on his finger, and Ranma paused, moving in his direction. "On second thought, maybe I will have an apple."

The garnet rings of that kind were the mark of Seven's espionage service, as Ranma had learned after working with this man to turn in the last of the local kidnappers. The older man knew about Ranma's status, so if he wanted to talk to him 'officially', signaling that with the flash of his ring, he might have something interesting to share. "You have something for me?" Ranma asked.

"Nothing that the King of Seven wants you to look into, Ranger," the man said cautiously, looking at the Ranger in front of them. Ranma was the first such the man had ever met, but Ranma had own his personal respect when he dealt with the local criminal element. "But we have seen something that might help with your own search."

"Really?" Ranma asked, leaning forward intently.

"Not myself; this was from three towns over. There was a sighting of a flare of bright light, so bright it had to be magical, and a flying comet the size of a town seen in the air. It was white, a flash of purest white like the driven snow across the sky the report said."

"Where?!" Ranma asked excitedly. The man told him, and Ranma thanked him, set down a gold coin for the man's troubles, and turned away, walking briskly towards the inn he had been staying at.

From there Ranma traveled for a bare few hours, racing as fast as he could go towards the directions that the man had told him about. Seven, once more, was a different nation than Bosco, with far more people, much less rocky terrain and rolling plains, but it still had its scattered forests. It was above one of these where the sighting had occurred.

Quickly finding a few of the local witnesses to give him more directions Ranma raced on into the forest, his senses reaching out in every direction, sniffing the air for a hint of anything unusual. It was because he was straining his senses to the utmost that he heard it, a quiet sobbing in the distance. He stopped, oriented himself on the sound and raced on.

Coming out of the trees into a small glade, Ranma paused, skidding to a stop as he looked at the person sobbing. There sat a little girl; Ranma estimated her age to be six years old at most. She had straight blue hair that fell to her shoulders and was wearing a simple green and blue dress that went down to her knees. Her knees were up to her chest at the moment, and she was hugging them tightly as she rocked in place, sobbing.

Realizing the girl was probably just as frightened as she was scared, Ranma sat down a ways from her in plain sight and then coughed lightly. At the sound the girl looked up, startled, showing Ranma her tear-streaked face. "Hey," Ranma said softly, holding up his hands to either side of his head to show he wasn't armed. "What are you doing all the way out here, little one?"

The girl shifted so that her back was against a tree, staring at Ranma with wide eyes, then blushed as her stomach let out a loud roar. She looked embarrassed at that, but seemed to calm down as Ranma simply laughed quietly.

"Are you hungry?" Ranma asked, holding out his hand. "Emergency supplies, sandwich." A slight flare of magic appeared around his fingers, and then he was holding a sandwich.

"My mama told me not to take food from strangers," the little girl replied, but she was making no move to run away.

"Heh, well your mom was right about that. Still, that's easy to solve. My name's Ranma Oceana. The last name's something I chose for myself, in respect to a teacher I had. What's your name?"

For a moment the girl was silent, then sniffled before blinking. She then sniffed the air deliberately and, either because of the smell of the sandwich reaching her or something else, seemed to calm down further. Ranma too took the opportunity to do the same, trying to use his sense of smell to tell him anything it could. There was a heavy smell of ozone in the air, the same sort of smell Ranma had noticed when he had first arrived at the Tine, the smell of ancient magic. And there was something else underneath that, a smell he knew came from the little girl. It was an intermingled smell of some kind of soap with a hint of berries and something else, a scent that reminded Ranma of Laxus for some reason.

"Wendy, Wendy Marvell," the girl finally replied, then looked at Ranma hopefully, her face still tear-streaked. "Mister, have you seen my mama around?"

"Well Wendy, I'm afraid I'm not from around here," Ranma said, standing up and moving towards the girl. Wendy stiffened, but didn't move back and, Ranma stopped within a more comfortable conversation distance before winking at the girl and tossing her the sandwich. "Why don't you tell me what your mom looks like first?"

Wendy caught the sandwich awkwardly, almost dropping it, but then hesitantly took a tiny bite. Then she smiled and scarfed the rest down, making 'nom, nom' noises which made Ranma laugh. She blushed and looked up at him, but when he continued to smile at her she went back to eating, calming down still further.

This had not been a good day so far for Wendy. First she had woken up in a strange part of the forest, one that only vaguely looked like anywhere she had been. Then her mother was nowhere to be found, something that Wendy had never even considered would happen. After all, how do you misplace or lose a giant dragon?

And now here was this strange older boy. He looked friendly enough, but Wendy didn't have much experience interacting with anyone but her mother so was uncertain how to act. On the other hand, she could smell something from the boy that made her feel at ease, and the sandwich was good. Wendy had never had one of them before but it was very tasty. The sandwich soon disappeared and Wendy looked back up at Ranma.

"Um, my mama's huge, and has these wide, feathery wings. Her feathers are sooo soft, and I love to nestle into them, and she's got a beak, oh, and she's all white. She has blue eyes, she loves large fishies, and she loves to fly. She's sooo pretty," she began enthusiastically, before falling back into a funk. "But, but if you had seen her, you'd know all that."

Listening to this Ranma's eyes widened in surprise. _No freaking way. No way. After so long have I really found another Dragon Slayer? If so, where is the dragon?_ "I can't say I have seen anyone matching that description, Wendy. But your last name does remind me about a dragon that my own teacher mentioned. Is your mother named Grandeeney?"

Wendy's eyes widened and she nodded rapidly before abruptly throwing herself across the space between them to cling to Ranma, looking up at him pleadingly. "Please, mister, do you know where mama's gone!?"

Putting a gentle arm around Wendy, Ranma ruffled her hair with his other hand. At the gentle touch she seemed to freeze, then leaned into him, rubbing her head against his chest "I don't know where she's gone, Wendy, but here's an idea. Have you tried to climb a tree and look for her up there?"

Wendy didn't reply. Instead she scrunched up her nose pressing it into Ranma's shirt, seemingly distracted from her grief for a moment. "You smell like seawater, sweat, scales, and something else." She leaned back to look Ranma in the face once more, but made no move to leave his lap.

That 'something else' making her feel at ease there, almost at home, and Wendy knew why that could be. While she had never met them, Grandeeney had mentioned that there were other Dragon Slayers out there. "Are you a Dragon Slayer too?"

"Yep. I don't suppose Grandeeney ever mentioned a dragon called Typhon, did she? He was an old coot, like, really old!" Ranma replied before waving his arms dramatically, hoping to draw a laugh form the girl. "I mean, he couldn't see very well, and his scales were all grey, and he barely moved, but he was huuuge. I bet he was way bigger than even Grandeeney because he was so old. Oh, and he lived in the ocean, that might have been mentioned too."

Shaking her head rapidly, Wendy set her hair to flying, her cute little face going a bit mulish, but Ranma's ploy had worked, drawing her somewhat out of her grief and fear. "No way! Mama was biiiig! There couldn't be anything bigger!" Then she seemed to think for a moment before shaking her head. "Erm, she might have mentioned a dragon living in the ocean, but it always made her sad sorry."

"Do, do you think your father could help us find mama?" Wendy asked hesitantly. Any lingering doubts about trusting Ranma had disappeared by this point.

Ranma winced, shaking his head. "Sorry, Wendy, but no. Typhon died of old age before I left home several years ago." Ranma paused for a moment, thinking. It had only been two, maybe three years since he had come to this world at most. _Strange to think it's been so short a time considering all I've seen and done._

Shaking his head quickly, Ranma winked at Wendy. "Still, since we're both Dragon Slayers, that means we're sort of family, aren't we?" As the girl's eyes widened and she smiled happily, Ranma stood up, now holding her in his arms. "And in terms of searching for Grandeeney, have you tried to climb a tree and look around that way?" He asked again.

Wendy shook her head rapidly, then wiggled, and realizing what she wanted Ranma set her down.

By this point a lot of the fear Wendy had been feeling was gone. Her worry and grief were still there, but having a new family member around was giving her back a lot of the courage Grandeeney had tried to give her.

Before Ranma could do anything more Wendy had turned to the tree he had been leaning against, tripping face first into the dirt. Ranma reached forward to help her up, but she got to her feet quickly and then began scaling the tree like a monkey racing upward.

"Hey, wait for me!" Ranma said with a laugh, leaping up after her. Wendy paused, staring in awe as Ranma landed easily on a branch well above her head, where he paused, winking at her. "Bet you can't catch me!"

Giggling, Wendy climbed higher and faster, with Ranma jumping after her slowly, to always be in sight, but either before or behind, just in case. She nearly fell a few times, but didn't seem to be afraid of injuring herself, moving on quickly and actually having fun.

In this manner they quickly broke out of the canopy, looking around. Ranma pointed to one side where a large sequoia shot up out of the rest of the forest. "How about we try from the top of that? It'll give us the best view."

Wendy nodded then held her hands out to Ranma, her eyes wide and pleading. Ranma laughed, telling her to stop that, before picking her up and leaping to the next tree. To his surprise, however, once there Wendy squirmed until he put her down on the branch he had landed on and then scampered off on all fours. She once more nearly fell several times, but Ranma was always there, helping her along.

Neither of them noticed that another young boy passed by them on the ground below. He had blue hair and was carrying a large pack, and was holding a long magical staff. But even if they had noticed, both of them were having a little too much fun to care.

Soon enough Ranma perched on the top of the sequoia, which looked like it had been the victim of a lightning strike, sitting there lightly next to Wendy who had stopped a little below that point, only the top of her head and eyes poking out of the canopy of the tree's leaves. To Ranma's surprise, however, the moment he sat down, she clambered up the rest of the way and then up his back to sit on his shoulders, her little legs dangling to either side of his head, her dress pushed up to her waist.

Laughing quietly, Ranma stood up, balancing easily on the treetop as he twisted his neck to look up at Wendy. "Comfortable up there?"

"Mmm!" Wendy replied with a wide smile. She had a lot of fun racing through the treetops like that with her new Nii-san, and she also liked to cuddle which Ranma didn't seem to mind, something else she liked. "High places are best places, and this is the highest around."

Chuckling, Ranma turned his attention to the world around them looking for anything unusual. At the same time Wendy scanned the sky above them, becoming somber as she did.

After a little while Wendy began to sniffle, and Ranma felt her arms, which she had been using to shade her eyes, wrap around his head. He craned his neck around again to look up, and was unsurprised to see Wendy slowly crying once more.

Reaching up quickly, Ranma pulled Wendy off his shoulders and held her against his chest, grateful that she wasn't crying so much as to activate the curse. _Stupid Soun. That still goes down as the most humiliating way to transform I ever had to deal with._

Through the girl's muffled sobs, Ranma began to understand that nothing in the area looked familiar. Wendy sobbed that she should be able to see a tiny house from up here that Grandeeney had made for her, along with the clearing it was set into. But it wasn't there, and nothing else looked familiar either. "There should be a mountain near here, but there isn't even that!" she cried.

Ranma let her cry it out for a few minutes, hugging Wendy close and gently stroking her hair, which seemed to soothe her as he thought. _Okay, Ranma, you've found a Dragon Slayer. Congratulations. Now what are you going to do with no dragon in sight and said Dragon Slayer being a six-year-old girl?_

He also wondered where the dragon in question had gone, but decided to put it down to an emergency teleportation of some kind. _Maybe Grandeeney had enemies and had to leave Wendy behind for some reason? But regardless, there's no clue to where she is now. But what do I do with her now?_

But even though Ranma asked himself that question, he knew there was no real choice. He waited until Wendy had sobbed herself out before Requipping a handkerchief and gently pushing her away so he could wipe at her nose and face, smiling at Wendy the whole while. "So, you don't know where you are, and we can't see any sign of Grandeeney around. Well, then there's nothing for it. As a fellow Dragon Slayer, I can't just leave you like this, after all," he said, thumping his chest with his fist. "So how about this: you come with me and join in my travels. We can look for information on dragons and for Grandeeney together."

Wendy blinked, then threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around Ranma's chest, sobbing again, but this time in happiness. While she was still grief-stricken at where Grandeeney had gone, at least she wasn't alone anymore; another family member had found her. And together, they would maybe find mother. "Hai, Ranma Nii-san!"

 **End Chapter**

* * *

Woot! Now that was a monster of a chapter, wasn't it? I did warn you all there would be World Building!

This chapter really started to let me build this Ranma into a different sort entirely from the other versions I've used in the past. Different styles, different skills, growing abilities, and a new job that lets me hurl him at any issue I wish to along the way, and thus change canon before we even get there. I also think that kings, especially in a continent as interconnected as Ishgar, would have agents such as the Rangers, and would also seek to direct or mold Ranma's trouble magnet ability.

This chapter also introduces Wendy at the end, and shows that she has a certain wildness to her, as should really be expected by anyone, girl or boy, who is raised on their own away from civilization by a dragon, no matter how gentle or kind the dragon in question. I think her attitude in canon is just as much a product of Carla and the guild as her own personality. And yes, according to her age in canon, Wendy could be no older than five when Grandeeney disappears, or whatever you want to call it.

Hope you all enjoyed this, and once again, have a Merry Christmas.


	4. Chapter 4

And here is the second of my Christmas presents to you all. Remember that if you want to see the rest of this story, please think of signing up on patty on. We are up to chapter 14 over there, and there are lots of other goodies to find if you wish to take a look.

This has been edited by _Michael_ for small mistakes and given a brief perusal by _JustloveReadin_ ' and _Hiryo_ for their Fairy Tail and Ranma knowledge.

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Traveling Companions**

Wendy Marvel woke up slowly, blinking in confusion at the odd cloth thing several feet above where she lay, feeling another cloth wrapped thing wrapped around her. It took her several minutes to remember where she was and what both of those items were called. The cloth thing above her head was called a tent, and the thing she was in was a sleeping bag. It felt weird to her, not fluffy or anything at all like her mother's wings, but it was still nice.

At that thought, however, the memory of her current circumstances came back to the little girl. "Mama," she muttered, sniffling at that before smiling at the memory of meeting her new Onii-chan. It had been he who had introduced her to this tent, as well as the sleeping bag. Before that Wendy had a little house for the few personal possessions she'd had, but most of the time she had slept outside with her mother, curled up in Grandeeney's wings. They were big and soft, and when she slept on them it felt like sleeping in a giant cloud.

The tent, in contrast, was a simple affair of green cloth, with two sticks to either side keeping the cloth in the air and flaps for doors which could be buttoned up. It was a rather small fit for even one person Ranma's size, really, but he and she had fallen asleep curled up next to one another despite that. The sleeping bag, while providing some warmth and being softer than the ground, was no comparison to sleeping in Grandeeney's wings either. The cuddling, though, had made up for a lot.

Ranma wasn't there now, but she could still smell him and could see movement outside the tent. The combination was enough to reassure her that Ranma was still around, a thought that made Wendy smile wanly.

They had traveled the rest of the day together, moving through the forest as fast as Wendy could go, from one tree to the next. They had not gone back the way Ranma had come from, he explained; they were instead taking a straight line through the woods towards the nearest large town. "It's apparently not legally a city, but that's a technicality," Ranma had said yesterday, whatever that word meant. She had heard of cities and towns, but what technicality meant eluded her, and Ranma hadn't explained.

Crawling around along the ground with the sleeping bag still around her, Wendy poked her head out of the tent and found Ranma there as she had thought, exercising. He was also shirtless for some reason, though Wendy didn't care about that. She simply cared that he was there at all.

It had rained last night, judging by the glistening dew on the grass, and she could see puddles here and there. At the sight Wendy became grateful that they had been in the tent. The rain hadn't even woken her up.

Ranma turned, twisting this way and that, creating a figure eight with both of his escrima clubs at the same time to either side before kicking out with one leg. He then flipped himself via his pivot leg up into the air. Again his clubs flashed out in an intricate kata, which he had modified for the clubs from the Anything Goes School. It had worked very well, the random and chaotic nature of escrima merging well with the deceptively aggressive combat style of the Aerial School of Anything Goes, as many a slaver in Bosco could attest.

Finishing a second kata, Ranma flipped his clubs so that they were underneath his arms before transferring one stick to his other hand and turning to smile at Wendy. "Morning, Wendy. Are you hungry?" he asked cheerfully.

Wendy nodded, accompanied by the rumble of not just her own stomach, but Ranma's, which emitted a roar that sounded like it came from Grandeeney. She laughed while Ranma patted his stomach apologetically. "You'd best get used to that, Wendy. My stomach likes to call the shots way more than my brain," he said drolly, causing Wendy to laugh again.

Moving toward her, Ranma quickly began to pull some food out of his Requip space, setting it down in front of Wendy before sitting across from her at the small fire he had made for them late last night. "So, do you want to start training after breakfast, or do you want to travel for a bit and then stop and train at lunchtime?"

The two of them had talked about training yesterday. Ranma was unwilling to let Wendy keep going just as his dependent; he wanted her able to handle herself. And given her age, there was no way Wendy knew enough about Dragon Slayer magic for his state of mind. In fact, she only had one offensive spell, though she knew and had been trained in several healing and support spells.

She had cast one support spell rather hesitantly on Ranma the day before. Vernier had allowed the two of them to move along faster than even he normally would have been able to move through the trees. Because of that, they had possibly covered the same amount of space that Ranma alone would have been able to.

 _Not that I'm in any rush to get anywhere. The most important thing is for Wendy to get some training, which will make her tougher and keep her busy rather than worrying about her mother. And at the same time it'll get me used to having a little girl around,_ Ranma thought somewhat bemusedly, still unused to the idea of having anyone depending on him as much as Wendy would have to.

Ranma could take or leave kids normally, depending on whether they were brats and what they were actually doing together, but he had never really considered having kids of his own. This would be the first time he'd acted as a sensei, and on top of that he'd have to be looking after Wendy at the same time. _Which, given her age, is going to be a chore, for certain._

Reaching forward with both hands, Wendy began munching on the food, an apple fritter that Ranma had picked up in a nearby town and a large bowl of nuts. The only drink available was water, Ranma having never seen the point of carrying anything else these days considering that water always tasted better than the finest orange juice or apple juice to him.

She made to speak, but Ranma laughed, flipping a little bit of dirt in her direction. "Don't speak with your mouth full. I might not know a lot of manners and care about them even less most the time, but that one, at least, I agree with."

Wendy nodded, remembering that her own mother had told her that a time or two. It was just, she was hungry, and the apple fritter was **soooo** good! She had never eaten anything like it before, and she wondered what other food stuffs were out there for her to try.

Eventually she finished enough of it and set it aside, staring across at Ranma who had brought out some kind of meat sandwich for himself, as well as another bowl of mixed dried fruit and nuts. "I'd like to work on bringing out my Sky Magic through my hands and feet like you said you can," Wendy said hesitantly. "That sounded really cool! Do you think I, do you think I could fly like that?" _Maybe then I could search better for Mama._

"I think you certainly could, Wendy. Hmm… Seeing your Roar in action will give us a start for what to do in terms of magical training. However, physically, I'm going to ask you to walk as far as you can every day, okay? That builds up your physical strength," Ranma said after a moment's thought, chewing on a handful of raisins.

Wendy nodded. Ranma had convinced her that being stronger and tougher would help her search for her mama, but Wendy could only vaguely understand the why of it. But since her Onii-chan had asked her to do it, she would. Besides, it sounded like a lot of fun, especially if she could eventually learn to fly. "How are we going to search for mama?"

"Well, you're the one that said she was so huge," Ranma said with a smile. He desperately didn't want to tell Wendy that her mother might be gone for good or that she somehow was teleported away against her will. Best to ease into that after Wendy was fully over the emotional turmoil of her mother's disappearance in the first place. "So we'll go to different towns around where I found you and ask if anyone has seen a large, white furred dragon."

"It's not fur, it's feathers," Wendy replied primly, shaking a finger admonishingly at Ranma.

"You really think anyone would be able to the difference from a distance? But back to my initial question. I asked you when you wanted to train, not what, though that's good to know. Do you want to do it in the mornings, or in the afternoons?" Ranma asked again.

"Which is going to be a bigger meal?" Wendy asked promptly.

Ranma laughed. "I tend to eat a large linner, sort of a late lunch and dinner, before I end with a light dinner. I start my day like this, a medium-sized breakfast, but a very nutritious one, as you can see."

"New trash us?" Wendy asked, mangling the word and looking a little worried.

"I think I'm going to have a lot more to teach you then just magic and martial arts, then," Ranma sighed, having realized that before, but not liking it one bit. _Still, some things, at least, are easier to teach than others_. "Nutrition is a fancy word for what your body needs to keep running as good as it can."

Moving over to join Wendy on her side of the fire pit, he pointed at the items they had been eating. "Nuts and meat give you protein, that's like energy you can use for a long time. Water helps to rebuild what you sweat out. Or at least what most people sweat out."

Ranma hadn't actually sweated from exertion ever since he became a Water Dragon Slayer. The sole exception to that was when he was in Desierto, and that was because of the heat.

"Wheats and vegetables give you things called vitamins," Ranma went on hesitantly, never having had to explain this before and only vaguely remembering the explanation himself. "That's things that make your bones stronger, your skin tougher, and help your eyes grow to be as good as they can be, that kind of thing."

"Is there anything I can eat that would make me grow scales?" Wendy asked excitedly, her eyes twinkling.

"Well, if there is, I haven't found it yet. Sorry, Wendy," Ranma said with a laugh, pulling the girl into a one-armed hug.

She let loose a draconic sort of purr, leaning into his side for a moment and putting her tiny arms around his waist. Already Ranma was creating a rule book for big-brothering: Hugs were good; give them out often.

"Come on," he said, ruffling her hair and smiling as she smacked his hand away with a pout. "You haven't answered the question," he ended in a singsong tone, which caused Wendy to wrinkle her nose at him.

She then adopted a thinking pose, one finger tapping on her chin. "I think I'd like to train in the mornings, then. Heavy meals make me sleepy, and that way we can have nap time after lunch."

"Nap time…" Ranma said blankly. _Yeah… Little kids need those, don't they?_ _Well, I suppose I can train myself during that time._ "Um, sure, that makes sense. Finish eating, and we can begin."

Wendy nodded and stuffed the last handful of nuts into her mouth, chewing enthusiastically before hopping to her feet. "What should we do?"

"Well, first I'm going to show you how to throw a punch, and then you're going to show me your Air Dragon's Roar."

"Sky Dragon," Wendy said with an adorable pout. "It's sky, not air."

"Wait, does that mean I'd be the Ocean Dragon Slayer rather than the Water Dragon Slayer?" Ranma asked quizzically.

Wendy adopted a second thinking pose. "I don't know. All I was told was that it's called Sky Dragon magic, not Air Dragon. Maybe because all dragons can fly, Mama needed to name it something else?"

"That makes about as much sense as any reason I could think of," Ranma said with a shrug. "All right, take the same stance as me, facing me for now. Then do as I do, okay? I'll correct you as we go."

For the next few hours Ranma put Wendy through her paces, showing her how to throw a punch and making her do it several hundred times just like his own father had, except without the so-called words of encouragement Genma had used. Then he began to teach her balance, pulling out a large tree branch from the forest and laying it down on the ground between two large rocks. The branch was about as wide as one of Wendy's feet, held up above the air about half her body's height by the rocks.

Wendy balanced on it, walking with one foot in front of the other until she eventually fell, only for Ranma to catch her. She did not have very good balance, Ranma was sad to note, but that was trainable, and she had decent dexterity. She was obviously used to falling and picking herself up, which was a good attitude to have.

On the other hand her concentration was very poor. Ranma had known this by the way she'd complained during the punching exercises, but had born through it, handing out a few treats in the form of the remnants of their morning's dried fruits every time she finished fifty punches without making a mistake. But in this exercise it came back with a vengeance.

So long as she kept her eyes on her feet Wendy was fine, but the moment she tried to concentrate on something else as well as walking, it got to be a problem. _Then again, I suppose that could be normal for a girl her age. Dammit, I know nothing about kids! How am I supposed to do this?_

Thinking about that, Ranma did, of course, know how he had been trained, and he could do the same with Wendy. _Just don't shout at her or hit her and keep training her like this, and I think I'm on the right track on the training aspect. The whole watching out for her and teaching her anything else she needs to know… We'll cross that bridge when we come to it._

"Okay, Wendy," he said, clapping his hands. "I think we're done with balance training for now. Let's move on to magic training."

Nodding, Wendy hopped off of the log. Splashing down into a pool of water she deliberately splashed it towards Ranma with a giggle.

Ranma groaned, but decided to let the water hit him. That had been the one breakthrough he'd made during his time at the lake in Iceberg: he could now redirect water around him even if he wasn't trying to inhale it. Ranma had tried to train that ability so that he could redirect water subconsciously, but that seemed to be impossible, unfortunately. But he could certainly stop random water attacks like this from hitting him if he saw them coming. He could even ward off the rain for a bit, though that took a lot of energy. _Still, it's best that Wendy learn of my curse now rather than later._

For her part Wendy blinked in shock as her Onii-chan disappeared to be replaced by some unknown red-headed person the moment the water splashed him. She leaped away, crouching down on the ground and snarling, "Who are you!?" Not only had Ranma's body disappeared, Ranma's entire smell had changed except for the underlying smell of Dragon Slayer magic, so her confusion and fear was understandable.

She might've been trying to look menacing, but to Ranma she simply looked cute. "Aw, you're so cute!" the redhead shouted, hopping towards Wendy. Before she could think of trying to defend herself, Wendy was in the redhead's arms being clutched against the redhead's large chest, which Wendy understood was a sign that the redhead was a girl. Wendy could've told anyone that already, though, thanks to how the redhead smelled.

"I'm still Ranma," Ranma explained, while Wendy tried to pull herself out of the redhead's chest. She stilled at that, staring up at Ranma in shock. "It's a curse. I change whenever cold water hits me like that. But I can change back with hot water."

Wendy still looked a little suspicious, but Ranma set her down and moved over to the cooking equipment. Creating some water with her magic, she heated it up in her hand before dumping it over her head. Now back in his male body, Ranma smiled at Wendy. "See?"

"It's not something in the water, then?" Wendy asked hesitantly, staring at the puddle she had splashed in and quickly moving away.

"Nope, it's all me, unfortunately. No idea where it came from," Ranma sort of lied. "But there's no cure for it as far as I know. Maybe if you get as good as you possibly can with this healing magic of yours you could do something about it. But until then I've learned to live with it."

"So you're both Onii-chan and Onee-chan!" Wendy asked, smiling happily now that the mystery had been solved.

"Erk. Um, well, whatever I look like, I'm always the same up here," Ranma said, tapping his forehead. "So why don't you just keep on calling me Onii-chan whatever my body looks like."

"So confusing," Wendy muttered, thinking more about how Ranma's scent had changed than his words. But she still nodded.

After that they resumed training for another hour. Then Ranma packed up their supplies in his Requip space, and they hit the road, with Wendy walking along on the ground of the forest now with Ranma beside her. They didn't make nearly as good as a time as Ranma could have on his own, but Ranma had known that would be the case before they started out. This would allow Ranma to devote more time to training Wendy, which was his main goal at this point, while also of course continuing his own training.

As they walked, Ranma explained how Requip magic worked, which would be the first new magic Ranma would teach Wendy. He wondered idly if Wendy would have the same lack of affinity that he did for that brand of magic, which was to say none. But it would be really helpful for Wendy in both in the long and in the short term. There was also Guns Magic eventually, some construction magic, some sewing magic he'd learned to repair clothing, and other tiny magics of that nature that he would introduce her to.

"I've never thought about learning anything but mama's magic," Wendy confided, her eyes starting to twinkle at the idea. "Are we even able to? Isn't it against the rules or something?"

"I won't tell if you won't," Ranma said holding up a finger to his lips in a shushing motion, and Wendy giggled. Traveling with Ranma was really different then living with her mother, but it looked like it would be fun too.

Eventually, however, Wendy began to tire. Noticing this, Ranma lifted her up onto his back, racing on quickly as she hung on, too tired to do anything else. He stopped when he felt Wendy begin to drift off into sleep, making up the tent for her for an afternoon nap. "So much for taking a nap after you eat," he teased, causing Wendy to pout at him before going quickly back to sleep.

While Wendy slept, Ranma scouted around the area, always staying within sight of the tent, just in case, before taking some time to exercise himself, standing right beside the tent. He was attempting to mix in a one stick and one gun style, but using two different weapons at the same time was more difficult to incorporate into his style. It was a little irritating for Ranma given how quickly he had picked up the double stick and double gun style, but he knew he'd get there eventually.

Ranma estimated it was a little closer to evening then to midday when Wendy woke up again, her stomach grumbling demandingly. "Huh, I'd guess that's proof you're a growing girl: your stomach's growling as loud as my own lord and master," Ranma said grinning at her before he gestured out to the forest. "I'd like to see you use your Sky Dragon's Roar, and then we'll settle down for a heavy linner."

Wendy nodded hesitantly. This would be the first time she would show anyone but her mother her magic, and she was worried her big brother would make fun of her. "Um, how about you show me yours first, then I'll show you mine?"

"Sure. You just stay right there, though. Mine's a little destructive," Ranma replied, grateful that Wendy wasn't old enough to understand how badly what she'd just said could be taken.

As Wendy nodded, Ranma moved to face the same direction she was facing, a few feet in front of her. Then he brought up his hands to either side of his mouth, concentrating briefly and gathering a trickle of his magical energy into his mouth. He didn't want this to be a very powerful attack, after all. A second later he roared out, "Soryu no Hoko!"

Even though Ranma hadn't meant for it to be a powerful attack, it still shattered over a dozen trees in the direction of his roar, furrowing the ground as if a very narrow tsunami had come through the area. With a self-satisfied nod Ranma turned, reaching down to ruffle Wendy's hair again. "See what I mean?"

"Mine's not nearly that good!" Wendy said, staring at the destruction and pouting. "I can barely knock down one tree."

Actually, Wendy couldn't even do that. She didn't know this, but Grandeeney had knocked down the tree for her, surreptitiously sending out a bit of her own breath attack from behind Wendy at the same time Wendy had attacked, so that it seemed as if Wendy had managed it on her own.

Ranma shifted so that now he was standing behind Wendy, his hands on her tiny, thin shoulders. Wendy craned her neck upwards to look at him, and he smiled down at her. "Don't try to compare yourself to me, Wendy. Remember, I'm older than you are. That's not a fair comparison. I also don't have the support type magic that you do already. Only compare yourself to what you were like yesterday, so that you know you're getting better; that's the most important thing."

At that Wendy straightened her shoulders under his hands and nodded resolutely, turning back the way that Ranma's attack had gone. She sighted a little ways to the side of the trough his attack had made, then breathed in deeply, gathering the air around her as well as centering her magic power into her mouth before shouting out her attack. "Tenryu no Hoko!"

The attack was small, but somewhat sharply defined. Instead of smashing like a battering ram like Ranma's had, it kind of drilled into the tree it targeted, ripping out a large chunk of it. It wasn't enough to topple the tree, but that looked as if it was because Wendy's attack had been off-center.

"Very good, Wendy," Ranma said, moving back and clapping a few times. "We're going to work on your aim a little, but that is a tremendous starting point."

Wendy beamed. "Mama said the same thing!"

She then wilted a little as she had begun to when thinking about Grandeeney. But Ranma didn't let her stay sad, hefting her up onto one shoulder and hopping along the path of her attack. "I want to see how far it goes."

Now that she was feeling a little more energetic, Wendy didn't stay on his back. Instead she clambered up until she was actually perched on his head like a bird would. Ranma didn't care, her weight was practically nonexistent to him. He simply looked up at her quizzically. "Are you okay up there? Not going to fall off?"

Wendy shook her head. "High places are best places," she said, repeating the words she'd used when they climbed the trees yesterday to look for Grandeeney.

She stared longingly up at the trees, and Ranma chuckled as they found the edge of her attack before turning back. "Okay, in that case we'll start camping out up in the trees whenever we can. But if it's going to rain, we'll need to use the tent, okay? I hate changing from one form to another when I'm asleep: it always messes up my dreams."

"That sounds weird," Wendy said bluntly.

"It does, but so does changing from one gender to another in the first place," Ranma said, and they both laughed. _Damn, it's gotten to the point where I can actually laugh and joke about my curse with someone else. That's a good thing, I guess,_ Ranma thought to himself as he began to pack up for their next leg of their journey.

They pushed on until it was dark out, and then Ranma set up camp once more. Now that he realized that Wendy's need for a nap was so extreme, he would only be training Wendy in the morning, at least at first. _Hopefully once I get her endurance up, that'll change. I don't know, is it a mental thing that children need to sleep like that, or just a physical thing?_ _Then again, I can also train her in magic at night, keep the physical stuff for the morning. Ughh… Teaching her how to fight is going to take_ soooo _long._

A sudden thought occurred to him, and he looked over to where he had set Wendy down as he moved about the small camp, setting up a fire pit with several boulders. "Hey, Wendy, quick question: Can you read?"

"I was learning!" Wendy said with a nod and a happy smile. "I know how to spell my name, and the alphabet," she went on proudly. "Along with a few simple words like 'then,' 'and,' 'it,' and a few others."

Nodding, Ranma wondered how to continue her education in reading, which even he knew was a sort of necessary skill. _But it can't take away from all the other training I'm going to be give her, no way!_

The two of them traveled for a few months together through the forest, only going around five miles a day at first thanks to Wendy's age. But that gradually increased as Wendy began to build up endurance for walking and other exercises.

Ranma could've covered the same distance in a bare few days, but he was content even if training Wendy cut into his own training time. Traveling with Wendy was interesting, since it gave him someone to talk to, and actually having to explain how their magic worked and magic in general helped him to understand it.

Most of the reasons they got along well were down to Wendy's personality rather than Ranma's, though. Ranma knew himself too well to think he got along well with other people most of the time: he was egotistical, somewhat arrogant, and extremely wild in nature, while at the same time uncaring about anything but martial arts…and now magic, admittedly, becoming quickly bored with anything else other people thought important. Perhaps his continual use of rule number one (hugs) could be said to offset some of that, but certainly not all.

Wendy, however, had the kind of personality that could accept anyone, including Ranma. She was kind, energetic and fun-loving with a slightly serious bent, somewhat clingy, and an all-around good girl. Ranma wondered if when they ever put down roots she would become a girly girl, but with Ranma's influence she was slowly becoming a tomboy, and he was happy to see it.

This was not to say that there weren't some bad moments. Wendy, like most children her age, sometimes got into moods and didn't want to train or practice. During these moments Ranma learned rule two of the Anything Goes art of big-brothering: tickles can work to get someone out of the doldrums, but use with discretion.

The second time Ranma attempted this tactic Wendy had hit him right in the balls. She hadn't meant to hit him exactly there, but his waist was basically shoulder height for her. The sight of Ranma going down and moaning had broken her out of her funk, so it was a learning experience for both of them. Ranma learned that tickles were not the answer for when Wendy was in a funk about Grandeeney missing, and Wendy learned not to hit him there.

Wendy also learned about Ranma as they were traveling in general. He was kind and friendly both during training and after, but also very demanding, always pushing her to do a little more than she was comfortable with. At times he also had nightmares which woke her up, but snuggling seemed to help. And she also learned he was very much a morning person, waking up at dawn, forcing her to do the same soon after, which she didn't really like, but couldn't argue against.

Still, they eventually left the forest quite near the target 'not a city,' well within sight of it. Wendy stopped and stared. "What's that!?"

"That is the town/city whatever I was aiming for, Wendy," Ranma said, feeling a little proud of himself. "I feared we'd been turned around in the forest a few times, but it looks as if we were spot on."

"It's so big, and there are so many different buildings. I've only ever seen a few buildings before. Mama took me to a village once, but it was tiny."

"Understandable. Now listen, Wendy," Ranma said, getting down to one knee in front of the girl and gently reaching out to take her chin, turning her head to look into her eyes. "When we're in the city, we have to have a few ground rules, okay? Rule number one, don't go off by yourself." Wendy had done that a few times, mostly chasing butterflies or birds or climbing trees during their morning travel time, but also a few times when he was training and she woke up from her nap.

Once, Wendy had even been attacked by one of the local Vulcan equivalents: a slightly shorter yet far shaggier version of the hyena-like monkey animals. Ranma had dealt with it easily, grabbing it by its throat and hurling it through the forest like it was a shot put. But Wendy still nodded, understanding his point. "Will there be other monsters like that in the city?"

"Animals. Vulcans are animals, not monsters. They look monster-ish, but are not nearly strong enough for that label," Ranma said with a grin which caused Wendy to giggle as she remembered how Ranma had dealt with the Vulcan.

"But people can be just as dangerous as monsters, Wendy," Ranma went on seriously. "Especially to children sometimes. Which leads to rule number two, don't take anything without asking. And three, if anyone tries to get you away from me, don't let them."

Wendy nodded again then asked, "How are we going to search for information on mama?"

"First we'll head to the library, see if there's any books or anything about dragons. We'll also talk to innkeepers: those are people who own houses with a lot of different rooms they rent out to people from out of town. They're good sources of information."

"Rent?" Wendy asked, cocking her head to one side so that her long hair fell straight down from the side of her head.

"It's like trading something for something else. I give them money, which is little gold coins mostly, and they let us have the room for a time we agree on. They even have things called beds that I don't think you've experienced."

Wendy nodded. "I've heard the word, but I don't know what it means."

"Then it'll be a bit of a treat." With that in mind Ranma decided to find the best inn they could in the city, which turned out to be run by a retired mage from the guild that made its home in the city. The guild in question was called the Stone Ears for some reason. Ranma figured there was a story there, thought didn't care enough to figure it out.

As they had gotten to the city near midday, they were able to purchase their room and then head out to explore. Wendy was a bundle of energy, running from one side of the road to another staring at the stalls, shops, or any of the many other things in the city that she had never seen before, her eyes wide and inquisitive.

Ranma followed along behind her, generally getting a feel for the layout of the city and figuring out where the library was in relation to their inn. _I should also pick up some more food. That apple tart that Wendy ate the day after we met was the only pastry I had in my Requip space, and we went through all of my nuts and berries and other things._

Ranma hadn't been able to stop along the way to forage for those, which irritated him somewhat. He hadn't seen a single nut other than acorns in the forest, and those did not make good eating. And while Ranma was fine with cooking out over the fire with the sheer number of spices he'd accumulated during his trip so far, Wendy wasn't all that interested, judging from the way her face twisted when Ranma had cooked a few times over the fireplace. _So some pastas, a lot more bread, for certain, and veggies of all sorts._

Calling Wendy over to him from where she had been staring at a stall of lacrima lights, Ranma entered a camping store which catered to mages on the go, selling magically enhanced camping equipment. The grill, for example, had a small fire lacrima embedded into the bottom of the grill. The size of the grill in question reminded Ranma somewhat of the type that his friend Ukyo always carried around. There were other things too: a small steamer for rice, a series of ultra-light bowls and plates (not that the weight mattered to Ranma thanks to his Requip space), and even a small, if very heavy, fridge, which could keep stuff fresh, along with thermoses which could be set to cool or to heat, with two lacrimas powering the change.

"Should've figured that Seven would have a lot of this kind of thing. I might want to look around for better versions later," he confided to Wendy as they left that store, Ranma stuffing the stuff he'd bought into his Requip space one after another, balancing each item on a hand in turn as the Requip magical circle vanished them, one after another.

Wendy looked up at him quizzically, and Ranma explained. "Seven is the name of the country we're in. It's known for magical engineering, basically, like the things we just bought. Now, let's go get food, and then we'll end the night by buying some better sleeping bags."

Wendy blinked. "What's wrong with the ones we have?"

"The fact that they're so thin, Wendy," Ranma replied. "We might be going into winter soon, and then you'll need it. And maybe a larger and better tent too. After all, eventually you might get to the point where you'd like to sleep alone." _Or have your own changing area_ , Ranma thought while Wendy nodded, though the idea of not snuggling at night seemed absurd to her.

Spotting a stall the two of them grabbed some food on the go, and Ranma bought Wendy her first drink of something other than water. Wendy stared at the orange liquid in the cup, then sipped hesitantly before beaming at Ranma and slurping the rest down before going to look for more. As Ranma bought her another cup of orange juice he made a mental note to add more drinks to their supplies from now on.

After they finished eating, Ranma began to ask around for a store that sold other magical camping gear, the first one having specialized solely in cooking equipment. He was soon pointed in the direction of a similar specialty store which sold magically enhanced tents, sleeping bags, and other things of that nature.

As they entered, Wendy stared around at all of the different types of sleeping bags and other things she had never seen, just as she had throughout their trip through the city. And it was a city. Ranma had asked the locals, and it turned out to be some kind of tax thing that kept it from being labeled as such on Seven's maps, a trick from the local baron which the king went along with.

"Helping to prepare for a family trip, are we?" said one of the workers nearby, a beaming, middle-aged fellow who nodded his head towards Wendy. "Are you and your sister just looking around while you wait for your parents or something?"

"Nope," Ranma said. "We're by ourselves." He held up a hand and said, "Requip: cash." The same bundle of money that he had used in the previous store appeared again, full of the money Queen Rose had given him before he left Bosco. He looked over at Wendy. "Don't go for just looks, Wendy!" he admonished as she picked up a sleeping bag that had a ladybug design on it. "Look for something that's comfortable and that is warm first, then find a design you like."

"Actually, if you're mages, I might have a product that you're interested in." The salesman broke off as Wendy came running up carrying two different sleeping bags. One of them was much larger than the other, but both of them would fit either one of the two Dragon Slayers. "Look, Onii-chan!" she said, hopping in place. "Look: they merge together."

"That was actually what I was going to suggest," the man replied with a grin at the little girl. "Those are two of our magical sleeping bags. You have to channel a little bit of your magical power into it, which Holder type mages can do easily. Then you touch the seam along one side, and it can merge into the other one. So long as they're touching, of course. They also have built in pillows."

"Of course," Ranma echoed, looking down at Wendy. "Open it up for me, Wendy. Let's see if they're warm enough."

"If you're worried about warmth, they are insulated and heat up quickly. But we also have a tent which you can set ice or fire lacrima into to warm the interior," the man said quickly. The sight of the bag of cash had grabbed his attention by the short and danglies, and he really wanted to make this sale.

Ranma held up a hand, forestalling the man's spiel, and gestured for Wendy to do as he asked. Wendy did so, and then pulled the large sleeping bag over her head and down her body. "It's nice and fluffy in here!" she said, her voice muffled by the bag.

Ranma pulled the sleeping bag off her and felt the inside of it. It looked like a regular sleeping bag, but the interior was much puffier than he was used to and actually felt like there was down or the equivalent in there. The underside was also built up somewhat, so that it would be comfortable on hard ground.

"That works," Ranma said. "We'll take two of them. Do you have any warranties on them? And after that I want to look at these tents you mentioned."

The two of them looked through the tents next. In this area there was much less variety than the sleeping bags, but the regular features were really nice. Ranma decided to buy a medium sized tent which could fit them both easily along with room for a place to eat, since they had been rained on several times. They had headed up into the trees during those times, setting up their tent over their heads, but it hadn't been fun.

Thinking about that, he asked if the store sold anything that could help a sleeping bag stay put up on a tree limb. The man raised an eyebrow at that, but still nodded. "We sell renewing tape, which should be able to do what you're suggesting."

"Renewing tape?" Ranma asked.

The man gestured for Ranma to follow and introduced him to what at first looked like a simple roll of duct tape. However the man quickly informed him that it had been treated in a Etherano infused substance which gave it a very tough, glue-like quality for several hours after magical energy was sent into it.

"You've developed reusable duct tape," Ranma murmured, his eyes wide. "How are you people not millionaires yet?!"

The man laughed, and the tour of the store continued. Wendy found a tiny ladybug night light that she fell in love with at first sight, the ladybug a thing of wood set around a fire lacrima which gave off both light and heat, and Ranma threw that in with the rest of their purchases. The total bill, especially after buying warranties on the enchantments, made Ranma wince, but he still paid it.

Quickly disappearing their purchases into his Requip space, Ranma ruffled Wendy's hair and guided her out the door. As they exited the store Wendy hopped onto his back before climbing up onto his head. The man they'd just left blinked at the sight of the little girl perched on the boy's head without seemingly any effort or irritation on his part before shrugging it off. "Mages. They don't have to be normal, I suppose."

With that done, Ranma took Wendy back to their room and put her to bed for the night. Despite her protests the girl was exhausted. There had been so much to see and do today it had utterly wiped her out despite the several months of training with Ranma.

The next day after a hearty breakfast of bagels and eggs along with fresh fruit and apple juice, Ranma took Wendy to a shop which catered to girls, noting it had the same logo as the Heart Kreuz armory back in Appledore. Ranma looked around, and then sighed and gestured to Wendy, who was looking around in interest. One of the saleswoman had already approached, and he smiled politely, if wanly, at her. "Hi, I need a full wardrobe for this little one: clothes that will hopefully grow with her for at least a few years for preference, outdoorsy kind of stuff. Also one good dress, I suppose, in an appropriate style for a girl her age. But for the most part, jeans and tough shirts or blouses, I guess," Ranma said, utterly at sea here. He'd dressed up his female form when he had to, but never learned about style or anything like that.

"Given your marching orders, were you?" the woman said with a small smile. Like every other person they'd dealt with so far she assumed they were two siblings set out on an errand by their parents.

"Nah, more generating them than anything," Ranma said with a smile, before gesturing toward Wendy. "So other than that, the clothing needs to be hard-wearing and hopefully not too out there in terms of color. She's all yours."

Wendy smiled somewhat timidly at the saleswoman, but she merely smiled back more warmly, holding out a hand. When Wendy shyly took it she led the young girl over to the first row of pants. "We'll start off easy, dear. What colors do you like?"

That stop took a while, as Ranma had known it would. He'd been lucky enough to get out of shopping most of the time with Akane and the others, but sometimes he hadn't been able to, which had prepared him for this. Whenever Wendy came out he would give her a critical once over, then nod or shake his head. His criteria was not based upon what the clothing actually looked like, of course: he was more concerned about how tough it was.

Eventually Wendy was fitted out with a full wardrobe including panties, shirts and shorts for when it was warm enough, a jacket, and clothing for both autumn, which was just around the corner, and winter too. It was all very sturdy and comfortable clothing, completed by hiking boots and enough socks for three weeks before they had to be washed.

"That's something else we'll need to pick up when we grab the rest of our supplies," Ranma said, lifting a finger in thought as the two finally left the shop, leaving a very happy saleswoman who had just made more on that one commission than she would have in a normal month. "Washing soap. I'll add that to the list of stuff we'll have to buy before we leave the city."

Wendy nodded, rubbing her eyes sleepily. "That makes sense. Mama would just breath on me from time to time and my clothing would clean itself. But I don't think I want to do that again," she confessed. "I didn't understand what was going on. I mean, what's so different between one color combination and the next?"

"You'll probably figured that out as you grow older, Wendy. When you do, try to explain it to me. Maybe that and having my own girl form will help me understand fashion as no man ever has before." Wendy looked up at him in confusion at that, but when Ranma laughed, she just took his hand, walking along beside him as they went back to the inn.

The next day Ranma allowed Wendy to sleep in, exercising by himself in their room for a while until she woke up, whereupon they traveled to the city's library. Like many such in Seven it was under the control of the local guild. To the two Dragon Slayers' astonishment the outer wall of the library was covered in different types of ears made of wood, different types of steel, glass, stone, and other things.

At the sight of it Wendy shivered a little, hiding behind Ranma. "That looks so weird."

"I agree completely, Wendy," Ranma said with a chuckle, pulling her into a side hug. _When in doubt, refer to rule number one._ "Still, we have to come here to learn if any of the local mages have heard about or seen your mom, and also to see if we can help you keep learning how to read."

They were greeted as they entered by an elderly man and woman who were both manning a desk to one side of the large door. They were both extremely tall: around eight feet or so. But they were also stooped with age, and they looked kindly enough. The woman smiled brightly. "Can we help you? The children's books are over there," she said helpfully pointing in the right direction.

Wendy looked up at Ranma, and he sighed. "All right. Let's go find you two books to read, then I'll start asking around. Given the exterior decorations, I assume the Guild Stone Ears are based here as well as it being the city's library?"

"There's a lot of us here at any given moment, aye, though at least a third are always out on jobs. Why, are you submitting a request?" the elderly gentleman asked, gesturing at the tunic he wore which had the symbol of a stone ear on it.

"No, just information. Let me get Wendy situated; I'll be back in a sec," Ranma replied.

It didn't take Wendy long to find two books with covers she liked the look of. One of them had a bear that looked like a care bear to Ranma on the cover, making him wonder again about parallel evolution or whatever the name was for finding similar things in different dimensions. The other had a very childish looking dragon on it and an equally chibi-fied looking human riding it. That one looked a little too advanced for Wendy, but Ranma let her pick it out anyway.

However as soon as Wendy opened to the front page of the first book, the one with the care bear on it, she ran into a problem. Her eyes wide, she looked up at Ranma. "I can't understand this! It's not the same language mama taught me."

Ranma winced. "I should've expected that." He looked over at the two guild members who were manning the front desk. "I don't suppose you have one of those Lingua Franca books here?"

"We do, but I would hesitate to advise you to use it on one so young. Mind magics like that can have an effect on a still growing mind. I'd wait until she's at least a teenager before attempting it," the woman replied promptly.

Blinking, Ranma frowned at that. "I used that kind of magic when I was around ten or eleven or so. Will I face problems?"

"If you haven't already, no," the man replied dryly. "Trust me, if you had, it would have been obvious within a few months, let alone a few years."

"That's good to know," Ranma muttered, shaking his head. "In that case, I suppose my first question should be what kind of books should I get to help me teach Wendy here how to read?" _Damnit, another thing that'll take time away from training, Wendy's and my own._

"I'll get them," the old woman replied, moving out from behind the desk and moving towards children section. "You're very good big brother, wanting to teach your sister to read."

"Now onto my actual questions?" Ranma said as Wendy began to flip through the book to look at the pictures. "Has there been any sighting of an unusually large white or white furred flying creature nearby?"

As Ranma had known it would be, the answer to that was negative. But rather than letting Wendy spiral into sadness because of that, Ranma kept her spirits up by taking one of the books that the library offered which was actually a coloring book with a small enchantment embedded into it. You could follow along with the stories, coloring as you went, but once you turned the page the colors would disappear. Wendy found this endlessly fascinating, forcing Ranma to buy several dozen boxes of crayons for the future and the book itself from the Stone Ears Guildhall, which doubled as both a library and a book store.

The Stone Ears were also very good at information gathering. Deeply connected with all the nearby towns and guilds, large and small, they heard everything that happened in the south of Seven. They informed Ranma that no one had seen anything but the streak across the sky the day that Wendy had appeared in the forest. More and more Ranma realized that it must've been some kind of transportation spell, though what kind was beyond him. Outside of Laxus' lightning moves, he didn't know anything about teleportation spells.

They stayed another night in that town, buying food and other supplies of that nature, before leaving early the next day. Since Ranma still didn't have any destination in mind, he decided to go through with his plan to circle the forest and ask if anyone had seen anything, despite the Stone Ears having told him nobody had. That way they would wind up near where he had first heard about that bit of news and could then once more travel via the Straight Path.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Mistress, two pirate ships off the starboard bow. They just came around that set of Sharks' Teeth!"

"What have I told you about calling me that, Captain?" Erza muttered, moving to look in that direction. Sure enough, there were two pirate ships out there. The Shark's Teeth were the aptly named bits of sheer rock sticking randomly out of the water here and there, a hazard to navigation throughout the straits. They made trade difficult at times and allowed pirates or even pirate groups to hide away easily from the few navy units Minstrel could post up here in the Joya Straits.

Erza understood that most of Minstrel's navy was centered on the South Seas, keeping the pirates from Sin and Enca under control, and since the country didn't do much trade with Bosco or Joya, they didn't bother trying to control the straits. And while Joya's military was decent, their navy was a joke.

The pirate vessels were shallow bottomed galleys, slicing through the water of the straits after the ship Erza was currently on, which they obviously had assumed was the minnow to their sharks. _Tss… Well, I think it's time to make them remember a proverb of the oceans: there's always a bigger fish._

"Mistress, should we try to close or try to look like we're running away?" the captain of the vessel Erza was on asked. He looked like a freebooter himself, and there was no doubt in her mind that he had performed some piratical acts himself. But after she had beaten the stuffing out of his crew when they made a comment about her hair in port, they had put themselves at her service and served well enough since.

 _Now if they would only stop calling me mistress. It makes me feel weird, and Shishou's face whenever he hears them call me that makes me think I'm missing something._ "Let them close on us, Captain. Those galleys would have the legs on us if they decided to cut and run. And stop calling me mistress!"

"Yes, Mistress!" the captain replied, scuttling off, leaving Erza to groan behind her.

The young girl groaned, then felt Laxus appear behind her. "You're having about as much luck getting them to stop calling you that as I have stopping you from calling me Shishou."

"That's different," Erza said, huffing and looking away.

"Sure it is," Laxus replied with a chuckle, before turning serious and staring out into the fog. The fog was always present here in the straits, a danger made far worse by the Shark's Teeth. Because of those two things, the pirates had gotten so close they were already within cannon range, though they were noticeably not firing any. "I'm going to have a look around. You keep fooling those two out there until I get back."

Erza opened her mouth to reply, but Laxus was already gone, disappearing with a flash. If Erza squinted, she could see him appear on the distant peak of a barely visible Shark's Tooth rock, then away through the fog in little blips of yellow.

Landing on a rock well out of sight of the ship he and Erza were using as their stalking horse at present, Laxus looked around, frowning. There were indeed several more pirate ships out here, eight of them, hiding behind the rocks and waiting for their opportunity to attack. This wasn't a normal pirate operation: no, this was an ambush for him and Erza specifically. The number of ships pointed to that, as did the flag five of those ships flew, a black wave on a background of red marked by dozens of white skulls.

 _So, the Black Tide. Where did they come from again? Joya or Stella, I think. All Holder type mages, though they shouldn't be underestimated for that. Racketeering, kidnapping, pirate activities, slavery, and mass murder. Not as bad as Roanoke was reputed to be in Bosco, but still very bad. Still, there's nothing more dangerous than an ambush turned on itself._

So thinking, Laxus turned up the volume of his headphones, listening to the music as he gathered his powers, a single huge flash of lightning heading up into the sky. "…Beatin' in my heart/the thunder of guns/it tore me apart…."

Then there was a cacophony of thunder and lightning flashing down to smash into every ship of the small fleet. "Rairyu no Gekido Raiun! (Lightning Dragon's Raging Crescendo)" Laxus howled, directing the lightning with his hands for a few seconds before he flashed forward, crashing into the front of the nearest Dark Guild ship smashing into it with all the power of a Minstrel galleon's broadside, the song Laxus was rapidly deciding was his theme song blaring in his ears. "You've been… **thunderstruck**!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Wendy had fallen in love with her sleeping bag the first moment she had burrowed into it. That love had grown the first night out on the road. Wendy was a snuggler at night, and Ranma worked really, really well as a heater. Specifically, Wendy loved snuggling into Ranma in his female body. That body was much softer and smelled nicer than his male form, even if Ranma hadn't had a bath, though his male body was actually warmer for some reason. Nothing beat snuggling into Ranma's chest as the two of them were up high on a tree limb, watching the stars come out, at least not in Wendy's opinion.

Apart from her sleeping bag, everything else was great too. The tent that they had bought was large and came with a soft floor to go along with it, centered around the heating and cooling paired lacrima. That was a big deal, since Wendy knew they were heading north, and it was getting cooler too as the season shifted into winter.

And on top of that was her Onii-chan. Their training was fun and interesting, Ranma making it as fun as he could, though there was little he could do to make trying to learn how to punch things fun for Wendy. But Ranma was always there with a pat on the head, an encouraging word, or a smile. He also read to her at night sometimes if she had performed well, and the foods he made were so tasty!

It wasn't like having her mama around. Grandeeney was big, warm, and protective, so big that Wendy couldn't hug her properly—she had to hug her claws or beak. And conversations with her mother always revolved around Wendy herself, or their magic and the natural world around them. With Ranma it revolved around other humans, himself, martial arts, magic, traveling, and sometimes he'd make up stories for her above and beyond the ones in the books they'd bought. Her mother had tried to do that a few times, but they always floundered as she lost interest in the attempt. She still missed her mother dearly, but for now traveling with Ranma was a close second.

For his part, Ranma had found it relatively easy to slip into an older brother/elder student role with Wendy. He was not trying to be her parent. He was not trying to teach her life lessons or morals outside of showing her that hard work was necessary and eventually what right and wrong was if that ever came up, which it hadn't just yet. Indeed, this was the longest time Ranma had ever gone without someone or something trying to kill him, a minor miracle as far as he was concerned.

He wasn't teaching her math, only reading, combat, and travel. That and slowly teaching her how to cook seemed to be enough for now, and they got along well with one another, which Ranma would not have predicted.

Of course, Wendy still had moments where she was in a bad mood or just wasn't willing to go along with things. But Ranma dealt with that via Rules one and two, and even made up a number three of the Anything Goes school of big-brothering: letting the boy or girl mope while you act happy or even normal nearby sometimes works to get them out of their funk by simple comparison.

Eventually they finished a full circle around the forest where Wendy had first appeared, and, as Ranma had feared, there was no sign that her mother had ever been there. Indeed, very few people had even witnessed the streak of white light across the sky that Ranma now knew without a doubt had been some kind of transportation spell of some kind.

Knowing now that there was no trace of Grandeeney to find, Wendy had a few good long cries and moped for a few days, despite Ranma's best efforts to get her mind off of it. However she eventually got out of it on her own and realized that even if they couldn't track her mother down, traveling with Ranma was a lot of fun even without that goal.

The two of them eventually took up traveling along the Straight Path once more, heading north-northeast, somewhat. The Straight Path in Seven wound around like a loop, almost coming out of Bosco and heading up north before coming back down, almost paralleling the coast a hundred miles or so inland before entering Fiore.

The two of them traveled for another few weeks as autumn began to slowly segue into winter. Both of them were actually looking forward to it. Wendy wanted to see snow, something she had never seen before, while Ranma wanted to see how well their tent's heating lacrima worked.

One day, however, something happened that blew all such blasé thoughts out of Ranma's head. The two of them had stopped at a small inn, seemingly like every other inn Ranma had seen. That stayed true until the innkeeper who owned this particular inn flashed a small green gem at Ranma from a wristwatch he had, the universal sign for the Kingdom of Seven's espionage service.

Gesturing for Wendy to go over and get them some drinks from the bar, Ranma turned to the innkeeper, his eyes narrowed as he looked around to make sure they weren't being overheard. "What is it?" _If this is another follow up to the business down in Bosco, I'm going to scream._

"The king himself has requested your presence in Seventy-Seven. He wants you there within the week, and to present yourself to him as you see fit." The man replied, his face oddly blank, his voice something like a drone.

Ranma blinked. "Seventy-Seven, what's that?"

"The name for the capital," the innkeeper said, looking at him quizzically. "How did you not know that?"

"I haven't run into that in any of the books I've read."

"I suppose that's understandable: it's only been the capital for forty years now," the other man replied dryly. "I think you need to read better books."

"I think you need to mind your own business," Ranma growled, shaking his head but not saying anything, having noticed the blank look had gone from the man's face for some reason.

 _This sounds like a new job. Damn. I wonder if I should start hiding my brooch from now on._ If he had done that, of course, he wouldn't have met Wendy because he wouldn't have heard about the streak of white in the sky, but Ranma had just realized there was a distinct downside to this whole Ranger thing. _While most of the time I'm left to my own devices, if I'm called like this I can't really argue the point._

"I don't suppose you know if there is a train or something heading to the capital?" he asked.

"Not from this town. But if you go to Redstone, another town nearby, it has a train station that will take you towards the Junction, and from there you can take a train to Seventy-Seven," the innkeeper replied, naming the centralmost city of Seven, which had perforce become the center of its booming train system. It had been a relatively unremarkable town before the trains had been first created, but it had grown since. No guild made its home there, and it was more a transport center than anything else, but it was still very important.

"Thanks," Ranma said, tipping the man heavily for that information. He didn't have to, of course: the man was both an innkeeper and on the king's payroll as an informer. But the information about the trains would be a major help.

This goodwill towards the man ended abruptly the next day when Wendy and Ranma boarded a train for the first time. Barely a minute into the travel, Ranma's stomach began to feel queasy, and he groaned, holding it in with difficulty.

"What the heck?" he muttered, then fell sideways as a bout of intense nausea hit him like one of Deliora's fists. That was the most horrible feeling he'd ever felt other than that first time he'd realized his female form was fully functional.

Wendy also looked a little queasy for a moment, but she shook it off after casting a spell on herself called Troia, which dealt with stomach ailments and also worked with motion sickness. _I wondered why mama taught me that one. I wonder if she knew I'd run into something like this?_ "Onii-chan, do you want me to…"

Ranma couldn't even say anything, too busy making sure his lunch didn't make a break for freedom. He simply nodded slowly so as to not make his head fall off, and Wendy quickly cast the same spell on him. Then she squeaked as Ranma pulled her into a hug. "That was great! I told you your support spells were amazing!"

The young girl smiled happily, and Ranma let her go back to her seat as he wondered what the heck just happened. He really couldn't think of any reason why the two Dragon Slayers were affected so much by transportation. But it was obviously the case, since Wendy had to use the same spell on the second train.

Despite that, using the trains paid off. After only another two days of travel they had traversed practically the entire nation of Seven from one side to the other.

Exiting the train station, Ranma led the way to a nearby inn. "Come on, Wendy. We need to clean and dress to fit in for when we get to the castle. Shower, then a change of clothing."

After a shower, Ranma put on his best silk pants and shirt along with his cloak, his Ranger's brooch in his pocket for now. But it could be brought out and added to his cloak at need. This was about as dressed up as he was going to get for anyone, royal or not.

He also told Wendy to get into the nice dress that he had bought her in that first town/city they had stayed in after she finished her shower. But she had never actually worn a dress like this before and needed help, forcing Ranma to change into his female form. It might not have changed anything, really, but it made him feel less like a pervert when helping the little girl get changed.

"Why did you change, Onii-chan?" Wendy asked, looking up quizzically as Ranma pulled the dress down over her arms held high up over her head.

"Because you're changing, and no guy should be around you if you're changing." Ranma explained, shrugging his shoulders. "It's called protecting your modesty. It's one of those things you'll pick up as you grow up. If any guy tries to get you to change in front of him, punch him in the fork."

Wendy giggled at that, but nodded. She didn't really understand most of that, but she understood enough to know that any guy asking her to change in front of them was a bad guy and deserved to be smacked. _It must be really bad, since after that one time I did that when I was angry, Nii-chan warned me he'd cut me off from chocolate if I attacked him there ever again._

That thought soon left her mind as Ranma pulled out a brush and began to work it through her hair. "This is really nice… You have to do this more often, Onii-chan."

"Not a chance," Ranma said cheerfully. "I don't want to spoil you, after all." With that he put the brush down, and before Wendy could turn to give him a pout the redhead tickled her sides, causing her to shriek and hop up off the bed where they both been sitting.

Ranma looked down at her, nodding her head. The boots Wendy wore came up high on her calf, slightly longer than the ones she wore every day. The dress was a skirt which came down to her knees, paired with a tight sash around the middle and a very good blouse matching the dress in color, which at the moment was a light blue, offsetting her hair.

"Good enough," Ranma said, still cheerful. She hopped to her feet and reached down to take Wendy's hand. "Let's go meet some royalty. But first, I want you to practice your surly, pouty face. You know, the one you have when you're in a bad mood and don't want to train."

Pouting, Wendy was about to say she didn't make a face like that, but Ranma's level gaze down at her caused Wendy to pout and look away. "Why?"

"We're going to sneak into the palace. I don't want people to know I'm a Ranger: that sort of defeats the point most of the time. So we're going to play 'trusted retainer and wayward princess' and fool the people who see us into thinking we belong there."

"Ooo…" Wendy said, then nodded and began to practice her face before a thought occurred. "Is there anything I need to know about meeting the king and queen? And…what are royalty anyway?" Wendy asked. "Mama said she was the Queen of the sky, but she never explained what a queen really was other than some kind of leader."

Wendy's favorite stories were about talking animals and mages going on adventures out in the wilds, sometimes with animal companions. She had read some books which mentioned noble families, but not what they actually were.

"That's basically it. But most nobles, and that includes kings and queens, are leaders because of blood rather than because of strength or anything else. I've admittedly met several that are actually worth the title, but that's not supposed to be the norm. As for anything you need to know: don't promise anything, and if you can keep quiet and not attract attention once we actually start talking to them, that's probably best."

Wendy nodded, as that suited her down to the ground. She'd much rather blend into the background if she could get away with it, still unused to being around so many people so often. Indeed, she was naturally rather shy.

The two of them walked through the streets of the capital until they reached the noble district. This was an area of the city which was separated by a small, very ornamental series of gates. Inside it was the castle, a slightly larger than normal mansion rather than any kind of real castle or former fortress.

There Ranma moved around the mansion until she found the servants' entrance, sneaking inside. Once inside, she grabbed a bellboy who was on his way out on some kind of errand. "Which way to the throne room? I have to return the little miss here to her parents."

The boy looked past the redhead at Wendy, who was indeed dressed like a country noble of some kind. The pout and dark look on her face told the boy the rest of the tale, and he gave Ranma a commiserating glance before telling her the directions to the throne room, which was three stories up and a ways to the front of the mansion from this entrance.

As the bellboy left and the two of them started to move through the castle, Wendy whispered, "Did I do good, Onii-Chan?"

"Yep. Now just keep that look on your face for a bit until we're away from the other servants," Ranma whispered, leading her by hand through the servants' quarters. They did get some looks, but the look on Wendy's face and the put upon look Ranma had on her own seemed to answer their questions, and no one bothered them.

"Are we really going to the throne room?" Wendy asked quizzically as they ascended to the third floor. So far this castle hadn't matched up with anything like she had imagined, and she was wondering if the throne room would be any better.

"Nah. I'll find the king's quarters and we'll hide in there for a bit. I have a little message I want to send to this particular king, and sneaking in so easily will do the trick."

The two of them did indeed find the royal chambers, and they were even unguarded. Seven was at peace at present, and even Pergrande wouldn't have had troops outside their king's quarters during peacetime. Ranma also understood that Seven relied more on the regular police and the guilds to police themselves, not even having a standing army save for a small, specially trained troop at the king's personal command.

Entering, they found the royal quarters were currently occupied. He was a young man—Ranma estimated he was barely in his twenties—with a crown on his head. Currently he was sitting at a desk in the corner, reading something. He looked up abruptly as they entered, his eyes narrowing, and he was about to say something before he recognized the brooch on Ranma's shoulder. "Ranger?" he said slowly. "We had not anticipated your arrival like this…."

"And who are you?" Ranma asked bluntly, closing the door behind her.

"King Meredrain Deucius," the man replied, nodding his head slightly in Ranma's direction.

"Well Willie," Ranma said, moving over to sit across from him. "I don't know if you realize this, but one of the main things about Rangers is that we don't normally need to be directed or called in like you did me. In fact, the more people who know about our identities the less effective we are in actually finding trouble. I can't say I'm a natural sneaker, but I'd still like to retain my anonymity."

"Yes, I apologize for that, but do not be concerned about your identity being shared with anyone, even in our Secret Service." The man flashed a large ring at him. The ring was so large, in fact, that it covered his entire finger, and it glowed with several tiny lacrima beyond the central green one. "These rings allow any information we give out to our agents to be erased from their minds. The moment that our agent informed you of our request, your appearance, name, and our request were all erased from his mind and the minds of every other agent. None will remember that they did anything, let alone what you looked like or that there was a Ranger in Seven at all."

"All right, that's a pretty slick enchantment," Ranma said. "How difficult would that kind of thing be? In fact, where can I find books on enchantments like that at all?"

"Nowhere," the man said bluntly, before allowing a brief smile to cross his face. "This is tied into the blood of the royal family and oaths I took years ago as the country's spymaster. Think of it as something akin to Queen Rose's activating that brooch you wear. Indeed, I wish I knew more about those brooches, but my older brother's death was so sudden he and I never had a chance to talk about the magics tied into his status as king. I haven't been able to find out anything about them, and the Rangers are only one example. Indeed, I only learned your identity because Queen Rose requested my aid in hunting down the agents aiding the slavers here in my nation.

"Still, I have to say that your entrance into the palace was masterful. Not all of our servants, after all, are equipped with these rings," the man finished, chuckling drolly. "I may have to have a stern talk with the chief of the castle guard, however."

Ranma nodded, greatly mollified by the conversation, though she was still irritated about having her chain being yanked like that in the first place. Wendy, meanwhile, was moving around the room, staring at different objects. In particular a golden lion statue was fascinating to her, and she was staring at it, looking at her reflection and watching as it changed due to the many different flips and crests in the gold.

The king's eyes darted to her then back to Ranma. "I've never heard of a Ranger going around with a child before. Are you sure that's the smartest idea?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm certainly not going to leave her. We're related, you might say, and there's no one else I'd trust to look after her," Ranma replied firmly. _She's been left behind once. No way am I going to add to that unless I have to._

"Are you sure?" Meredrain asked. "After all, Rangers routinely go into danger."

"Wendy's actually a very powerful mage for her age. I'm not going to let her get hurt, but I'm not going to mollycoddle her either."

"Your decision, I suppose," the man replied. "As to why I'd called for you, we'll wait for my wife, Sasha, to get here for the main discussion," the man replied, tapping a communication lacrima inset in his desk and whispering into it.

Ranma shrugged her shoulders, once more making a note of how many different ways Seven had come up with to use lacrima and magic to create what technology and engineering would have in her old world. "So, how exactly did a young man like you become spymaster?"

The man laughed. "I was always poking my nose in where it didn't belong as a child, and after I found out about an uncle having an affair with a married woman of an allied family, my older brother decided to put my talents to use. I never anticipated becoming king myself, but he died without issue, unfortunately." When Ranma looked at him in surprise, the man waved it off. "There was nothing odd about that, regardless of what rumors among the nobles seem to think. Illnesses spring up all the time, even in royal families, and his heart was never the strongest."

A moment later Queen Sasha strode into the room, slamming the door behind her so hard that Wendy jumped while the queen glared at Ranma. "I am very glad that you are a Ranger and not an enemy," she said crisply. "Your ability to infiltrate my palace like this is disturbing in the extreme."

With that she marched over to her husband's side, where he captured her hand quickly. She was at least ten years older than the man, Ranma suspected, with a hard, though still beautiful, face and a slightly larger crown than the one that sat on his head. _I'd guess she's the one that truly reigns here._

"I had a perfect disguise," Ranma said aloud, gesturing over to Wendy who looked down shyly. She had found a book with pictures in it and had sat down in a little chair by the windows where she had begun to flip through it before the queen arrived.

The woman's eyes slightly softened, then hardened as she looked back at Ranma. "Don't, my dear," Meredrain said easily. "I already asked her about traveling with a young child, and apparently they are siblings of a sort."

"And there is no other family that she can be sent to?" Sasha asked sharply. "And if not, we could take her in, could we not?"

"No," Ranma said simply, but with a sort of finality to it that made even Sasha recoil. "She is my responsibility, my charge, and my little sister. I'm not going to hand over that responsibility to anyone else. Besides, traveling with her is rather fun," he said, turning to wink in Wendy's direction, who had overheard all this and smiled back brightly before turning back to her book.

Sasha growled but nodded her head and got down to business. "We have need of your services, Ranger," she said without further preamble. "You see, a Dark Guild has moved in and are acting like pirates in our waters, and their activities are now having a serious impact on our trade with other countries. Seven, unfortunately, has no navy of its own to deal with them, and none of our mages can operate very well out on the ocean."

"I call bullshit," Ranma said, leaning back and crossing her legs. She was tempted to actually stick them up onto the desk to add to the insouciance of her body language, but decided against it. "There is no way that your own guilds couldn't handle that kind of thing."

"True," Meredrain said before Sasha could say anything in return. "The guild in question, however, is not labeled a Dark Guild, primarily because they are not from Seven at all. They are a legal guild out of Caelum. Their mages also include two S-class mages, a water mage and one Take Over mage of some kind."

"Seven doesn't have the best relationship with Caelum at present, and hasn't for some years. So we can't just complain about their activities and assume anything will get done. We need them apprehended by someone whose words the royal family of Caelum, at the least, will have to take seriously. Hence our request to you."

Ranma frowned at that, sifting through her mind for what she remembered about Caelum. She obviously hadn't been there yet, but she had read about it in various books, in particular since coming to Seven, which had so many more libraries then any of the other nations she'd been in. One of the books she read had been a history of the continent, though it had only gone back a hundred years to something called the Calamity. That was a major upheaval that occurred around that time here in Seven: a civil war of some kind with dozens of different sides coupled with a serf rebellion.

From that book she had heard about Caelum. It was a former pirate haven turned nation some eighty years ago. According to the book, the royal family there were badass water and wood mages to an individual. They had moved there from Fiore and had basically forced the rest of the nation to heel like a dog over a period of twenty years. There was no doubt more to that story than what the book had told him, but to learn more Ranma would probably have to travel to Caelum, which was a ways in the future, if ever.

"So you want me to either wipe them out or capture them. And you need someone like me who can act outside your borders and whose position, at least, will make my testimony believable," Ranma mused.

"Exactly."

"Do we have a starting point?" Ranma asked. This really did, unfortunately, sound like something she had to handle.

"We do. We know the waters that they routinely hide themselves in and the port that has taken the most damage from there depredations: the port city of Blue Cove. In fact, we have a train that can take you straight there from our capital," Sasha replied, using the royal 'we' unlike her husband.

Neither royal understood why both siblings blanched at that, then sighed in unison. "Greaat…" Ranma replied in a deadpan drone.

Shaking off her dread at the coming trip, Ranma went on. "Okay, I'll need a ship heading out there that they might possibly target, a crew willing to chance them and one competent enough to stay the heck out of my way once the battle's joined."

"Any smart merchant would stay out of the way once the battle's actually joined; finding a ship that will actually take you out in the first place might prove a little tougher," Sasha replied dryly. "But we will have one prepared for you by the time you get there."

Ranma nodded, stood up, and gave the two royals a jaunty wave with one hand that could never, even by the most charitable, be construed as a salute, while grabbing Wendy as she went by to return the book with her other hand. "Come on, Wendy. We're done here."

"So we're going to go to the ocean?" Wendy asked, following her brother, not out the door, but out onto the balcony of the room. The two royals followed them quizzically, but Wendy paid them no mind, looking up at her Onii-chan. She had overheard some of the conversation, though she hadn't understood all of it.

"Yep," Ranma said, kneeling down and letting the girl climb up onto her back. "It looks as if we will be." She nodded to the Royals, then leaped up to grab the rooftop above them, flipping herself upwards again to land on the roof before hurling herself out and away. She landed on the roof of a nearby building then hopped off of that and into the city.

As the two royals watched in something approaching chagrin, there was no outcry from their guards or anyone else, and Sasha shook her head again. "Remind me to fire our captain of the guard, dear. It seems as if their training is wholly inadequate."

"Humans tend not to look up like that, but I will unfortunately have to agree with you on that one," Meredrain replied dryly. "On the other hand, it at least makes me feel a little better that yonder ranger will be able to perform this task for us."

 **OOOOOOO**

It took the train from Seventy-Seven half the day to cross the intervening distance between the capital and the unimaginatively named Blue Cove. Ranma groused about that, shaking his head, as he and Wendy exited the train station, both of them holding their stomachs gingerly. Troia had given out about five minutes ago, which had not been pleasant for either one of them.

Wendy had hesitantly told Ranma that she was worried that the spell would start to lose its ability to help if she kept on casting it on the two of them. Their Dragon Slayer nature was building up an immunity to the spell, despite the fact that it was coming from Wendy herself.

Ranma had agreed, and the two of them it toughed it out for the five minutes, but now he was looking for some kind of treat for the both of them before they headed down to the wharf. As he did so, a man with a pendant with a small inset green lacrima approached him, his eyes almost unseeing until he finished whispering into Ranma's ear, giving him the description of the ship whose owners had agreed to take him out into the ocean to search for their quarry. They didn't know he was a Ranger, only a powerful mage, which Ranma was happy about.

Because of this interruption it was Wendy who first spotted the small street vendor with the really nice smelling food. The stand was offering what looked like cinnamon buns, only they were created like spheres, and right in front of the customer too. Each sphere was magically created by the wizard doing it, then glazed by another wizard and handed out to the cheering crowd, one after another.

With Wendy hopping eagerly beside him, Ranma bought two of them. Since they were as big as Ranma's fist brought together, that was a decent meal for Wendy and a good sized snack for Ranma.

They walked through the port city, looking around while eating, before Ranma turned them down towards the docks. While Ranma began to look for the ship he was supposed to take out, Wendy stared in awe at the ocean. "It's so wide, Oni-Chan…" she whispered, transfixed by the sight. "Where does so much water come from?"

"It's the sea, Wendy. It's always been there in one form or another. But I wouldn't recommend you try to drink it; it's different from fresh water," Ranma replied, ruffling her hair.

"Why?" Wendy asked. "I mean, you drink water all the time. What's so different about the sea that changes it from freshwater?"

Ranma shrugged and gestured with a hand, which glowed with a ring of magical energy for a second. A small globe of water came up towards him, moving towards Wendy. She hesitantly stuck her tongue into the globe, then made a face. "It's all salty! What's the point of all that water if you can't drink it?"

"Well, I can with no trouble," Ranma replied laughing. "And the fish seem to like it anyway."

Wendy pouted, and Ranma laughed, pulling her into a little hug. _Always remember rule one._ "Now come on. I have to find the ship that's going to be taking us out."

That caused Wendy to both nod and shiver at the same time. She wasn't looking forward to actually fighting someone. She'd fought animals before, but not people, and there was a big difference between the two. But Ranma had assured her that she wouldn't be doing any of the fighting, just helping Ranma to get to the enemy ships. That she was willing to do, even if she didn't really like it.

Finding the ship Ranma had been told about was actually easy: it was the only ship in port which had bright, checkerboard patterned sails.

When he met Ranma and Wendy, the captain looked a little dubious, but he also looked like a tough, no-nonsense sailor, as did all of his crew. They weren't mages, but they looked like tough customers, and the ship was heavily armed too, with ten cannons to a side and every man armed with a rifle.

The man explained why he was willing to help Ranma out onto the ocean to look for the pirates as his crew made ready to get under way. "We'd be prime targets anyway. We're part of a merchant guild called Gleaming Glass. We're merchants who specialize in transferring lacrima and gems of all sorts. Our hold is full of prepared lacrima from Iceberg, headed for the port towns of Fiore, Caelum, and Minstrel. Taking our cargo would make any normal pirate's year, even after giving out payment to the crew."

Ranma nodded. "Well, don't worry about that. As long as I have a say about it they won't be taking your cargo, at the very least. And since I'm a water mage," Ranma says, underselling his abilities quite a lot, "I **do** have something to say about it. Now, where are my and Wendy's quarters?"

 **OOOOOOO**

Lord James Superfry was cold, and angry to be so. He **hated** the cold; he **hated** the fact that he was out here in the North Sea where the icebergs never quite disappeared and even water mages needed to be on the lookout for the giant, ship destroying mountains. But necessity had forced them out here, and that was the real reason why he was pissed. He was a pirate lord, but he'd been forced out here because of the actions of two mages. Just **two**! "God dammit, if I ever actually run into them myself, I'll kill both of them!"

That thought was sheer bravado, and in his saner moments, which thankfully outnumbered the majority of his insane ones, James knew it. Nor was he alone in having been utterly terrified of what had been occurring lately in the Joya Straits. While James' pirate fleet was based in Caelum, they had dealings with a lot of the pirates in the Straits and down towards Minstrel, of course. Indeed, before a few months back, providing the pirates in those areas with added muscle had been the way James and his people had made most of their money, along with taking ships around Fiore's southern shores.

If Fiore sent mages or ships out, he would either wipe them out or retreat into the Straits. If Minstrel did, he'd either wipe them out or retreat to Caelum. The Straits and the area where they joined with the wider ocean were his play area.

However, the pirates here in the Straits had been decimated over the past few months by two mages. One of them was a young, redheaded girl, who had quickly earned the name of the Crimson Valkyrie for her personal style of always wearing armor and using various hand to hand weapons, swords for preference, apparently. The other was a tall, though still young, teenager with blond hair and a scar on his face. He had earned the moniker the Lightning King. Between the two of them they had wiped out more than three dozen pirate ships.

This included another Dark Guild, which was the real reason why James had pulled out his own ships from the Straits entirely. The Black Tide might not have had any water users worth the name, in his opinion, but they had a lot of flame and low key caster types. And they had all been either killed outright or apprehended in a series of sharp engagements, only the rumor of which had reached his ears.

 _Still, though, I hate the cold. At least the pickings appear to more than make up for the inconvenience. And I've only had to retreat to deep water a few times,_ James thought. "If only it wasn't so God damn cold!" he muttered aloud, pulling his fur cloak around him.

"You say something, Captain?" asked a large, burly man from nearby.

"No, I didn't. I muttered something. When I mutter something I don't need a reply. Dammit, Daoshen! We've been together for how many years and you still don't know that?!"

"If I didn't reply you'd probably read me the riot act anyway," Daoshen replied laconically. "Besides, our lookout just activated his Eagle's Eye magic."

At that James turned away from Daoshen, his irritation at his first mate disappearing quickly. He looked up at the main mast as his lookout activated his magic, a bright white and blue circle appearing from inside the crow's nest. A moment later the lookout grinned. "We have a merchant ship out there, Captain. Their sails show the mark of the merchant guild Gleaming Glass!"

"Hot damn!" James shouted back as the crew cheered the news. "Bernard, you just won yourself one hell of a bonus! Helmsman, take your directions from Bernard and let's get us some jewels, boys! That ship alone is carrying enough to see us through months of carousing in any port you care to name, and I mean to see us spend those months in the warm."

A second later, however, Bernard shouted again, this time in a very quizzical tone of voice. "Um, Cap'n, I got what looks like someone running towards us on the water somehow."

"What?" James asked, turning in that direction, but whatever it was wasn't quite visible just yet from the deck.

"Whoever it is, they're coming on fast!" Bernard said, just as a large wake of some kind did finally break over the horizon to James' eyes.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Soryu no Owofuro! (Sky Dragon's Waving tail)" Wendy bellowed, shooting out air magic from her back and feet as she clung on to Ranma, zooming out across the water. She held back screaming in her brother's ear with difficulty, since she knew that, as a Dragon Slayer, his hearing was quite acute, and that actually might hurt him. "This is so much fun!" she said instead, squealing only once, and after having turned her head away from Ranma's.

"I know, right?!" Ranma replied, his own voice nearly lost in the wind of their passage. "Now remember, Wendy, we'll be doing some of what I call strafing runs past the pirate ships. Keep us going as fast as you can, but if you feel yourself tiring out, tell me. I'll be doing the fighting when we get close enough, and then when you start getting tired, I'll turn us around and drop you off back on the ship before coming back to finish it."

"Hai, Onii-chan!" Wendy said.

Despite her earlier thoughts on fighting, Wendy found a part of her actually did want to get involved in the fight, and Wendy wondered if that was the Dragon Slayer magic in her talking. After all, despite the fact that most of the magics her mother had taught her were support spells, Dragon Slayer magic was a violent kind of magic.

However, she set that aside, following her big brother's orders to the letter. With her new technique and with Vernier she kept them moving quickly over the water while he used his own magic powers to make them actually skid across the surface like a hydrofoil. Their wake spread out to either side, and Ranma stuck his hands out into it.

This triggered his change, since it splashed his lower body, but missing Wendy, thankfully, since Wendy didn't have the endurance when it came to the cold weather that Ranma did. Indeed, right now she was bundled up not only in her own winter gear, but with Ranma's jacket on top of that.

The two of them soon came within range of the first pirate ship. The pirates began to fire cannons at them, two of which looked magically enhanced. But their speed and their small size was such that they were an extremely hard target to actually hit. The cannons and magical bolts splashed down or steamed when they slammed into the water, and Ranma reacted swiftly, firing out a long-range attack. "Soryu no Kussaku Tsume! (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)" she shouted, bringing her previously outstretched hands forward with a clap, aiming them at the vessel.

The bulk of water that Ranma had gathered from their wake flashed forward in a battering ram the size of her clenched fists, smashing into and through the ship from prow to stern, right at the water line. Immediately the ship began to take on water, listing badly. Her next attack came at the same ship, raking it down its sides again right above the waterline as they passed by its port side. This attack rent the wooden sides of the ship, shattering much of the side of the vessel, letting in more of the cold, northern ocean.

"That ship's out of it!" Ranma shouted once more to be heard over the wind of their passage. "You're doing great, Wendy! Keep it up!""

"Hai, Onii-chan!" Wendy barked back, watching his attacks closely. Some of the attacks Ranma had shown her from his/her own Dragon Slayer style had been able to carry over, and that one looked like one she might be able to do in the future.

The next attack was one Wendy had already seen, though Ranma had upped the attack's level to a degree that made her eyes widen. Passing between two pirate ships, both of them still trying desperately to shoot them, Ranma gestured again, grabbing again at the water from their wake. But this time instead of condensing it, she added more ocean water to them and two huge, massive dragon claws appeared in midair.

"Soryu no Saige! (Water Dragon's Crushing Fang)!" she roared, bringing them down onto the ship. There was a sound of shattering timber and screams as the attacks hammered home, crushing the ships like they were toys in the hands of a giant. When her attack ended, those ships were de-masted, and massive sections of their hulls facing the two Dragon Slayers were crushed and torn away by the water.

At that point Wendy began to feel a little tired and told Ranma so. "Okay, I'm turning us around. You did great, Wendy. Three out of four ships are gone now, thanks to you helping."

Wendy immediately began to cut power to her spinning tail magic as they turned. Ranma took up the slack, creating a torrent of water behind them from her legs shooting them forward even faster than Wendy had. Wendy didn't notice that fact, still happy that she had contributed to the battle.

They quickly sped back to their ship where Ranma pushed off of the water's surface like it was a solid object, landing easily on the deck. She handed Wendy down to the ground, patting her head. "Keep clear, Captain," she said, looking up at the man, who had come towards them immediately, his face full of awe at what they just witnessed.

"That last ship must be the one holding the S-class mages. This fight's not over yet. Keep clear," Ranma repeated, patting Wendy once more on the head. "If you need a favorable wind, just ask this little one for some help."

Wendy nodded resolutely, if shyly. "U, ye, yes. You can rely on me!"

The captain smiled at that and gestured Wendy over to join him at the wheel. As he did he caught the look in Ranma's eyes, glancing between Wendy and the captain, the message clear: if she gets hurt, so do you. Gulping, the captain of the ship simply nodded.

A second later Ranma leaped back over the side, landing easily on the water below and racing back towards the oncoming pirate ship.

The pirates hadn't given up, to Ranma's surprise. _But then again, pirates aren't exactly noted for caring about their people. And if all the mages are on that ship, or at least the two S-class mages, maybe they think they can still win this._

That was indeed what James and his fellows were thinking. After all, the fewer pirates there were, the greater each of their individual shares of the loot would be. And James himself was a water mage who knew he could do some of the things Ranma was doing.

"Water magic against water magic," James said grimly, watching the girl racing above the water come towards his last ship. The other three were wrecks now, though most of their crews looked to still be alive, trying to either keep their ships from sinking or taking to the lifeboats. "Bernard, damn it, start earning your keep!"

"I'm having trouble getting a bead on her. She's traveling too fast and too wildly!" the lookout protested. He had pulled a large, complex looking magical gun from somewhere and set it on the edge of the crow's nest, his eyes flickering with his Eagle-Eye magic as he tried to get a bead on the attacker. _Funny thing, could have sworn the bitch was a guy when she first arrived, with different hair too._

"Just shoot! Make her at least dodge more! God knows that our cannons aren't doing it!" James bellowed back.

Bernard scowled irritably, but did so. Activating his secondary magic, he fired a magic bullet towards the onrushing redhead.

Ranma saw the bolt coming and dodged, seeing no need or reason to tank it. She kept dodging as the man with the rifle kept trying, not bothering to try and fire back just yet. Several cannons and four magical cannon bolts slammed into the ocean, forcing Ranma to swerve off. Not that the steam coming up from the bolts' impacts into the water was dangerous itself, but the heat from that and the mix of that and the cold ocean would have possibly been enough to both activate and cancel out Ranma's curse at the same time. Ranma knew from his/her time at the Tendos' that that was an incredibly painful experience, and had no desire to ever go through it again.

This slowed her advance, keeping her at the range of the cannons, which allowed the pirates' water mage to get into the act. The man moved to the side of his ship, a dark purple and blue magic circle appearing around him as he gestured toward Ranma. "Water Serpent Strikes!"

The plumes of water erupting from his hand were noticeably a different color than Ranma's own Water Magic attacks, looking somewhat purple instead. But they were still powerful, so Ranma dodged them just like the bolts still coming from the cannons.

At the same time, however, the water mage gestured again, and another mage leaped over the side of the ship. He was large, far larger than the Water Mage, and wide in the shoulders. As Ranma watched his body changed, becoming that of some kind of shark. "Take Over, Shark Soul!" He roared, submerging into the ocean and racing towards Ranma.

Shrugging her shoulders, Ranma leaped to one side to dodge another serpent, then used her Water Magic to launch herself up into the air like a dolphin towards the ship. The Water Mage tried to stop him, lashing out with further serpent shaped attacks but Ranma dodged them all easily, landing on the ship seconds before the shark man launched himself out of the water after him. The large shark man landed right behind Ranma and lashed out, catching Ranma in the back of the head.

This launched Ranma forward towards the rest of the crew, who were also all mages of the Holder variety. They raised various magical weapons, but Ranma rolled with the blow, landing in among them and lashing out around her with punches and kicks so fast few of them could even follow them, let alone dodge.

"Damn it! Water Hydra!" James bellowed, lashing out with dozens of thinner, less powerful attacks. These were the equivalent of bullet shots or regular punches, where before his attack had been a cannon in terms of power. But Ranma dodged them just the same, the attacks hammering into the rest of the pirate crew instead.

At the same time Daoshen transformed once more. "Take Over, Kraken!" he roared, his body shifting and becoming slightly larger. His grey skin changed to a rubbery dark red, and six more arms pushed themselves out of himself to either side of his body. Each arm lashed forward as quickly as a kraken's tentacles towards their target.

"Oh, eww! I'm having flashbacks of those damn magazines Hiroshi liked now. Why tentacles, of all things!?" Ranma groused, punching out one of the mages around her as her hands glowed for a moment with a magical circle. "Requip: clubs!" At that command Ranma's clubs appeared in her hands, and she began to lash out, using one to keep the tentacles at bay and the other to add to her offense.

A second later another mage went down, letting Ranma out from among them towards the tentacle man.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted James, lashing out with a massive, condensed water magic attack, the only condensed attack James could do. "Water Spear!" A spear of water lashed down, curving up and over the main gaggle of pirates to smash into the attacker.

But Ranma simply stopped, grinning and opening her mouth. The attack struck, and while the momentum of it seemed to carry Ranma back a bit, it disappeared soon after, the attack drawn into Ranma's mouth. "Ugh. That was strangely disgusting, like you'd added raw onion or something to the water. Blech."

For a moment all of the mages-cum-pirates simply stared while Ranma's body began to thrum with added power. Taking in another person's attack like that added to the strength a Dragon Slayer got when simply eating his or her element, adding more Etherano to it. This was the first time Ranma had ever tried that with her own element, but Typhon had told her about the effect before locking her into the training cave.

Now Ranma sent her clubs back to Requip space and concentrated all her magic into one of her feet, which flared with bright blue magic as water appeared there. "Soryu no Stumpu!" she roared, bringing it down.

The stomp shattered the deck for yards in every direction, tossing mages left and right, though the main weight of the attack was directed further downwards. It crashed through the deck down through several more decks and out the bottom of the ship, shattering the keel.

While the pirates scrambled to regain their balance, the ocean began to come through the hole and the ship swiftly began to sink. "She's taking on water, boys!" came a shout from below.

"Grah!" Daoshen shouted, barreling forward. He had used his tentacles to retain his footing and now hoped to at least take the redhead by surprise.

Ranma, however, simply blocked his attacks, redirecting them easily. For all his added reach and the number of his arms, the pirate was no stronger than he had been as man. Against normal mages or people that was plenty strong enough. Against Ranma…

Letting one of the tentacles smack into her stomach, Ranma let out a long sigh. "Dude, I know little old garden gnomes who hit stronger than you." With that Ranma grabbed a tentacle that had been about to curl around her chest, heaving the man towards her. A fist lashed out, smashing into the man's temple and hurling him backwards and out like a light.

"Damn you!" James roared, racing forward while his crew fell back, his body covered with water now like a suit of armor. This included a spear of water in one hand, the waters of it ready to explode outward at his command.

"You people don't learn well, do ya?" Ranma said, letting the spear smash into her body. The water did no damage, and an instant later she concentrated, opening her mouth wide and breathing in deeply from the mouth, dragging the water from the spear and around James' body into her mouth.

Stunned, James made no move to dodge as a small feminine fist smashed him in the stomach, sending him flying. A second later his flying body was caught by the ankle, and he found himself used to bludgeon several of his crew like a flail. Mercifully he lost consciousness with the second impact.

Dropping the Water Mage's body to the rapidly sinking ship's deck, Ranma looked around at the others and then up into the crow's nest at the few crewmen who hadn't already tried to make a run for the lifeboats. "Anyone else, or do you lot want to show a bit of sense and surrender?"

As the pirates began to surrender en-mass, Ranma smiled. _Well, I can cross proving martial artists are better than pirates off my bucket list. Ninjas vs Pirates, my finely toned ass!_

 **OOOOOOO**

"Hey, Gramps, we're back." Laxus said calmly, pushing open the doors to the Fairy Tail Guildhall easily and without fanfare as Erza followed him in, her head held high.

A bare millisecond later both Laxus and Erza were picked up by massive hands. "You bastards!" Makarov roared, tossing Erza to one side and bringing his grandson close to shout into his face. "You never learn, again walking in all calm like, and this time it's after you stole an S-class request! Do you think I wouldn't find out what rating it was just because you stole it before I labeled it!?"

"Shishou…" Erza groaned from where she had been tossed. "You didn't?"

"I did," Laxus said, smirking unrepentantly at his grandfather. "And I'm not sorry!"

"Oh, then you're prepared for the punishment, are you!?"

"Hai, Master Makarov. Please hit me!" Erza said, quickly moving to stand ramrod straight in front of him.

Makarov merely flicked her forehead with a thump, causing her head to jolt back slightly, well used to her odd way of wanting to be punished for her mistakes. He kept his real attention on Laxus, whose face paled, but he still stood there, defiant in Makarov's grip. "Bah! That's all for you, Erza. I know you were merely led astray. As for you, Laxus, your punishment will come when you're least expecting it. It will come when I have determined how to fit the punishment to your crime…"

At his words the giant hand grasping Laxus receded until it was tiny, hand patting him on the shoulder, and he leaned in, whispering so Erza could not hear. "Don't make a habit of this, boy. There's only so far I'm willing to bend the rules for you. Did you even think about what would happen to Erza if the two of you got into trouble? You've got no right to put her life into danger too!"

"There was no real danger, Gramps. We were just hunting down pirates. Erza alone would've been able to do that, if slower than we did. You can't keep mollycoddling us. How the hell are we supposed to get strong if we can't spread our wings!"

"There's a difference between showing your strength and using it appropriately," the old man said, thumping Laxus' shoulder with his small hand, which still retained a lot of the strength of the giant one.

As Makarov finished with his grandson, the two Dreyars and Erza became aware of a scuffle going on outside, which quickly entered the Guildhall. The source of the noise was the familiar form of Gray tussling with someone else, a new boy around the same age. He had a long scarf of white cloth made to look like scales, a vest, and loose pants. But his most standout feature was his pink hair.

Cocking his head, Laxus looked at him thoughtfully. "Who's the pink head?"

"Shishou, that's rude!" Erza said, shaking her head and moving over towards the two boys, who had stopped as they had seen Laxus and Erza. The new boy's eyes narrowed dangerously at the insult coming from Laxus, while Gray was watching Erza for a moment. He was happy to see her back, but there seems to be a sort of tenseness around her eyes, a more mature look to them than there had been before.

Erza in turn looked at the two of them and was about to hold out her hand towards the pink haired boy to introduce herself, when he roared, rushing past her, his fist cocked towards Laxus. "My hair isn't pink! It's salmon colored! I'll pound you just like I pounded Gray! Karyu no Kagizume!"

Hearing that attack Laxus started, something only his grandfather noticed, though he put it down to the fact that it'd been a Dragon Lightning lacrima that Laxus' father had embedded in him. The two were no longer close enough that Laxus told his grandfather anything, even his meeting another Dragon Slayer.

Laxus raised a hand, pushing it through the aura of fire around the boy's hand and grabbing his wrist, staring at his own hand thoughtfully. The attack hadn't even warmed his skin. "Disappointing," he muttered. _Ah well, I suppose not all Dragon Slayers are created equal._

With that he pulled the boy up to eye level, batting away the boy's attempt to kick or punch him with ease. "You know what? They already have a name for salmon colored. Pink!"

With that he tossed the boy over his shoulder. The boy crashed into one of the nearby tables, the owners of which yelled at Laxus to be more careful, but he ignored them, pulling out his headphones and nodding to his grandfather. "I'll be up top."

"You still haven't earned that right, you know," Makarov replied almost absentmindedly.

"And we both know it's only a matter of time, old man. Just get ready for it." With that Laxus fitted his headphones over his ears, turned up the noise cancellation to high, and moved towards the stairwell leading up to the S-class area, a second floor section that stuck out over a portion of the first floor.

"I'm sorry about that," Erza said, having moved over to the pink haired boy, intent on helping him out of the wreckage of the table he'd smashed into. "My Shishou has a short way with people who attack him unless they make it worth his time to deal with them."

"He's so strong! I thought only Gramps and that Gildarts guy would be that strong," the boy gushed.

"Of course he's strong," Erza replied proudly. "He wouldn't be my Shishou otherwise."

The boy looked up at her, his expression lightning. "Great! Then if I beat you, I'll be on the road to beating him!"

Erza's eyes narrowed, and a fiendish aura appeared around her as she glared down at the boy. "OHOHO?"

The boy looked terrified for a moment. But he still launched himself towards her, fists flaring with fire again.

The next moments were a scene of violence that made many of the regular guild members cringe away from Erza. "Is it just me or has she become even more violent than she was before?" whispered one of them to his drinking buddy.

"I agree. It's got to be Laxus' influence."

"I heard that!" Erza bellowed, turning in that direction. "My Shishou's influence on me has nothing to do with my tendencies to be hard on any of you when you fail to follow the rules or act out in public! As Fairy Tail mages we need to act to a higher standard!"

"First I've heard of it!" said more than one voice, causing Erza to scowl even harder.

Her booming harangue was interrupted, however, as Gray moved over towards the new boy. "Serves you right, flame head! What made you think you could ever even challenge Erza, of all people! You couldn't even beat me!"

His answer was a pained groan as the boy tried to push himself to his feet, flames flickering around his mouth this time. But Erza paid him no mind, simply glaring at Gray. "Gray!"

Gray stiffened, a terrified look coming into his face as he turned towards her. "Y-yes, Erza-sama?"

"What've I told you about stripping in public!?"

Violence again abounded while Laxus leaned back, up high above them, looking down with a smirk on his face. He was very pleased with Erza's progress during their mission, as well as his own. He'd figured out several new attacks and had mastered the ability to take other people with him via his lightning teleportation. It was a massive drain on his Etherano reserves, but he could do it. He'd also mastered several more large-scale attacks.

 _I'm not quite up to the level Gildarts showed when he swooped in and saved us, but I'm getting closer. And from what happened in Bosco, Ranma is getting stronger too. I wonder if he'll ever come around here. If he does, I'm going to damn sure offer him a position in the guild._ Shaking those thoughts off, Laxus turned to his grandfather, who was now sitting on the balcony beside him. "Seriously, when's the next S-class exam again, Gramps? It's time the S-class of Fairy Tail gets some new blood."

Makarov smiled at him and made to pat Laxus on the shoulder, but the hand suddenly changed into a giant's, slamming Laxus down onto the ground of the second floor. "Talking like that after breaking the rules; you've got some guts, brat!"

Later that day, Erza was walking through the town towards her favorite cake store when she spotted Gray coming up behind her. She turned to look at him, hands on her armored hips. "Is there something you wanted to ask, Gray?"

Gray nodded, looking a little sheepish, but also determined. "I wanted to ask you away from the rest of the guild. Don't know if any of the other kids would understand."

Erza sighed, but nodded, indicating that Gray could join her as they walked. Like her, Gray had had a hard life before coming to the guild. But unlike her, Gray had opened up about it to Master Makarov and Erza herself, which showed strength that Erza could only admire. She wanted to be up front about her past with people, but given the threat hanging over her old friends from Jellal, she could not chance it. Though more than once she had thought about confiding in Laxus about it and asking for his help. But the memory of the tower and the events that happened there were still too powerful for her to overcome.

Originally from Iceberg, Gray had trained with another ice mage named Ur. He had wanted to learn Ice Make magic in order to kill a great demon named Deliora. Erza didn't know everything about it; all she knew was that that demon had shown up again a bare year into Gray's training. Still looking distraught weeks after the attack, Gray had shakily told Master Makarov that the demon had been completely healed from the wounds it had taken in a fight with a wandering mage near Ice Town. But worse, it had attacked the city they were staying in along with two others of similar stature, if less strength.

According to Gray, Ur had fought them with the locals, Gray, and a few other mages. They had driven off both of the other demons and beaten Deliora somehow, but Ur herself had died in the doing, along with many of the others and nearly everyone in the city. It had been her final request that he join the guild, which brought him to Fairy Tail barely two months before Erza arrived. He had heard about Fairy Tail from Ur, who had met Makarov at one point and been impressed by him.

"What was it like?" Gray asked abruptly as they turned onto the street which had the cake shop on it.

"What was what like?" Erza asked, more to buy time than because she didn't know.

"What was it like…killing someone?" Gray asked in a low voice.

"It wasn't the first time I've been forced to," Erza replied tiredly, but not elaborating on that. "It was, it was hard. I, I nearly froze a few times. But Shishou was always there to help, and afterwards we actually talked about it. He basically told me it was good to feel bad about it, but that if it was necessary you needed to go about it as well as you could."

"How…"

"We didn't do that it that often," Erza said, shaking her head. "We normally just sunk their ships and took prisoners. But sometimes it was unavoidable, especially when we were fighting other mages as well as dodging cannon fire."

 _And I had seen real war before this,_ Erza thought. _This was just adding to that…_ "And the cause was one I was more than willing to fight for." She said that last bit out loud.

Gray nodded. "Yeah, we got some rumors about what's going on in Bosco too. Did you hear what happened in the actual country?"

"Shishou told me, yes. Someone had come through and wiped out the slavers?" Gray nodded again, and Erza went on. "Laxus seems to know something about that, but he didn't want to share with me."

"That's weird," Gray said bluntly.

Erza shrugged. "It's his prerogative." She thought about their mission as well as the look that had sometimes been on Laxus' face, which made her remember the first time she'd seen that wide grin on his face, along with the moment directly before that and the handsome boy she met. Something about his appearance still bothered her, niggling at some memory she couldn't quite bring to mind.

It irritated her something fierce, but she sighed and set it aside to look over at Gray, pushing him lightly in the shoulder as the door to the cake shop opened and the owner himself came out, holding out a massive strawberry cake towards Erza with a grin for his favorite customer. "Enough about me and Shishou's trip. Tell me more about that pink haired boy. Natsu, was it? He's a rather rude fellow, but he seems likable enough. What seems to have sparked this rivalry between you two?"

When the two youngsters got back to the guild, they found Laxus standing by the door, lazily holding Natsu by the back of his head and tossing him up and down. "It's like a ball that keeps on trying to hit me," he deadpanned. "You need to learn some different tactics other than roar and charge, brat."

"Speaking of," he went on, tossing Natsu aside negligently and looking down at Erza. "I've got a bit of an announcement I need to tell you about."

"An announcement, Shishou?" Erza asked, stepping forward and bowing politely to him. She was always much more formal when around the rest of the guild than when the two of them were out on the trail, though Laxus had tried to make her stop.

"Yeah. We've got some more rug rats that arrived while you and I were gone." Laxus nodded over to a girl who looked a little older than Erza. Her face was framed by blonde hair, and she wore small spectacles and a sort of haughty expression. She also had begun to develop curves, which Erza tried not to be irritated at, and was wearing a green dress that hugged her hips and bust line as she stood next to Laxus, looking up at him with something approaching adoration.

"This is Evergreen," Laxus said, nodding to the older girl. "And over there is Freed." The indicated boy was a little taller than Evergreen, with green hair shaved short at the moment, wearing what looked like a butler's uniform for some reason. Erza was quick to spot the fact he had a short rapier at his side, a cheap looking blade for someone with such an elegant outfit.

"I've decided I'm going to be taking all of you under my wing for a bit to train you. The stronger you are, the better it is for Fairy Tail, after all. And I've done such a good job with Erza here I figure I can whip the rest of you in the shape," Laxus said, gesturing at Freed, Evergreen, Gray, and the groaning Natsu.

"Shishou…are you…feeling all right?" Erza asked hesitantly.

Beside her Gray was looking around desperately. "Doctor! Get a doctor here! Laxus is being nice!"

Natsu's moan seemed to dispute that, but a lot of the rest of the guild was also watching this scene in shock.

"What?" Laxus growled, reaching forward to roughly noogie Erza's head mercilessly. "You can't just believe that I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart?"

"Nope," Gray said, holding up his arms in an X in front of him.

"Not at all," said the rest of the guild as one.

"I am sorry, Shishou, but it is somewhat out of character," Erza said, more respectful than the others, even as she pushed his hand away from her head irritably.

Natsu spoke up too, holding up a hand weakly. "I've known you barely a few hours, and even I can tell you're a bit of an ass."

Now, normally this would indeed be the case. Laxus would sooner cut off his fingers than try to babysit a bunch of brats who didn't have enough magical power to interest him. But his old man had handed down his punishment, and it was a terrible one: train four of the guild's youngsters besides Erza for two months, or spend that same amount of time taking missions dressed in drag.

When Laxus had guffawed and asked Makarov how he'd enforce that, his grandfather had smashed him with his Titan magic and then threatened to enchant the mission board to enchant Laxus should he try to take missions for the next few months. As Laxus had lain practically insensate on the floor, Makarov had then added salt to the wound: regardless of which punishment he took, Laxus would not be eligible for that year's S-class exams. He'd have to wait until next year.

So between publicly humiliating himself, being bored out of his gourd, or training some of the brats, the decision was easy. He'd had trouble thinking of who he wanted to train, but since Cana was out and Levy (she might not have had a lot of magic power, but her magic type was **easily** the best in terms of support in the guild) had turned his offer down earlier, he decided to go with the three newest punks and Gray on top of Erza.

That hadn't changed his base attitude, however, and at the moment Laxus grinned evilly, lightning appearing all around him in little arcs. "HOHO… It looks like someone's asking for an extra serving of my Lightning Torture Training!"

"Run!" Erza bellowed, twisting around and racing out of the door, Gray and Natsu hot on her heels. Even Natsu didn't want to tangle with the older boy when he had that manic, almost sadistic look on his face.

The other two newcomers were a little slower on the uptake and found themselves hurled out the doors towards the fleeing trio. Within a few steps of the stairs leading up to the guild's entrance their soaring bodies collided with the three runners, bearing all five to the ground.

"Now, now! Don't run; you'll just die, I mean, start training, tired. If that happened you wouldn't be able to perform up to my expectations. That would be such a shame," Laxus drawled, exiting the guild after them with a slow, measured step. The five kids clung to one another as he loomed over them, even Erza looking afraid and wondering what they were in for.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Happy birthday, happy birthday, dear Wendy, happy birthday to you!" Ranma sang in her female form with a smile, finishing the song before nodding towards Wendy. She in turn blew out the candles, a wide, beaming grin on her face.

Wendy actually had no idea of when her birthday was, Grandeeney apparently not having been aware of that human custom, so they had simply decided to use the first day that they had met as her birthday. Her gift was a large shirt with a large six on it, which was apparently her age, according to a pediatrician here in Blue Cove Ranma had taken her to, his initial guess having been off.

The two of them had spent a year here in Blue Cove. This was far more time than Ranma had wanted to spend in one place, honestly, especially one that didn't have anything to offer him magic- or combat-wise. But he couldn't really argue the necessity. Wendy needed to learn to read, write, and have some knowledge of math. But Ranma's ability to teach any of that had not been the best.

To that end Ranma had hired a private tutor to come by every afternoon to teach her. The tutor, an elderly woman, had done a bang up job teaching Wendy to read the local language to a level several years above what Wendy's age would tell anyone.

Under her guidance the little girl had picked up reading a hell of a lot quicker than Ranma remembered he had back in his old world. That had sort of depressed him when he realized it, but he was also rather proud of her achievements.

During that time, of course, Ranma had kept himself busy both by following up on his arrest of the pirates and with his own training. Actually writing up a report to be sent to the King and Queen of Caelum had been tedious in the extreme: he had had to hunt down witnesses, interview a few of the low-ranked mages, and of course make certain that none of them escaped, which was hard until some anti-magic cuffs arrived from the capital.

It had also been discovered that several of the local officials, including the captain of the four small coastal cutters Blue Cove used as harbor officials, and the king's local agents had all been corrupt. All of them had been on the take to not report the depredations of the pirates, and it had only been a few merchants actually sending someone overland to complain that had told the king there was an actual problem. And since they were connected to his original mission, Ranma had been called in to aid the investigations, though again, he had taken cares not to out his Ranger status.

He had also stepped up his own training, what with the ocean right there and Wendy tied up in learning with the tutor. He could now project far heavier attacks, as well as more focused ones. Creating the large water and blood-based sword that had taken Deliora's arm off had nearly killed Ranma at the time. Indeed, it had been recovering from Etherano depletion just as much as his wounds that had kept him bedridden for so long.

Now he could create a water blade of similar size easily and even create several such at the same time with only a little larger drain on his power. Using other liquids was **far** harder, but Ranma could still do it to a certain extent.

He'd also mastered the single club with one gun style, though he decided it really wasn't his favorite because that style in essence was a compromise between a long-range style and a short-range one. _Why bother with it at all when I can switch so easily from one to the other?_ he thought to himself as he watched Wendy blow out the candles.

That had been the third thing Ranma had done: he had taken his Requip ability to whole new level, working on both control and size. He could now Requip several different items at once, though he still didn't actually have a lot of weapons in his Requip space. He also had begun to use less power to do so, though that was much harder given his lack of affinity with the magic in the first place.

Still, now that Wendy's birthday was over with and her reading level was actually a little beyond her age group, it was time for them to get out on the road once more. Wendy was actually happy about that. She had tried several times throughout the year to make friends with the kids in the city, but she had ignored Ranma's advice about not talking about her mother. The result of the kids being dismissive or scornful about her claim of having been raised by a dragon was a few fights and a lot of tears. Every time after that had ended similarly.

Ranma had, of course, pranked the kids back something fierce. But Wendy, despite having liked living up on the highest floor of an apartment complex (actually in the attic, though it was indeed a regular apartment room), was more than willing to move on and get away from other people for a while.

The very next day the two Dragon Slayers left the city, heading south along a local road to pick up the Straight Path, which actually passed only a few day's travel for the two of them away from the city. They still couldn't move nearly as fast as Ranma could alone without using Vernier, but it was refreshing to be on the road again for both of them. And Wendy still made for a good companion, as she had even when they were stuck in the city.

Hearing her go, "Good morning, Onii-chan", felt really good. He had never thought he'd really take to this whole big brother thing, but it was actually quite fun.

"Okay, Wendy," he said as they finished up making up camp for that first night out from the city. "Let's meditate for the night, then you can practice your Sky Dragon Slayer skills while we eat."

"I still think that's rather rude, big brother, but all right," Wendy replied, trying to bank down her eagerness. This was one of Ranma's lessons: anything could be training, even eating.

As Ranma laid out the food in front of them, a series of barbecued chicken skewers with a side of a salad, Wendy concentrated on one of the skewers on her plate. Magical circles appeared on her arms as she held them in her waist. The air between her and her target vibrated, changing color slightly, and then the skewer began to lift off of her plate, slowing rising toward her mouth.

"Ah… nom, nom, nom!" Wendy munched down, tearing little bites out of the side of the skewer, which hovered in front of her face.

Ranma grinned proudly at that, giving her a thumbs up as he finished his own plate. "Well done, Wendy. Keep it up, and tomorrow we'll start merging that ability with your physical training in the morning."

The next day Ranma began to start training Wendy in the Aerial Style of Anything Goes. He'd trained her over the past year in how to anticipate punches by looking at her opponent's upper body, how to fall, and how to direct her Sky Dragon Slayer magic out of her feet, a build up from her Spinning Tail attack. Now he began to incorporate that into teaching Wendy how to use Aerial Style Anything Goes.

This practice consisted of Ranma ordering her to use her magic to hop around in the air, pushing directly off the ground with a blast of air magic like a cannon. Wendy hopped in the air a few hundred times over the next few days, the effort of keeping her body up in the air far harder than keeping an inanimate object in a similar position via air currents.

Eventually, however, she was able to do it, hopping in the air above Ranma's head. "I did it!" Then Wendy gave a whoop as she accidentally put too much magic in one of her feet, flinging her up and to the side.

Despite the sudden loss of control, Ranma caught her easily. "Good job! We'll work on that until you're comfortable bouncing around, and then we'll start incorporating actual fighting techniques into it."

Wendy nodded eagerly, but Ranma didn't notice the gleam in her eyes. For the next week they traveled from Blue Port down to where the local road intersected the Straight Path. This road wasn't used often these days, thanks to the railroad system taking over most travel in Seven. But for the two Dragon Slayers this was much more confortable, aided further by the nice weather, and the two siblings had a fun time as they traveled and trained, camping out in the trees as often as they could, Wendy's love of high places having never diminished.

However, there was an incident when they reached the Straight Path and stayed at an inn…

Ranma was asleep in one of the beds, having gotten a room with two beds despite Wendy's pout. After all, they couldn't always cuddle. However, he woke up to a bit of a creaking noise by the window to their room. Opening an eye he saw Wendy standing there, trying to open the window without making noise, an effort that had already failed. "What are you up to, Wendy?"

"Onii-chan!?" Wendy shouted, clutching at her chest, as Ranma's sudden question had scared her. "I…um…I'm not doing anything," she said, in the most obvious example of lying that Ranma had ever seen. "Seriously, Wendy, what're you up to? And don't try to lie again, Wendy. You're not very good at it."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Wendy asked, cocking her head to one side.

"Most of the time, yeah, but sometimes it's necessary. I'll tell you when, though," Ranma said.

"Okay," Wendy said with a nod before looking away, pouting. "I'm heading up to the roof. I wanted to use my powers to get up there. After all, we're on the first floor here. I don't like that. High places are best places," she repeated her oft used line.

Ranma thought about it, then winked at her. "You know, the one thing that tent of ours is supposed to do that we've never been able to test is its ability to be set up on an incline. What say we go test that?"

Wendy grinned and hugged him around the middle before Ranma opened the window and they both crawled out. Wendy hopped into the air and then up towards the roof, nearly falling or sending herself sideways several times, but she still was eventually able to ascend to the roof of the five story inn, and even landed lightly.

Not able to use Wendy's Sky Dragon Slayer magic (they'd tried to teach one another their different magics a time or two, and the efforts had failed badly, as badly as Wendy's attempt to use Requip), Ranma simply relied on his physical abilities. Closing the window after them, he leaped up, catching the edge of the roof and flipping himself up further to land lightly on his toes, smirking at Wendy in the night. "Now, help me get the tent set up," he whispered conspiratorially, causing Wendy to have to muffle her giggles.

They were shouted at the next morning, of course, but Ranma thought it was worth it.

But from there they continued their journey, barely covering ten miles a day, putting nearly all of their time into training and learning, and frankly, just having fun. One morning in particular showed this.

The two Dragon Slayers had stopped by a stream that crossed the path, a large stone bridge arching across. To one side of the trail an area of grassland had been cleared and paved with wood chips, a camping site for travelers. The two of them set up camp for the day even though it was barely lunchtime by the time they reached it. They slept outside that night rather than use the tent, it being too nice a night to hide from the stars above, and Ranma actually slept in the next day since Wendy had said she'd wanted to try her hand at preparing breakfast.

But instead of waking up to the smells of breakfast, Ranma woke up to a splash of water from Wendy. She stood over the small stream, her hands and feet glowing white with her magic as she laughed aloud. "Sky Dragon's Wave attack!" she shouted. "Time to get up, Onii-chan!"

Ranma pushed herself to her feet, wringing out her wet hair behind her with one hand and pulling at her shirt with the other, laughing quietly. "Trying to fight a Water Dragon Slayer with water; you've got guts, at least, Wendy. Guts, but no sense! Have at thee!"

After that the two of them began perhaps the most overpowered splash fight that had ever been seen in all of Ishgar. Ranma found the shocked looks of the passersby to be rather hilarious. Wendy, soaked to the bone but still grinning, launched herself forward, forgoing the use of water to body slam Ranma backwards.

Ranma let her smash into him, actually flopping onto her back. Wendy quickly scuttled up to perch on the redhead's chest, letting out a cute little roar of victory as she pumped her arms in the air. That this also protected the drenched Ranma, whose clothing was now sticking to her practically-back-to-Nerima-standards body, was a bonus.

Yes, all in all, for the two Dragon Slayers, life was going just about perfect. Elsewhere, however, life wasn't going so well for another child…

 **OOOOOOO**

"W, What's wrong with my mom?" asked a young, blonde-haired girl to a woman dressed like a maid. That worthy frowned, but sighed and knelt down in front of the girl, her own face sorrowful.

 **OOOOOOO**

"You have got to be kidding me!" Ranma groused, staring at the communication image of the king of Seven that had just come out of his brooch. The brooch had begun to heat up a few minutes ago and Ranma had quickly sought out a place without any witnesses around to see what was happening. Rose had used the brooch to contact Ranma a few times when he stayed in her palace to look through her library, so he knew what was going on, but not who was contacting him until the image formed at his touch to the leaf.

"Okay, I get that you've figured out how to use the communication enchantments between the king and my brooch. Great. But what do you mean you want me to turn back? We've damned well just reached the border with Fiore, and you want to send me to Joya?!"

Ranma hadn't been there, admittedly, the Straight Path not going through that nation. Apparently Joya had been a part of Stella in the distant past, until the two countries broke apart peaceably when the king had sired twins several generations back. A peaceful split like that was so unusual that Ranma had made a note of it. Both countries, however, retained the same writing style and the same economy, being very much the metal masters of the peninsula. Stella specialized in iron, steel, and silver, Joya: coal, diamonds, and bronze.

But the most important thing right now was that getting there from where Ranma and Wendy were would be way too much like retracing his steps for Ranma's liking. Further, this was the second time this particular king had jerked his chain. He didn't want him to get into the habit of just jerking Ranma's Ranger chain every time he wished. Ranma all too easily remembered how the anti-piracy mission had spiraled into an anti-corruption mission in Blue Cove. _Solve your own damn problems, dammit!_

"Actually, this isn't about me asking you to investigate something that had begun in my country and spread to Joya, as you seem to think. Nor is it even anything myself and my counterpart King Glondrul want you to do. No, this is something that we **desperately** need a Ranger for. There has been a demon sighting in Joya," the king of Seven replied grimly. He seemed to have aged five years in the year and a half since Ranma had seen him in person, and now had the gravitas he had lacked before, which didn't make his words any more palatable. "Three of them, according to some disjointed reports."

Ranma growled, crossing his arms and looking back at the king's projected image grimly. "Tell me," he said, or rather, ordered.

"The reports are sketchy at best about two of them, so I would discount them entirely as they apparently look like people, and there have been no reports of actual attacks. At least, none which have reached Glondrul's ears. They might not be demons at all. It is more likely they are mages whose powers have effected their appearance."

"Okay I get that, but why isn't Glondrul getting in touch with me himself?" Ranma interjected. "Is there some kind of distance limitation on this communication enchantment?"

"Yes, and he is also hip deep in trying to put together a military response to this event too," Meredrain replied dryly. "We aren't going to put all our hopes on just your shoulders, after all, Ranma."

"Heh, good to know. Will I be working with the military on this then?" Ranma asked.

"No. The demon we are worried about is seemingly able to fly, or at least leap hundreds of leagues at a bound. The military simply can't keep up, and the Mage Guilds in Joya either refuse to ask for help or have already attempted to fight it and have lost men and women. Glondrul's head of magical development, his equivalent of his guild spokesman, says the best thing the nation can do is prepare each city for as quick an evacuation as can be done. This is impossible, of course, given Joya's mountainous geography. There's a lot of background political infighting going on in Joya too, but you don't need to know the details."

Seven didn't have the same kind of organization as Iceberg or Pergrande. They had a mage council like Fiore, but it was more devoted to organizing ongoing magical research than policing the guilds, and rarely if ever were involved in actually assigning missions. The king had a single guild spokesman who was the mage's voice and ears in his cabinet, but that was a separate posting from the mage council.

"Understood. What's known about this demon? Is it Deliora?" Ranma asked, eagerness showing clearly in his tone. _This time I'm not going to win on a technicality, demon. I'm going to just kick your fucking ass!_

Meredrain shook his head. "Not according to a few scattered reports from the survivors of its rampage. This demon is red and seems to have stone skin. I understand that Deliora was mostly gray and blue colored and made of flesh rather than actual stone?"

"You wouldn't have been able to tell the difference from his skin's toughness," Ranma replied with a shrug. "All right, this **is** something I'm your best bet to solve, unless you can get a wizard saint, anyway. Though I'll have to drop Wendy off somewhere nearby as I do it."

He looked out the window of their room to where Wendy was playing with some of the local kids. A town had grown at the border crossing between Fiore and Seven, which had always been friendly neighbors, apparently. The kids were playing hopscotch, of all things, which had weirded Ranma out of first. After all, there should be a limit to how many things are alike from one universe to the next. The game, he could understand that being the same; they had similar muskets and other things. But the name carrying over too? That was just weird.

"All right, I'll turn back, and we won't even go at the same lazy snail pace we've been moving. I estimate that with Wendy helping me I can cover as much distance in a day as I could by myself in four or five if we push. Do I have to get in contact with the king of Joya when I cross over from Stella?"

"No. In point of fact, he doesn't even want to know what you look like, let alone your abilities, beyond your ability to take on this demon. As I said, politics. The mages, Glondrul, and his nobles are going through a bit of a rocky period, and the inclusion of a powerful foreign mage on top of this demon issue could tip the whole thing into outright conflict," the king replied. "Just save as many of his citizens as you can; that's all we ask."

Ranma nodded, and without a further word cut the connection. The king might've thought that rude, but Ranma didn't particularly care right now. He stuck his head back out the window, shouting down to the kids. "Hey, Wendy! I'm going to start packing us up. I've got another job I need to do, and we need to leave here as soon as possible."

The now six and a half-year-old girl pouted up at her big brother, but Ranma shook his head. "None of that, now! Its part and parcel of being what I am."

Wendy still continued to pout, but she didn't comment on Ranma's Ranger status openly. Ranma had drilled into the girl that it was a secret, and she traveled with Ranma willingly, even casting her lightening spell on the two of them as Ranma raced onward, carrying her on his back rather than his head, as was her favored position.

But Ranma could still feel her pouting into the back of his head as she clung to him like a limpet. "All right!" he shouted after several minutes of racing on. "What will it do to get me out of the doghouse?"

"Put on a light play?" Wendy said, suddenly all smiles behind him.

Ranma realized he had just been played, but shook his head and decided not to make an issue of it. There were worse things, after all, than putting on a light show with the powers he had copied/stolen from the caravaners in Desierto. "All right, I'll put on a play when we stop for sleep. Just don't ask me to try and create any musical accompaniment. You know that I've never been able to get them to sound anything like they should."

"Yep," Wendy agreed, then added as an afterthought, "but your voice is okay."

"Ya didn't have to agree with me so fast, and what do you mean by just 'okay'?" Ranma asked, mock angrily, making to drop Wendy, causing the girl to squeal and hold onto him all the tighter.

 **OOOOOOO**

Laxus was once more enjoying his second favorite pastime, or perhaps third favorite if he counted listening to music: watching the comings and goings of the guild all around him. As he did, little bits and pieces caught his attention from the total chaos.

In one corner Cana and Evergreen were arguing something with Freed and Levy, who seemed to be winning the argument, if Freed's smug grin was any indication. The two girls across from him looked ready to smash his face in, which said something, since Cana wasn't one to resort to violence easily. _Should I tell Freed to tamp his ego down…? Nah. That'd give Gramps too much of an opening. And being angry looks kind of hot on Evergreen anyway._

In another corner several of the older mages were arguing the merits of the latest Sorcerer's Weekly pinup by Karen Lillica. A few of those doing the arguing were mages Laxus knew to be married. _I suppose she's sexy enough, but she's what, twenty-five or so? And honestly, it isn't as if there aren't attractive girls in the guild. Evergreen's sexy as all hell, and Cana and Erza are gonna be stunners in a few years. Actually, come to think of, it I'm glad the old men haven't noticed that. It would be freaking wrong if they had._

But one portion of that tableau caught Laxus' more than the others, thanks to what his limited magical senses were telling him. Three newcomers to the guild were speaking quietly to his grandfather. All three of them looked enough alike that it was obvious they were siblings. They had the same silver hair and the same general appearance, though it was far more obvious in the two girls' faces then between the two girls and their brother.

The girl in the lead was the oldest one, though she was a little shorter than the boy. She was dressed like a punk rocker of some kind and seemed aggressive as she talked to his grandfather, leaning over his short frame with a scowl on her face. Laxus could feel the power coming from her and was pleased. _The Guild is attracting stronger members, excellent! But still…why another girl?_

 _Okay, so it's not like the guys aren't strong,_ Laxus mused to himself as he leaned back, putting his feet up on the table as he drank a beer which he'd swiped for one of the older members. _Freed's turning out very nicely with his rapier skills and those runes of his, even if he's a little clingy. And that new guy he brought in a few days ago, the one with the doll magic, he's got some potential too. But as for Natsu and Gray, they're strong. They're probably stronger than Freed or the new guy, but they can't_ _ **fucking**_ _stay on task!_

Natsu was the picture of dysfunction in Laxus' view. He never wanted to train like Laxus and Erza did, though he was willing to do calisthenics exercises, push-ups, and sit-ups, that kind of thing. But when it came to learning actual forms and fighting styles, he ignored their instruction or just ran off. He simply threw himself at anyone he felt was stronger than him, apparently wanting to learn through fighting.

It was working…sort of. But it was a lot slower than he could've been learning if he could just take some instruction.

The black-haired boy from Iceberg had issues too, beyond stripping every second he wasn't concentrating on not doing so. He had a major attitude problem towards Laxus for some reason, couldn't stop stripping, didn't see the point of trying to learn actual martial styles, and like Natsu, refused to even try to learn any new magic.

Erza in contrast had learned Guns Magic and a few other supplementary magical abilities to go along with her astonishing affinity with Requip and Weapons Control. At this point Laxus was actually wondering if he should petition his old man to start teaching her some of the Fairy Tail Guild special spells. Laxus actually hadn't learned any of them yet, but he knew of their existence and figured Erza had both the magical power and the will to pull them off, just like Laxus did. ' _Course, the old man hasn't taught me any of them yet either. That should come first, heh._

Coming back to the here and now, Laxus saw Erza moving through the Guild and smiled at his little protégé. Laxus had never attempted to change her attitude or get her to open up or anything, but at least when it came to fighting she was his protégé.

Activating his lightning powers, Laxus disappeared from where he had been sitting to reappear at the bar, sliding into a seat smoothly and leaning back to watch the action from closer up. Something told him this was going to be good.

Natsu saw him from nearby and shouted, "Laxus! Fight me!" Without further warning he charged his hands, flaring up with his fire magic.

But Laxus shot a little lightning bolt towards his feet, causing Natsu to hop up and down for a moment in pain. "Not right now," he said simply, turning back to watch the show.

By this time Erza had reached the newcomers and was holding out her hand to them, one after another. The two Laxus wasn't interested in were apparently named Elfman and Lisanna. They shook Erza's hand timidly, but willingly.

The third newcomer, who was named Mirajane according to her sister, looked down at her hand and smacked it away, sneering at her before turning to look at Makarov. "Who's the armored fatso?" she asked the swiftly paling guild master. "And why's she acting as if she's some kind of tour guide or class rep?"

"What did you call me?" Erza bellowed, a sword appearing in her hand with only a scant flicker of Requip power. She'd been working on using less magic for her Requip spells, which had resulted in lessening the splash she made when she called upon any of her Requipped items.

"I thought I was clear Ginger or does that hair dye of yours get in the way of your hearing?" Mirajane shouted back.

Laxus winced. Even he couldn't get away with calling Erza a ginger.

As such her reaction was rather predictable: Erza bellowed a challenge, gesturing out towards the door. "If you want to fight, let's go outside! "

In response Mirajane hit Erza hard in the armored chest sending her skidding backwards. "Nah," she said, grinning evilly. "Let's just fight right here. It's raining out, after all."

Erza righted herself quickly, coming back in at her enemy. "Cheap shot! But I suppose I shouldn't expect much from a whore like you!"

"What was that!?"

"You heard me," Erza said deliberately, using the same words that the newcomer had a moment ago. "Any girl who dresses like you has to be a harlot, or, I'm sorry, are you just a slut!"

Laxus laughed, sticking his hands behind his head and leaning back as he watched the two duking it out, with Natsu, Gray, and the other kids all staring on in shock. Nearby, his grandfather began to cry at the amount of damage they were doing to his guildhall but Laxus continued to laugh. _Ahh, good times._

 **OOOOOOO**

As Ranma had predicted, it took him and Wendy barely a week to travel through Seven, Iceberg, and Stella to Joya's border. Their trip was aided by the number of trains that ran between Seven and the westernmost portion of Iceberg. That portion of Iceberg was not part of the escarpment that made up the majority of the country, though it was still north enough that it was always cold. And, thanks to influxes of Seven's technology and investments from elsewhere, it was actually the richest, most developed portion of the snow-blighted country.

Though of course taking those trains was a bit of hardship for the two Dragon Slayers, even with Wendy's spells helping them. Any trip on a train was a hardship, given the fact that her spell would only last a bare few hours. But using the trains allowed them to cut through Seven and Iceberg in two days. Going through Stella and Iceberg after they left the trains behind took them longer, of course, but Wendy's Vernier spell helped there too.

Entering Joya, Ranma was surprised that there didn't seem to be any kind of panic going on: no sign of mass migration or anything. He wondered at first if that was because the king and everyone else who knew about the rampaging demon had decided to keep a lid on it in order to stop a panic.

However, as they traveled deeper into Joya he realized the real reason, a fact Wendy gave voice to as they ascended yet further into the mountains, the air brisk around them due to both the height and the fact that it was morning now. "It's so mountainy! I wonder if there are any dragons here?"

"It's an idea, Wendy. This is certainly the kind of terrain where you'd imagine a dragon could make its home. After I'm done my job, we'll hit up a few of the local libraries, and I'll ask some questions from the local innkeepers too," Ranma replied, pausing as he made sure of his footing for a moment before continuing their ascent.

Wendy nodded once to that, breathing in the air happily. It tasted different this high up, a little thicker, like a chowder rather than a soup, or something like that, she thought. Wendy always had trouble trying to think of ways of describing how it tasted to other people, even Ranma. When Ranma drank water he got flavors; when Wendy ate air she got impressions and sensations.

Joya was a land of barely interconnected valleys and very, very high mountains, which reminded him somewhat of the mountains in Pergrande, only far rockier and steeper in a lot of places below the snow line. _It's almost like the Himalayas,_ Ranma thought, _but with less snow, thanks to a few of the mountains apparently being semi dormant volcanoes._ That thought came to his mind now, as he stared out into the distance, where he could see steam rising off of an air vent in the distance.

From where she was clinging to his back, Wendy sniffed the air and twitched in that direction, leaning her body that way. "Can we go see what that is?"

"Maybe later, Wendy," Ranma said, pointing ahead and down into the next valley. "Look, we're almost to the next town."

Wendy did indeed look, and well below their current position on the trail was indeed a town. The trail they were on zigzagged down the mountainside for some distance, disappearing from view in several different areas before finally touching down in the valley below. "I don't think you can say we're close," she said, then giggled. "Unless you're going to…"

"Yep, better make sure you've got a tight hold back there," Ranma said, backing away slightly.

As she tightened her grip, Wendy felt her back touch the side of the mountain behind her, which was quite close here. The trail they'd been following was one no cart could ever travel rather than any kind of real road. The two of them had been traveling the regular road, which between Stella and the first few valleys of Joya was actually quite good, but that road had ended a few valleys ago, where Ranma had called the King of Seven and been told to keep going southeast.

A second after Wendy remembered that, Ranma raced forward towards the edge of the trail then threw himself off with a whoop.

"Yee-haw!" Wendy and Ranma both caroled in joy as they flew through the air, falling quickly down, down, down the mountain. About halfway down Wendy thrust out her arms. Against the air pressure of their descent that should've been impossible for a girl her age and build, but Wendy was the Sky Dragon Slayer. That meant she was both stronger than she appeared, even without Ranma's training, and that air pressure like this was nothing to her.

"Soryu no Nobashita Tsubasa! (Sky Dragon's Flaring Wings)" she shouted. From her outstretched hands, magical circles appeared and grew into the appearance of semi-solid wings of condensed air, which worked almost like a balloon, slowing their descent. She couldn't keep it up for long; she wasn't that strong, and calling on her power to this degree was a major drain on her magical resources. But with Ranma's mastery of the Aerial Style of Anything Goes, she didn't have to.

Ranma easily controlled their descent through the air, flipping himself a few times to burn off more of their acceleration. Then an instant later they hit the tree line. Ranma swiftly lashed out with his hands, grabbing branches and using them to flip around more, slowing his descent while Wendy clung to his back with both arms and legs once more.

Soon they were through the branches, and Ranma flipped them a final time before landing like a gymnast coming off the high bars, his arms stretched wide to either side. "Tada!"

"EEEEEE!" Wendy laughed behind him, throwing her arms up with him and whooping. "That was so much fun!"

"Weall now, I've never seen someone in that much of a rush to try our food," said one of the locals, a farmer by the looks of him, in a drawling sort of voice. He had been staring at them through the trees in shocked horror moments before, but then in dawning amusement as he saw them slow down. "What guild you two from? Feel sorry for your oldsters, I does."

"We're looking to join a guild, actually," Ranma lied, with Wendy nodding agreement. Ranma had coached her on that before, and with her being so shy towards strangers she had no wish to join a guild anyway. "But what do you mean, 'to try your food?'"

"Weall, it's the Autumn Festival, ya see," the man replied, gesturing for them to look up into the trees.

Only then did the two Dragon Slayer siblings notice that the trees were heavily laden with a kind of fruit they'd never seen before. They looked like apples, but their skin was a bright neon orange color.

"What are those?" Wendy asked, eagerly reaching for one.

Ranma, however, reached up quickly and took her hand. "This man probably owns them, Wendy. You can't just take one."

"How can you own trees?" Wendy grumbled, but subsided. Some aspects of human society still eluded her. She leaned against Ranma's back, propping her chin on his shoulder as they both looked at the farmer for an explanation.

The man smiled, then took one of the fruits himself and tossed it towards Ranma, who ducked forward to let Wendy catch it. She fumbled the catch, but eventually snagged the fruit out of the air, chomping into it hungrily.

"Wes call them there oraples. They's can be sliced and diced like apples, but they's taste like oranges. They're a specialty of our valley; wea even trade 'em to the other valleys around. And because of that and the fact that wea produce quite a bit a wheat too, we have a festival every year 'round this time. This year's 'specially big, 'cause the mayor's son's getting married ta one of the local lasses. People from all over the country come ta taste our food at this time a year."

While Wendy made appreciative noises and chomped down on the oraple, Ranma simply nodded and asked for directions to the nearest inn. Once they arrived, the innkeeper told them it was packed full, but that didn't matter to Ranma and Wendy, since they had their tent.

Ranma set it up in a small, out-of-the-way area of the town's fairgrounds after paying the innkeeper a small fee. Once the tent was set up, Ranma knelt down next to Wendy. It was time to do the thing he'd been dreading since being told about the rampaging demon: leave Wendy behind while he hunted it down. But finding this fair was too good a distraction for him to pass it by.

"All right, Wendy," he said softly. "This is the part where I have to leave you, okay?" Wendy looked both rebellious and teary at that, but Ranma rubbed her head softly. "I'll be back soon, but you know I never planned to let you come near a demon, okay?"

Ranma had told Wendy of his run-in with Deliora and that his mission here was to take on a demon of similar size, trying to convince her she couldn't come along. She wasn't happy about that and had thrown her equivalent of a temper tantrum twice, which was basically weeping and clinging to him without any of the recriminations or violence that accompanied normal temper tantrums. This didn't make it any easier to deal with for the first time big brother.

He had wound up promising to buy Wendy several books she'd been looking at recently in the towns they passed through. Which, given how he'd spent most of the money he'd had entering Seven years ago on their camping equipment and paying for Wendy's reading tutor, was going to hurt. _Then again, after this mission I suppose I could demand the kings pay me for these little trips. Fair is fair, after all._

This might not have worked now that it had come to the point where he'd actually leave, but Ranma's plea that she stay behind was helped by the fact that Wendy, despite his training and general attitude slowly starting to rub off on her, didn't actually like fighting. She liked training, primarily because it helped her to use her magic powers better in order to fly like they had just done earlier and to heal better too. That and it was something to do with her Onii-chan. She really wasn't that combative an individual, though she had proved on occasion that when called upon, she could take care of herself these days.

"I understand, Onii-chan," she said, kicking the ground and looking away.

"How about this, Wendy," Ranma said with an internal sigh, looking around the fair that was slowly taking shape. "How about you find the five most fun-looking things for us to do here, and the ten best things for us to eat," he said motioning to his mouth and making chomping noises, "while I go off and do my Ranger thing. And if there is a dress or something like that here that takes your fancy, make a note of it, and I'll buy it when I get back."

Ranma wasn't actually worried about letting Wendy on her own. She might still be a very young girl, but with Ranma's training she had become quite a bit tougher than any normal person would ever assume. And they had trained her magical abilities up to a point where she could take on even normal mages, let alone ordinary people. Her physical durability to damage was still very low, since Ranma was loath to try and train her in any kind of toughness technique, but her speed was decent, easily above that of most normal people.

"Mmm!" Wendy replied, smiling a little at the idea and pulling out a little notebook she had bought. "How long do you think you'll be gone?"

The notebook was a very cutesy one, with an animal like a polar bear on the front being ridden by a super-deformed chibi person. Ranma understood that it was a series of books that were just a little bit above Wendy's current reading level, but she had become enamored of them because of the accompanying pictures. Strangely enough she hadn't ever asked Ranma to read one of the books to her, wanting to go back and read them when she could. This was something Ranma was quite happy about, since they looked incredibly girly.

"No idea," Ranma said with a shrug. "I paid for us to stay here for a week, but I can't promise to be back in that time. I hope I will be, and I'll shoot for only a few days, but it depends on how long it takes me to find this demon I'm hunting."

As if the gods were hearing him, his brooch began to glow just then, the dull light indicating that one of the kings was getting in touch with him.

The two siblings looked at one another, and Ranma hung his head. Wendy reached up, patting his head with a giggle. "Silly Onii-chan, tempting fate like that," she said, parroting a phrase she'd heard Ranma say more than a few times as he described his life in Nerima as if it had happened to someone else. She was also happy this would probably mean her big brother wouldn't be gone for very long.

Sighing, the two of them entered the tent, and Ranma activated his brooch. "Meredrain?"

"This is not King Deucius," said a deeper, older voice on the other end, it's tone close to panicky, but not quite. "This is the king of Joya, Glondrul the Magnificent. I realized I had told Deucius I didn't want to contact you directly, but I am afraid I have no choice. The demon is attacking one of my towns even as I speak to you. The guild there is attempting to drive him off, but their guild master did not sound at all positive about their chances. Where are you now?"

For a moment Ranma balked, not having gotten the name of the town they were in. Wendy, however, supplied "We're in the town that has those yummy oraples."

"How the…." the man on the other hand stammered. "You're, you're near to the center of Joya already!?"

"We travel fast," Ranma said calmly. "Now tell me, where is the demon from here?"

"Barely two valleys over from your current position, straight southwest. If you've traveled that far that fast, you could be within three hours distance, maybe? The going gets a little easier after the next mountain you have to traverse. And don't worry: the guild, the Mountain Spears, will keep his attention on them for that long, one way or another. "

"Understood," Ranma said, then flicked off the connection, tapping the brooch twice on the green inset portion before looking down at Wendy and holding out his arms. "Hug?"

Wendy scrambled into his arms and hugged his neck tightly, pushing her face against the crux of his neck and shoulder. "Stay safe, Onii-chan," she said, her voice wavering as she fought back tears.

Ranma hugged her far more gently, smirking down at her. "I'll try, little sister. But if I come back hurt, you'll be here to help me, right?"

She nodded, still nuzzling into his shoulder, before reluctantly backing away, and holding up her hands in front of him. Magic circles appeared around them again, and she cast Vernier on him. Ranma stood up, leaned down quickly to kiss her on the forehead, and then exited the tent, breaking out into a flat sprint towards the southwest.

With Wendy's spell powering him and now on his own, Ranma raced through the valley up the side of the mountain as fast as he could go. He leaped from rock to crag, scrambling up like a monkey in places, eyes quickly shifting here and there to search for the easiest route through, and always keeping in mind the direction he was going.

It took Ranma a little longer than he had hoped, but he was soon up and over the mountain, coming down on the other side. This one seemed to have been a dormant volcano in the distant past, the rock on this side being a mix of pumice and obsidian. That would've slowed down any normal traveler, who would've feared getting cut or losing his footing on such uneven terrain.

But Ranma didn't slow down, barreling forward heedlessly, trusting in his balance to keep his feet. There were a few close calls, but he kept on going. As he did, Ranma heard the roar of a beast in the distance like thunder beyond the mountain. Looking around quickly, he figured out the direction from that sound and then kept going, racing on as quickly as possible. In this manner Ranma traveled the equivalent of a normal man's twelve day's travel in barely an hour and a half rather than the three the king had hoped for.

Eventually Ranma broke through an overgrown crevasse between one mountain and the next to stare down into the valley below from an angle far lower than the one he and Wendy had stood on to look down at the town he'd left her in. Below he could see the thing making the noise, as it let out another roar fit to shake stone apart.

From where he stood, Ranma could tell that this demon, while built along the same lines as Deliora, was a little shorter: only twelve stories tall rather than fifteen. It also had red skin that did look very rocky, as he had been told, with deep violet claws and two massive fangs sticking up from its lower jaw, rather than the horns that Deliora had. It also didn't seem to have any hair to speak of, but from where he stood Ranma saw dozens of stone spikes sticking out from his back and arms. It did have the same birdlike legs as Deliora, which told Ranma that balance would be an issue.

As Ranma pushed his way through the scrub, he saw that this demon also seemed to be a little more vicious than Deliora. Deliora had simply crushed anything in its way, but hadn't seemed to care about searching out individual humans among the wreckage. This one was standing there in the center of the destroyed town, tearing buildings apart to get at the people in them.

This might have had something to do with the fact that the locals were fighting him far better than the mages in Iceberg had. Several glowing runes surrounded him here and there, evidence that the mages had known he was coming and had lain traps, which seemed to be slowing the demon down somehow. There are also very few people around, and Ranma could see a string of refugees on the other side of the town from his current position.

But that wasn't going to save them. The mages here didn't have powerful enough magic to fight this demon, and as Ranma watched while still racing forward, one of them was snatched up out of the rubble of a building. He tried to lash out with what looked like Staff Magic of some kind, a bolt of lightning coming out of his weapon.

The spell smacked into the demon's face, but it was like the flick of a fly to the demon. A second later Ranma saw the demon raise the mage to his mouth and chomp down, biting off the mage's head and upper body as if the mage was a candy bar. All around him other mages attempted to attack the demon, but the demon ignored them in favor of finishing his grisly meal.

By the time he did, however, Ranma was close enough to make certain that it didn't go back for seconds. From his feet grew magical circles, and a geyser of water launched Ranma into the air as he gathered magic into a massive fist, just like he had to start the battle against Deliora. "Soryu no Kyojin Panchi! (Water Dragon's Titan Punch)"

The fist of water slammed into the demon's side, throwing the demon sideways, but it righted itself quickly, turning in the attacker's direction. It roared a challenge, its voice thundering out so loudly that it actually hurt Ranma's sensitive ears like physical blows, but Ranma had already disappeared under the Umi-Sen-Ken.

As it smashed its way out of the town to look for him, Ranma waited nearby, and when it came out, he launched another attack at the demon's back, an even larger fist hammering into the back of the demon's head, hurling it forward, head over tail. The demon righted itself with a roar, twisting around on all fours, surprisingly quickly. Its mouth began to glow, and it launched several beam attacks, pulses in comparison to the constant beam of Deliora's version.

But this demon could also aim those attacks. One of them flashed out for where Ranma was in midair, visible once more, having not canceled his water fist just yet. The other was aimed toward the fleeing townspeople.

Ranma instantly knew that he could conjure a Water Shield, the same kind of defense he'd used to re-direct Deliora's attack. But he could only conjure it in sufficient strength to completely shield one of the two targets, given the distance between his current position and the line of fleeing townsfolk. With that in mind, Ranma shot out one arm towards the refugees, shouting, "Soryu no Shahei Kyutai! (Water Dragon's Shielding Globe)"

Instantly a shield of water dozens of yards thick appeared between the attack and the refugees. The condensed water, almost as solid as ice under the strength of Ranma's will, took the attack. As the refugees shouted in confusion and fear, the beam of superheated gas, or whatever it was, dissipated the shield entirely, but was also absorbed by it at the same time, saving them.

This left Ranma to use his Titan Fist to protect himself, which he did. The Titan Fist had size, speed, and force behind its punches, but it wasn't nearly as solid or dense as the shield. As a defense, it failed, the beam streaking through it, dissipating the fist and slamming into Ranma with enough force to hurl him back over the town.

Hissing in pain, Ranma pushed himself to his feet, his clothing shredded here and there, and his skin blistered, but his healing ability was already kicking in. Ranma knew the wounds would be healed within seconds, so he ignored them.

The demon roared triumphantly, leaping across the town to land on Ranma, bringing its feet down on his position.

"Soryu no Senkai Yoroi! (Water Dragon's Whirling Armor)" Ranma roared in response, coating himself with the same kind of armor he had used against Deliora.

The foot came down with predictable results, shredding itself against the rapidly swirling armor. The demon roared again but this time in agony rather than its habitual rage, stumbling back as half of its birdlike foot disappeared.

But Ranma didn't let up, lashing out immediately with "Soryu no Setsudane Tsume! (Water Dragon's Cutting Claw)"

This time Ranma was able to send that attack forward hard enough to cut into the demon's other foot, right below the birdlike knee, slicing into it deeply, though its bones blunted the attack just like Deliora's had. _Still not strong enough, curse it. Going to have to put more magical power into my attacks from now on!_

Barely able to stand now, the Demon lashed out with its fists, noticeably faster than Deliora. But Ranma still dodged them, leaping up onto the side of one and racing along it towards the demon head, then hopping to its other arm and doing the same.

But then the red demon did something Deliora hadn't been able to. "RGROAO!" with that roar numerous tiny magical circles appeared, each around one of the spikes protruding out of its arms and back. Then they all launched themselves into the air before coming down, homing in on Ranma like little heat-seeking rockets.

Ranma dodged desperately, throwing himself off the demon's arm, trying to disappear in midair with the Umi-Sen-Ken. But the spike things simply peppered the air around his forward position indiscriminately. _It's like trying to catch the invisible man with a shotgun,_ Ranma thought, as one of them slammed into his shoulder and another into his thigh as he tried to twist out of the way.

This broke the Umi-Sen-Ken, and Ranma landed, sprinting forward and still trying to dodge as he gathered his magical power. He took several more hard knocks from the spikes, but was able to at least dodge the demon's follow on punches for a time. All the while the demon's legs trembled, one foot practically useless, the other leg giving out slowly until it collapsed.

When he heard that, Ranma twisted, rolling across the ground and dodging the last few spikes before launching another attack the demon's way. "Soryu no Kussaku Tsume!" From his outstretched hand a drilling blast of magic infused water flared out, slamming into the demon's hastily raised arm, coring through it.

But the demon had also hurled itself out of the beam's path, seemingly having developed a sense of self-preservation far faster than Deliora. And before Ranma could dodge, one of its fists lashed out just above the ground, not hitting Ranma, but grabbing him. Lifting Ranma into the air, it shakily rose to its knees. The red demon roared in triumph, squeezing Ranma slowly and raising him toward its mouth.

All around them, the surviving mages once more attempted to rejoin the battle. Small blasts of fire, Guns Magic and flashes of varicolored lights of other kinds of spells shot out from all around the demon. But their participation was literally nothing; even attacking the already existing wounds wasn't doing anything.

Seeing stars as the pressure on his body increased with every passing millisecond, Ranma grunted, pushing his hands out to either side along with his legs, mentally trying to force more of his ki into his arms and legs to reinforce them. "Not this time!" Pushing out with a roar, Ranma broke the demon's grip on him.

Before the demon could recover, Ranma had once more gathered water around one of his hands, lashing out. But this time, instead of lashing out with a punch, he too went for a grip, grabbing the demon's arm, the construct of water now having solidified to the kind of denseness only ever found in the deepest parts of the ocean. Ranma then clenched his hand, crushing the demon's arm. Again, its bones seemed to resist his assault, but its flesh did not, slowly giving under the grip.

The demon roared and began to charge up another beam attack, forcing Ranma to end his spell. But the demon's beam attack didn't need nearly as much time to charge as Deliora's. The first beam still found him, hurling Ranma backwards. The demon then poured it on, its movements becoming somewhat desperate. Ranma had, after all, already crippled it. Both its legs were useless, and one of its arms was now hanging limp at its side from the upper arm down.

Between one pulse of power and the next, Ranma threw up his hands, his skin steaming and sizzling from the first hit. But he was able to concentrate enough through the pain to throw up another shield of water, the same type that he had used to protect the townsfolk before.

For a moment the two magical powers were in equilibrium. Steam rose from all around Ranma as if an air vent had formed there, hot enough to roast any normal human, as the demon's ultimate attack met Ranma's defense in depth. Soon Ranma's position was entirely obscured, but the demon kept on, firing out pulses of energy so fast it looked as if he was firing a single beam like Deliora.

Eventually, however, its attacks ceased. The demon closed its mouth, flickers of blood and steam coming out of the corners of its mouth, showing it had actually hurt itself using its breath based attack so rapidly. It stared at the position of its tormentor, ignoring all of its wounds for now.

"You're not the only one who can use a breath attack!" Ranma shouted. The mist dissipated as Ranma appeared, his skin red and steaming from the heat and that first devastating hit, but his body was already slowly healing. Before the demon could do anything, Ranma siphoned a large amount of his remaining magical power into his mouth and launched his most powerful attack. " **Soryu No Hoko**!"

The spinning, tsunami-speed water attack slammed into the demon. Unstoppable force met indomitable object, but the demon's natural durability wasn't up to stopping this attack. The attack tore a huge gaping hole through the demon's upper chest and neck in a welter of shredded tissue, bone, and blood.

Gurgling its last, the demon fell sideways, slamming into the ground with enough force to make the entire region shudder, its eyes already dimming. Ranma walked up to it, grimacing as he felt the wounds he'd sustained. But his healing ability was already kicking in, and frankly, this demon hadn't been in any way a match for Deliora. _Or maybe I've just gotten that much tougher._

He stared into the demon's eyes, watching the light in them began to fade, and then roared like a dragon, trumpeting his victory to the sky. "RAOAOOAOAR!"

For a moment all was still as if the call had terrified the whole world into stopping. Then some of the mages from the town began to move toward Ranma and the demon, their faces showing both trepidation and fear. But those were not directed at the demon alone any longer.

As they did, Ranma moved around the demon's head, staring at it. _I wonder if I could fit the head into my ki space as a trophy? Nah, it'd take up too much space, I suppose. Besides, trophies are supposed to be seen, and I don't have any place to put it, so why bother bringing it along?_ At that point his thoughts were interrupted by a voice behind him.

"Your aid and arrival was timely, stranger," said the mage from nearby, hopping up onto the demon and moving along its dead carcass towards Ranma, who was standing by the gaping wound he'd caused, staring at the wound that had killed the beast.

Ranma nodded in his direction. "I heard the roaring going on and decided to investigate," he lied, remembering the injunction from the king about how he didn't want anyone to know he had called in a foreign mage for aid.

Trying to change the subject, Ranma looked around them. "Will you need help with the rebuilding?" Ranma could even go get Wendy. With her healing magic she'd be a major help.

"I think not," the man said, shaking his head and staring distrustfully at Ranma. "Where did you say you are from?"

"I didn't," Ranma said. "Are you really going to look a gift horse in the mouth?"

"Often gift horses come with hidden prices," said another mage, joining the conversation. Others were joining them too, all of them looking at Ranma distrustfully. "You dealt with that demon awfully easily," said one of them. "How do we know that you didn't send it in the first place?"

Ranma didn't know where this distrust was coming from and, frankly, didn't care. It wasn't his job to figure out what was going on here between the mages, the king, and whatever other power brokers Joya had. No, he done his job. And if these assholes didn't want his help, he wasn't going to offer again. "Well, fuck you too, jackasses," he said, giving them all the finger and turning away. "If you're so certain you can handle the rebuilding yourself, I'll leave you to it."

With that he raced off, heading back the way he'd come. Before any of the mages could do more than shout at him to halt, their suspicions seemingly confirmed by his simply leaving like that, Ranma sped up. An instant later he disappeared before their very eyes under the Umi-Sen-Ken, heading back to Wendy.

 **OOOOOOO**

Wendy looked up from where she had been walking around, staring over the mountains towards where the roaring had been occurring, ears pricking. While it sounded like distant thunder, barely heard this far away, her Sky Dragon Slayer assisted senses still picked it up. _I wonder if that is Onii-chan?"_

So interested was she in the noises she was hearing in the distance that she wasn't looking where she was going, and she bumped into someone, landing on her rear with a squeak. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said, looking up at the woman she'd run into, the woman having just come out of a restaurant Wendy had been walking past.

The demoness Seliah looked down at the little human girl, her lips sneering somewhat, while her lover, Kyoka, moved around her to look down at the girl too. The other woman's face was impassive, but a certain sadistic gleam came into her eyes as she contemplated the little, blue haired girl.

Beyond the fact that they were all demons of the books of Zeref, the demons of Tartaros didn't have much in common with one another except for their mission to kill their master, which he had implanted within them, and a belief that humans were worthless, boring, and should be exterminated. However, there were some differences. Most prevalent to the reason the two demonesses were standing in front of Wendy was that the two of them and a few of their other fellows believed that food was the one area where humans proved to be worth more alive than dead.

Humans could cook far better than any demon; this was a simple fact. Despite the fact that they had been alive for hundreds of years, no demon of Tartaros had ever been able to come up with new recipes, or even cook anything beyond very simple things. Acting Guild Master Mard Geer supposed that there had been some kind of mistake built into the way their minds worked during their creation, but what that could have been, even he couldn't figure out. It had gotten to the point that, in the past fifty years since Mard Gear had brought them all together, that the consensus among the demons of Tartaros was that when it came time to wipe the humans out, instead they would cull every human who couldn't cook and then force the remainder to serve them.

That was why these two were here: they were sampling the local food delicacies. As an aside, they were also staying in the area to make certain that their guild master's latest little project was serviceable. Not that they really cared one way or another about that; it had just been an excuse to get away from the others and to sample some human food, which every demon who had taste buds took every opportunity to do.

And now this rude little girl had run into them, despite Seliah having used her curse to make certain no one noticed their presence. Doing so was a more subtle use of her power than she routinely used, but it had worked very well. She only canceled it when they ordered food at the restaurants they ate in, and even then the people serving them didn't realize they were doing it, or notice anything special about the two demons in question.

The two demonesses exchanged a glance, and Seliah was about to gesture, casting her curse over the girl before ordering her to go and boil her own head or something similar. Kyoka would have come up with something far more sadistic, but Seliah just wanted to punish the girl for running into her like that.

But the girl's next words stopped her. "Ooooh, your horns are so pretty, miss!" Wendy said excitedly, getting to her feet and staring up at the woman. "Do you know if I could grow some like that?"

"…I am afraid that chapter will never be part of your story," Seliah said, her hands stilling as she felt an unfamiliar feeling, appreciation of what a human said of her. Kyoka too was smiling, looking down at the little girl in confusion. _Seliah must've missed this girl, or she could be a new arrival to the town, because she is seeing us as we are rather than our disguise_. _Still, at least she is doing so in a manner that proves she acknowledges the superiority of the demonic race. And she is giving off a very interesting magical aura, one I have not seen before._

And it was the first time any human had ever complimented their looks, or at least their horns. Most of the time human men noticed other features. Though when they did, of course, the two demons killed them in as brutal a manner as possible the moment they were ready to leave the area.

Wendy pouted little, but then nodded. "Again, I'm sorry I ran into you, miss, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the festival," she repeated, bowing from the waist before turning away and moving on to the next food stall.

Behind her Seliah raised one hand to subconsciously touch her horns. _Perhaps not all humans are fools after all._ Then suddenly both her and Kyoka's attention were diverted as they felt Frandral's death. The two of them exchanged a glance, then quickly leaped into the air, Seliah once more using her curse to make certain that none of the locals were looking up as their wings appeared.

They flew in the direction Frandral had been rampaging in, arriving just in time to see a human mage of considerable magical strength leaving the scene. "He has the same magic aura around him as the little girl," Kyoka mused. "Interesting. I wonder what kind of mages they are."

"That one is certainly very powerful, at least, to kill a demon like that. Simple Extermination-book demons like that are weak in comparison to demons like us from more complex books, but still, it's no mean feat kill them like that," Seliah replied.

"Agreed. We'll have to report this," Kyoka said.

"We shouldn't move against them?" Seliah asked. Then she blinked as the human mage they had been looking at disappeared even to her senses, exchanging a shocked glance with Kyoka. "Yes, we'll definitely have to report this."

Kyoka pouted under her ever-present helmet. "Yes, but after the festival. Besides, if the two mages are related, we can observe them for a few days if they stay there."

"True," Seliah said with a nod, though both of them understood what they were really saying. Neither had really seen the point of Master Geer's recent experiments in creating more Extermination type demons. After all, they were only good for wiping out normal humans. They wouldn't help against more powerful mages, and while killing humans was always to be lauded, it was taking resources and time away from other projects.

This would also give both demons more opportunity to sample the local food, something both of them were quite happy about. Whatever their strength, the two human mages were in no way a threat to the two of them, after all.

 **OOOOOOO**

"I'm back, Wendy," said Ranma, coming up behind Wendy as she stood at a stall, the lights of the festival lighting the town up around them much better than the setting sun could. She turned and beamed, quickly turning and actually scrambling up his legs into his arms, giving him as big a hug as she could manage before pulling back and staring at him, looking him up and down. "You're not hurt?"

"Nothing my natural healing couldn't deal with on the way back. The job's done, and now we can enjoy the food festival with nothing getting in our way. Hmm… What are those?" Ranma asked, sniffing the air and moving towards another stall. He didn't really want her to question him about what the job had entailed. Wendy would try and force them to head back and help despite the locals, and frankly Ranma just didn't want to deal with that headache.

Over the next few hours the two of them ran around like twin kids in a candy store, sampling every food they could, buying lots of the local produce to store in Ranma's ki space, and simply having a great time. Ranma felt a time or two that they were being watched, but every time he looked to see who was watching them, something would divert his attention, or the feeling would go away. Eventually he decided it was just curious locals looking at the two young strangers and put it out of his mind..

He never knew how close he was to two demons of the Dark Guild Tartaros and they never realized they were watching two Dragon Slayers, quickly losing interest in the two humans. The two of them were simply looking like normal humans, running around and sampling the food, which the two demons wanted to concentrate their own attention on. Eventually Kyoka and Seliah went back to what they had been doing earlier, ignoring the two mages with the odd auras.

That evening the two Dragon Slayers laid out in their tent, with Wendy once more curled up on Ranma's chest like a little furry demon, unwilling to sleep in a separate sleeping bag tonight. She had **not** liked the fact that Ranma had left her behind **at all,** and had been extra clingy since he had gotten back, despite the fact that he hadn't been gone for more than half a day.

The two of them had pretty much finished all there was to do in the fair that evening. There weren't a lot of actual events: it was mostly a food fair, and the two Dragon Slayers' appetites had allowed them to sample pretty much everything on display, which would've taken a normal person at least a week to do. Thanks to her physical training, Wendy nearly consumed as much food as Ranma had at the same age whenever he could, which, thanks to Genma, hadn't been often.

Now with a lot of the local oraples in his ki space (which was larger than the portable fridge at keeping vegetables), they could leave any time they wanted, and did, traveling north to the nearest royally owned mining town the next morning. There Ranma contacted the king, told him what occurred, and demanded some money in recompense.

The king of Joya was a skinflint and argued the point. After all, Rangers were actually not supposed to be funded like that on a per job basis, only receiving a stipend and then repayment of any monies spent during a specific job.

But Ranma angrily stated he'd ask the other kings to intercede on his behalf and that he only wanted a few thousand in local currency. The king ungraciously acceded to his 'request,' and Ranma bought Wendy the books she wanted, but not a new dress. The local fashions were either too adult for Ranma to want to see Wendy in, or like clothing Wendy already owned.

To save some money, and because the inns in this city didn't look all that good in the first place, Ranma and Wendy moved on for a few hours until it started to rain. Ranma quickly set up their tent, and both of them entered as rain drenched the world around them. The two of them were soon snug in their tent, with Ranma having made a hot, spiced cider from a few regular apples from her ki space and a lot of cinnamon.

Ranma didn't bother to change back, since she knew Wendy would snuggle in with her again and that the younger girl preferred to snuggle his female body. _And this way I should be able to get my period out of the way in a few days, if my time keeping's accurate, anyway. Better to sprint the last week of the distance under controlled conditions than to let it come on me suddenly the next time I change forms._

Wendy loved the drink and kept on sipping at it despite the fact that it was quite hot. As she did, Ranma pulled out a series of maps. He had made a point of buying a map for each country he'd been in, though Joya's map wasn't really all that accurate. It didn't show any of the trails, only the mountains valleys and the few main roads that connected them all.

"So, we are here," The redhead said, looking over at Wendy and placing a small blue piece of glass on the map. Wendy had picked it up at some point because she thought it was pretty.

"We could go back the way we came," Ranma went on, tracing the route with her finger. "Leave Joya the same way we came in, head up through Stella into Iceberg again, then take the trains back into Seven, trying to head back to where we were when we had to turn around." She shared a disgruntled look with Wendy, both of them scrunching up their noses in irritation at the idea of taking that many trains once more.

"Or we could go somewhere else." Ranma traced a route from where they were through the rest of Joya to one of the few large stars on Joya's map. It marked a port city on the inland Sea. "From there we could head towards Bellum or up the river towards Pergrande. What do you think? Do you want to see Pergrande, Bellum, and Iceberg, or retrace our steps before we make for Fiore?"

"No more trains for a long while," Wendy replied firmly. "I used Troia on us too often during our trip to Joya, Onii-chan. Our bodies definitely developed an immunity to it. Any more and it might stop working at all! I don't think we should be on any kind of train or even a boat for a long while, at least a few months."

"Okay, so that's out. But we could travel that way on foot," Ranma replied.

"But we're going to stay here for a while and look for stuff about my mom, right?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, I imagine we will. But remember, we can't go around using magic here, Wendy. The local mages and the king are arguing about something, and I don't want them to think we're on either side of that argument. So we'll have to practice just martial arts and physical endurance things." Wendy didn't understand that but she still nodded, looking a little pouty at the idea, but willing to go along with her Onii-chan's orders.

"Well, if we're not going to stay here anyway, then I would go the other way," Wendy said. "I've not seen Bellum, and the way you described the woods, they sounded fun. And isn't Pergrande the home for the Heart Kreuz fashion line?"

"I didn't realize you were into fashion already, Wendy," said Ranma, slapping her hands to her forehead with a dramatic moan. "Soon enough you'll be noticing boys and forgetting about me."

"Ew! Don't be gross!" Wendy said, reaching over to some to pick up a pillow and hurling it at her Onii-chan. "Never!"

Ranma laughed, grabbing a pillow out of the air before bopping it lightly on Wendy's head. "In that case, we have a plan."

 _Besides, with my Ranger status, I can probably get access to more libraries in both Pergrande and Bellum than I did before,_ Ranma thought. _I can't imagine Vicotronious would turn me away, given that he was one of the kings that put me up for this crap anyway._

 **OOOOOOO**

"You were correct not to do anything I suppose. The death of Frandral is little concern. Simply another experiment, certainly of far less import than giving any hint that Tartaros is becoming more active. The next one I create will be stronger. I am learning more and more with every experiment how to duplicate our Master's original magics. Eventually we will be able to create other demons on our own level. And soon after that, we will have enough power to carry out both our missions, both Master Zeref's and our own self-chosen one. Indeed," Master Gear said, almost smiling now, "this mage you mention could turn out to be a good barometer of our progress."

Kyoka and Seliah nodded, bowing their heads submissively to their guild master.

"Yet at the same time, this mage's description sounds strangely familiar. I'll have to think about that," Master Geer mused, then stood up, gesturing for the two women to leave him as he moved towards his own rooms, frowning in thought as he started to search his memories for why that description sounded so familiar.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Congratulations, my boy," Makarov said, clapping his grandson on the shoulder. "You are now the youngest S-class in the history of Ishgar!"

"About damn time, Gramps," Laxus growled, shifting slightly and pushing Makarov away with one hand. "You know I was S-class level last year."

"Perhaps in terms of magical power, yes, Laxus, you were," Makarov said, grabbing his shoulder and turning Laxus to face him. "But not mentally. Your attitude still leaves much to be desired, but you are quite a bit more mindful towards your fellow guild members than you were, and you're not as arrogant either. Despite the words you just spoke, making me think twice about that bit," he finished dryly.

Rolling his eyes, Laxus muttered, "Whatever," before turning to continue down the hallway towards the dining room. Opening the door to it, the sound of thunderous applause and shouts of congratulations started immediately.

Laxus paused, looking around and seeing the entire guild clapping for him. Even those people who he didn't like and who didn't like him in turn were clapping, which was gratifying, Laxus had to admit.

He tried not to look in of the direction of Freed, whose look of adulation had started to become a little disturbing to Laxus, frankly. Bixlow's wild fist pumps were at least energetic. The less said about Gray, who was standing with the rest of the kids, cheering while standing on a table half naked, the better. The blushing look on Evergreen's face was much more flattering.

As he looked at the younger teen, Laxus mentally went through his checklist of the day to make sure that everything was right for what the two of them were hopefully going to do later that evening. It was, and he smiled to them all, waving his hands once in the air before moving towards the bar.

But Laxus hadn't even gone halfway toward the bar before Natsu was in his face, pushing through the crowd. "Congratulations, Laxus! Now, fight me! If I beat you, I'll prove I'm an S-class mage too!"

Ducking under the boy and then head-butting him hard in the stomach as his smaller body passed over his crouching form, Laxus hurled Natsu away with a flick of neck. "Not a chance, kid. You haven't even beaten Mira or Erza, and you want to take me on?"

"Hey!" Mira shouted from nearby. "What's that supposed to mean, you freaking sparkler?"

"It means you still haven't beaten me either, Mira," Laxus drawled, moving through the crowd and nodding to people as he replied, eliciting cheers and laughter. "You haven't even beaten Erza yet conclusively."

"That, that's only because you were training her for so long! If you hadn't, I'd be wiping the floor with her every time," Mira shot back.

"Keep telling yourself that, tramp!" Erza shouted, before turning to Laxus and holding out a mug to him as he reached the bar.

She held out a mug, and Laxus took it, saluting her with it before draining it in one long gulp.

"Congratulations, Shishou," Erza said, smiling at him. "Your S-class status is well-earned."

"Stop that," Laxus ordered. "You know I haven't been able to teach you anything about using weapons for a few months now. In fact, you are better than I am with a sword or spear, or practically any other weapons these days. You might not be up to my level in terms of raw magical power or physical, but that's something only training and time can do anything about. I have nothing more I can really teach you."

Erza looked a little startled at that, then thoughtful, before she nodded, looking a little bewildered. "That, I suppose that's true."

"Besides," Laxus said, moving on quickly, "I'd rather have you us as a sparring partner than a student anyway. Sparring with one another full on will teach us both more than we can learn just training together. Trust me, I learned more sparring with a near equal in Pergrande for a few weeks than I did for years before that."

Erza's face lit up at that, but before she could reply or question that statement, Mira had crossed the distance between them and slammed a fist into the back of her head, hurling her forward into Laxus. "That's what you get for calling me a tramp!"

Laxus stayed put, taking Erza's small, if armored, frame to his chest easily, but then Natsu joined in, shouting, "That's a great idea! Sneak attack!" and attacking Laxus from behind. Turning quickly, Laxus swatted Natsu away as Erza growled and turned to deal with Mira.

All in all, despite the fact it was supposed to be a party for his ascension to S-class, it was just another day at Fairy Tail.

Later on, while he, Evergreen, Freed, and a few others were helping Makarov clean up for the evening, Laxus looked over at his grandfather. "You know, Mira and Erza's rivalry is sort of getting out of hand, old man. You might want to do something about that. It's not like Gray and Natsu's: they don't cause nearly as much collateral damage as the two little gals."

"I could order you to take them both under your wing again," Makarov replied irritably, his tone indicating that he had known this for a while and didn't like Laxus bringing it up now unless he had a solution.

"No. I've taught Erza all I can. She has to build on that herself. I'm fine with sparring with them both at the same time, though, which could at least force them to respect one another. Hell, maybe you should send them out on a mission or something together. They'll either bury the hatchet or bury one another."

"They'd bury one another," Makarov, Evergreen, and the others nearby replied dryly.

Laxus shrugged. It was just a thought, after all. "You're the Guild Master, it's your job to figure something out there. Or do you just like watching them wreck your guild every day? Are you a masochist?"

As Makarov scoffed at that that, everyone else laughed. And Laxus turned away, looking down at Evergreen. He didn't have to look down very far, the girl having gone through a growth phase that brought the top of her head up to his chin, letting her tower over the other kids. "So," he said, trying to stay casual, "I'm a little hungry. Do you want to go eat something?"

Evergreen blinked at that, looking up at him in surprise. Freed and Bixlow were about to cut in and say that they would go, but Makarov and Levy, who was also helping nearby, covered their mouths quickly, staring with wide eyes at Laxus.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" Evergreen asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, I think I am," Laxus said, scratching at the back of his head. "That is, if you want to."

Evergreen blushed behind her glasses, but nodded. "Of course I do."

 **OOOOOOO**

For the next few months Ranma and Wendy made their way through Joya towards its ports on the inland ocean. They had found that Joya didn't have very many libraries, and the libraries that it did have which were open to the public had no mention of dragons except for some old tales about the kingdom where humans and dragons lived together in harmony, which Ranma had run into before. They were still interesting to Ranma, and Wendy ordered him to read them aloud to her, but they didn't really find anything new. And having sneaked into a few guild libraries while Wendy was sleeping, Ranma hadn't found anything in them either.

Soon they had arrived at Joya's one major port. But instead of taking a boat, knowing that both of them would suffer from motion sickness, Ranma again lifted Wendy onto his back, and the two of them headed out onto Bellum Lake like that, with Wendy powering them along and Ranma using his powers to stay afloat. It was good practice for the little girl, helping to build up her magical muscles, so to speak.

Halfway across the lake, they were spotted by some of the Bellum Navy. The small frigate, looking something like a trireme but with fewer oars and cannons, came in close and looked at them. From the side of the ship a man pulled out a speaking tube and shouted into it. "Where are you bound for, mages?"

Ranma shouted back, "We haven't decided yet; Pergrande or Bellum."

"You realize you'll still have to pay a wharf tax if you put ashore in Bellum?"

"Thank you, you just made my decision for me!" Ranma shouted back, causing Wendy to giggle.

The man with the speakerphone laughed, waved his hand once, and then turned to his crew, ordering them to put on more sail and turn away, while Ranma and Wendy continued their journey. Thankfully for Wendy, they covered the entire lake in two days, with Wendy resting on Ranma's back in intervals and Ranma keeping them moving. They rested as soon as they came ashore at the entrance to the river heading up inland toward Pergrande. There was a small port town there. It was just like Bellum, built on the trade of transshipping goods and people up the river into Pergrande.

Despite that, it too was owned by merchant families like those which ruled in Bellum. This town wasn't allowed to grow very large, lest it attempt to compete with Bellum the city itself. And there was a naval force on rotation: a series of small cutters patrolling near the land around it and a frigate on maneuvers nearby. Ranma idly wondered if pirate activity was so large an issue on the inland sea that they had to have that big of a military presence, but set that mystery aside, figuring that the town seemed prosperous, and so it wasn't anything he needed to look into.

He did end up having to pay a toll to come ashore since they were still in Bellum, making Ranma think ruefully about the frigate officer's amusement at his expense. But he felt it was worth it to get a good night's sleep before heading up the river.

This time Wendy occasionally hopped off of Ranma's back to practice hopping in midair around him. This caused a lot of shock and surprise in the riverboat goers who saw the two mages moving along the river, sometimes dodging around the riverboats, which reminded Ranma of things he had seen in images of river cruise ships. They exclaimed and waved at the little girl hopping in midair in particular, her obvious young age drawing even more attention than Ranma skating along the river's surface. Ranma, now in his female form, just in case she got splashed and couldn't divert it in time, did get some attention, but she ignored it.

Whenever this occurred, Wendy quickly retreated to Ranma, hiding her face in the redhead's back. Wendy's shyness around other people had yet to go away, though she had slowly begun to open up towards kids her own age despite her attempt to make friends in Blue Cove having failed so spectacularly. Ranma was happy to see this and hoped to bring the girl further out of her shell as she grew up.

Soon enough they reached Appledore. Coming up from the wharves sticking out into the river, Ranma reflected that the city looked somewhat more bustling now, with several new buildings going up and a lot more people around the streets than she remembered from before. _I suppose that should be expected now that the country's now at peace,_ Ranma thought, smiling at the idea as she heated up some water, pouring it over her head to change back to his male body. "Now, where should we go first? To get you your armor, or to get you a dress?"

Wendy, who had clambered down from his back as soon as they had touched ashore, shrugged, taking his hand. "Whichever you like, I suppose, Onii-chan. A dress would be nice, but armor sounds more useful," she said sadly. She didn't like the idea. She wanted a new dress, but Ranma had offered the armor, and she wasn't going to turn it down, despite the fact that she didn't really like fighting. She knew her Onii-chan was worried about her ability to take hits and agreed with him too.

"Okay. We'll just travel around and see which store we come to first, then," Ranma said.

Wendy nodded happily at that idea, and the two siblings moved through the city, Wendy taking in the sights, while Ranma looked for the specific stores he was interested in. He also made a note that a few soldiers had passed by with guns that looked quite a bit more modern than they had the last time. These were not muzzleloaders at all, but side-loaders like the ones his friend William had designed. _Good! I like seeing my friends get ahead in the world, and those guns… Well, I really would not like to be in the orcs' position if they come up against guns like that._

His ruminations on that score were interrupted by a voice shouting his name. "Ranma, is that you?"

Turning in the direction of the voice, Ranma saw Lisa, one of the courtesans from Melona's. She was dressed in a far more normal, everyday dress than Ranma had last seen her in, which was a relief. Ranma really did not want to show Wendy that kind of dress any time soon, if ever.

"Hey Lisa, I'm back. For a while, at least," he said simply, waving his hand once to his acquaintance.

He tried to hold out a hand for Lisa to shake, but she marched up to him and hugged Ranma tightly before moving backwards. "You've grown," she said appreciatively, her eyes raking Ranma up and down. "You might still be a little young, but I wonder if I could talk Melona into giving you a bit of a one-time only offer…" she said teasingly. "Or am I too late to break you in?" she asked, looking down at Wendy. "No, she's far too old for you to have had a bit of an accident, I suppose."

"Gah, NO!" Ranma groaned.

He then paled as Wendy asked, "What are you talking about?"

Seeing a chance to turn the teasing around, Ranma smiled, ruffling Wendy's hair. "Well, Wendy, that's something you'll have to learn about when you're a bit older. In fact, we'll probably come back here so that my friend can give you that talk personally."

"Oh, no," Lisa said, backing away rapidly and waving her hands. "That particular torture, I mean, rite of passage, is yours as her…what, big brother? Long-lost cousin?"

"Onii-chan," Wendy replied firmly, grabbing one of Ranma's hands with both of hers and almost glaring at the older girl.

"Don't worry, dearie, I'm not about to steal him from you," Lisa replied. "Ranma here's not the type to settle down with, if you haven't learned that already. How long have you actually stayed in one place since you met him?"

"A year to learn how to read," Wendy replied, smiling up at her brother. "And I like traveling."

"Well good for you. Me, you couldn't pay me to leave Appledore. On the other hand," she said, leaning down conspiratorially toward Wendy, though she still spoke loud enough for Ranma to hear. "I do have some stories that are sure to embarrass Ranma. You want to hear them?"

As Wendy began to giggle Ranma pushed Lisa away with one hand and Wendy behind him with the other. "All right, that's enough of that! Changing the subject, did Laxus and my trap for Gildarts work? And did you get any pictures?"

"We did, and yes, we got pictures," Lisa said with a laugh. "Laxus was too busy rampaging around and promising to kill you and Laxus to even notice. If business is slow and we need a pick-me-up, we all look at them and laugh."

"I don't suppose I could get you to sell me those?" Ranma asked slowly. "I imagine Laxus would like a look at them. And I'd like a copy too."

 **OOOOOOO**

Far away in Fiore Gildarts had just returned from a brief mission of routing a Dark Guild from its lair after the council had finally declared them illegal. The moment he entered, Natsu attacked him, as he did every time. Gildarts supposed it was the brat's idea of bonding, and given the fact that Makarov had said Natsu was raised by a dragon, that made a lot of sense.

He'd been tossing Natsu around as the young boy tried to attack him, until he felt a shiver, like someone had just walked over his grave. It had been so intense that he actually dropped Natsu, turning out to look into the distance for a moment, past the currently open walls of the Guildhall. Gildarts had smashed through them accidentally upon his arrival.

 _Something's just occurred that's going to mess with my mojo,_ Gildarts thought, scowling. _And why do I think I should preemptively break Laxus in half like I almost did when I came back from Pergrande?_

He'd paid Laxus back with a beating for his prank, of course. The beating he'd dealt out to the Lightning Dragon Slayer was now the stuff of Guild legend. But Gildarts had to stay away from the guild for a long while after that prank to let his hair grow back before he could do so.

Gildarts was so disconcerted by the feeling that Natsu actually got in a hit on his shin. "Gah, damn it, you little brat!" he bellowed playfully, pretending to be hurt, though of course, he wasn't. Gildarts reached down, grabbing Natsu up and hurling him towards Mira and Erza, who were currently fighting nearby. "Play with someone your own size for a change!"

This, needless to say, did not go over well, and all three of them attacked him, soon joined in by several other kids. With that he put the thought of whatever had caused the shiver out of his mind, and he concentrated on simply enjoying his time back in the guild.

 **OOOOOOO**

After Lisa promised to get him copies of the pictures if he stopped in tomorrow morning, Ranma began asking around for his friend William and eventually found him. He was now the foreman of a large gun factory rather than a small William shop. He still had a small William shop set to one side of the large factory, where he worked on commissioned metalwork of all sorts. This included jewelry now, since his wife Lathia had gone into the business with him.

Looking up as the door to his shop opened, he was surprised to find Ranma standing there, a grin on his face. "Hey! Long time no see!"

"Hey yourself!" the man said, giving Ranma a bear hug before shouting back over his shoulder. "Look what the cat dragged in, dear."

"Hail to our savior," his wife said, moving forward and shaking his hand. "Your idea of moving to Pergrande was the greatest idea of all time. The two of us are now the king's Royal Blacksmiths, and he put us in charge of a project to upgrade the army's entire armaments. We're practically nobility now!"

"I don't have as much time as I'd like for my personal projects, but that'll change in time," William said philosophically, shaking his head with a smile. Then he looked beyond Ranma to Wendy. "And who's this? Did someone have a little mistake at some point?"

"Who'd let him spawn?" Laitha said with a laugh, going down to one knee in front of Wendy and holding out a hand to the little girl. "How did you meet up with this reprobate, dearie?" she asked, smacking Ranma on the leg with her free hand.

That tale took a while, and the two smiths made commiserating noises as they heard that Wendy was searching for her mother. Neither of them had heard about a white streak in the sky, of course, let alone any White Dragon, but as Laitha talked to Wendy about where the local shops were, Ranma was pulled aside by William. "You're not thinking of taking that little girl into the continent, are you?"

"No," Ranma said, amused by how well Will understood Ranma's wanderlust. _'Course, traveling is only half the fun, the other half is to learn new techniques or skills and get stronger as a martial artist. Or warrior, I suppose I could say around here._ "We're not here to head on to the east."

"Phew!" Will said, wiping his forehead dramatically. "I thought what little sense you had had left you."

"Nah, though I still don't have any common sense. I'm far too special for that," Ranma said with a roll of his eyes. "But even I know that would be a bad idea."

The two men exchanged a laugh, and then Will asked Ranma why they were in Pergrande if not for that. "Surely you didn't come all this way just to see me."

"Nah, though I'm glad to know you're doing well. We're here to access the royal library and to get Wendy some armor from Heart Kreuz. Unless, of course, you'd do the work and give out one of those lifetime free size upgrades they do," Ranma asked quizzically.

"Hmm… No, sorry, but I've never actually gone into making armor. I'm more weapons of all sorts, as you know. But I'll ask my wife to go with you when you go to Heart Kreuz. I doubt they'd try anything, because you're a returning customer, but if they try to sell you shoddy material, she'll spot it."

"Heh, so would I, since I intend to test any armor they fit Wendy for. If it can't take a half powered punch from me, it's useless. I'll even warn them of that before we finalize the deal," Ranma joked.

The two blacksmiths, of course, agreed to put Ranma and Wendy up for the time they stayed in Appledore, though how long that would be, they didn't know. They owed Ranma enough that they didn't even question that.

However, it turned out that they didn't have to put them up for long. The Royal Library was in the Royal Castle, and the moment Ranma entered the next day in search of books, having let Wendy go with the two Williams in order to find some armor, he was quickly informed that the king wished to speak to him.

"Let me guess, Vicotronious," Ranma said, crossing his arms and staring at the king across a small conference table. "You have a job for me."

"The King's Conclave has a task for you," Vicotronious said grimly. "I'm just the one chosen to speak to you since you walked through my front door. Why are you back in Pergrande anyway? I'd heard about your arrival yesterday, but until this news came in I wasn't going to cause a fuss about it."

"I want to buy armor for Wendy, the little girl traveling with me. You've heard of her from Meredrain, I bet. And I wanted to check out your Royal Library."

"About dragons? I'll have my librarian search through our books for you. There are only a few that mention them, I think, and all of those that do concentrate on the war between dragons and an ancient kingdom where dragons and humans coexisted. You might find them interesting after you return from this mission."

"And what is that mission going to be?" Ranma asked, a sinking feeling coming into his stomach. If all of the kings felt a Ranger was needed for this mission, it was going to be both dangerous and complex. _Nothing like a simple demon hunt, at least._

"There is a rebellion occurring in Minstrel, an anti-government rebellion, one that might well spiral out into a full on serf uprising," Vicotronious said without any preamble.

"If you're going to asked me to intercede on the nobles' behalf, you can forget it, and I'll shove this leaf brooch of mine up your ass if you try to insist," Ranma growled. "I've been in Minstrel. I didn't see anything, but I heard a lot about serfs and what can happen to them if their master takes it into his mind to be sadistic or simply wants to grind them down."

For the last forty years or more Minstrel had been run by a board of counts who oversaw taxation, the care of the road, foreign policy, and other such. The last king had been utterly ineffective, his powers being slowly taken by the counts until he was a nonentity, and his lineage was allowed to die out. The country was rich with a powerful navy, a weak army, and barely hidden corruption.

The nobles could abuse, use, kill, or rape their serfs with impunity, even in many of the cities, save those with strong merchant or magic guild presences in them. And magic wasn't prevalent enough for mages to make any difference. Indeed, many mages came from the noble houses.

"What makes you think I'd care about that?" Vicotronious replied equally bluntly even as his guards growled angrily at Ranma lèse majesté. "Minstrel is not my favorite nation, Ranma. There is indeed too much abuse of the serf class. In fact, I'd provide the serfs with guns if I could get them into the country without being found out, which is, alas, impossible, as you well know. No, what we need to find out is whether or not this rebellion is an honest one, or is being fueled by agents from the Alvarez Empire."

Ranma nodded, thinking about what he knew about the Empire, which wasn't a lot. The Eastern continent was separated from Ishgar by a wide ocean, one on the other side from Typhon's cave. The Alvarez Empire was the only nation Ranma knew about on the continent, and it was supposedly ruled totally by mages. The Empire had tried to invade Ishgar several times, long ago, though why no one knew.

"On top of that we need to figure out what will happen in Minstrel after this rebellion, regardless of what sparked it. Does the rebellion have a chance at succeeding? If the rebellion succeeds, will it be able to stabilize the government once more? If they can't, if the alternative is between backing the assembly or total anarchy after this struggle peters out, then I'm afraid you'll probably have to back to the existing government."

"Why me?" Ranma asked. "None of my special abilities except perhaps my ability to sneak around will be of any use in this kind of operation. You're asking me to find things out about people: about how they will lead their nation, about whether they'll be fair or not. I'm not qualified to make those calls."

"The rebellion has just begun, and your combat ability will stand you in good stead until it ends. Don't worry so much about what comes after. By that time we'll have a another Ranger ready to take over, a man named Randolph who specializes in matters of law and jurisprudence. The reasons we're sending you in rather than him right away are twofold. One, the rumor is that the leader of the rebellion is a mage of some sort of decent strength: a Holder type by all accounts, but a very good one. And two, if the Empire is involved, their agent or agents will be mages too."

"You realize it'll take me a while to get there. Even I can't run through Desierto quickly," Ranma asked, knowing he had no choice here. He had taken the brooch, given his word, and he had to keep it now.

"I realize that," the King of Pergrande said, looking suddenly for older. "But you're the best option we have here."

"Throw in outfitting Wendy with some Heart Kreuz armor, and I'll do it," Ranma said with a sigh. "We'll leave the city as soon as it's done."

 **OOOOOOO**

At the same time Ranma and Wendy were about to take the road once more into danger, the Fairy Tail Guild was welcoming a surprising newcomer: a cat that had somehow hatched from an egg. Natsu and Lisanna in particular were happy. The two of them had been the ones to try and look after the egg after Natsu had found it in the woods after beating up his first Vulcan.

"Now I've seen every…" Laxus paused as he thought about what he was about to say before shaking his head. "Nope, not going to go there."

"Oy, you two lovebirds, what're you going to call him?" Mirajane asked, grinning as she teased her little sister and the boy she knew Lisanna fancied. Watching them play house had been irritating to her, given that Natsu was in the Team Erza camp, but it had also been diabetes level cute. Elfman's feelings on the matter were much more complex, judging by the frown on his normally placid face, but Mira knew she could keep him in line if need be.

"I'll call him Happy, because he's made us happy!" Natsu said, grinning with one arm around Lisanna's shoulders as they both looked at the small flying kitten.

 **OOOOOOO**

It had taken a long time for the two Dragon Slayers to even get to Minstrel, and then even longer to get to the front lines. Indeed, the war was practically over by the time they did. But Ranma and Wendy had **finally** found the headquarters of the Minstrel Rebellion seven months after leaving Pergrande. Or rather, the headquarters of what Ranma considered the legitimate revolution. There were, in fact, two different revolts occurring in Minstrel, though Ranma supposed he could excuse Vic for not knowing that since he had Desierto and Bellum between his borders and Minstrel.

One uprising had pretty much collapsed in on itself, according to what both rumor and Minstrel's few newspapers said. It had been begun by a few southern-most lords trying to break off, as apparently the nation called Midi had centuries ago. That rebellion, which had oddly been centered just south of where Ranma had come ashore, had come apart due to the action of one of Minstrel's admirals. He had landed his troops, commandeered several river barges, and moved up inland into the heartland of the rebellion before anyone could stop him.

There he had basically sacked the lords' houses while they were gone with their levy armies, which had promptly fallen into infighting. The admiral had moved in with his troops, armed sailors with swords and other weapons that they barely knew how to use and gave the battered levy army a choice of fighting or surrendering their commanders. The serfs, being no fools and having long been abused, surrendered the nobles.

That admiral was being hailed as a hero, and lots of the nobles backing the assembly had anticipated he would be given command of leading a new conscript army into the field to help crush the rebellion happening further north. But the latest newspaper reported that the admiral had instead done perhaps the smartest thing he could: he had returned to his fleet and simply gone back to his job of keeping the Southern seas free of pirates.

It had been a clear sign to everyone that he didn't care who won, so long as Minstrel remained whole. It sent that message because, by that point, the 'real' Minstrel army, though calling the Silk Guard that was really an insult to armies like that of Pergrande, had been crushed.

That rebellion had, like Vic said, been primarily a serf uprising, but it had been helped along by sympathetic nobles and even led by one: San Jiao Shin, the noble general. The rebellion had begun on and around the small isthmus that stuck out from Minstrel proper, gaining supporters quickly as they overthrew corrupt or simply sadistic local lords, while the counts consolidated the Silken Guard into an army.

That army marched into the rebel lands, and it seemed as if they would crush the rebellion, but instead they had been trapped against the walls of Rubengard. That was a small walled city in the west which sat in the middle of the land which connected to the small isthmus where the rebellion had begun. Their supplies cut off and encircled in turn, the army hadn't been able to hold out more than two weeks before surrendering. By the time Wendy and Ranma had arrived in the country, San Jiao Shin was leading his victorious army back into Minstrel proper, now far better armed and armored from the loot of the Silken Guard.

Since then the counts had tried ineffectually to raise another conscript force. They sent out small units to try and slow down San Jiao Shin's advance, while concentrating on trying to come up with enough men to just plow him under through sheer weight of numbers. Their recruitment, however, was not going well.

Lots of mini rebellions had sprung up here and there. Serfs who had been beaten down for generations were now trying to rise up, and Ranma knew atrocities were being committed by both sides out there. Even the merchant class was getting into it, with every city now a battlefield.

It had made for really tense travel since they had entered Minstrel, and Ranma had kept the two of them moving at a brisk pace while having Wendy cast Vernier at least twice a day. They didn't stop to train, and Ranma only slept in short three hour intervals, even at night. More than once he wondered if he was doing the right thing in taking Wendy with him, but leaving her behind would have hurt Wendy whatever the reason, especially since this job looked to be a long one.

 _And it isn't as if she's never seen combat. We've had bandits try and attack us a time or two, and we've been attacked by Vulcan packs too many times to count. If I can shield her from everything else going on, any actual combat we see should be fine, especially given that armor she's wearing…_

Wendy's armor was subtle, but of very good quality: chain mail hidden in a normal vest. The chain mail didn't even jangle, and was made of a very durable, tough steel. Ranma thought it looked like what he imagined mithril would, but it was grossly expensive. If not for Vicotronious paying for it, the special vest would have been well out of Ranma's price range.

 _Besides, it frankly looks as if everything's over bar the shouting…and the looting…and…the divvying up of land, and the… Right, who am I kidding? I just hope this isn't going to be as bad as the Bolshevik Rebellion in Russia. Still, all Vic wants me to do is make sure that whoever wins will stabilize things and isn't being influenced by the Empire. That, at least, I can do. Seeing that the government that replaces the council is one that actually works and isn't a monster will be someone else's job._

Suddenly both Dragon Slayers stiffened, staring to their right as the scent of people reached them. Reached them from a direction where there were no people visible to the eye, and further accompanied by a hot, coppery scent Ranma had become all too familiar with since coming to this odd world. _Blood. Someone's spilled blood, and recently too._

Nudging his head against Wendy's three times in quick succession, he indicated she should remain quiet. While she replied with a nod, Ranma was already moving in that direction, wondering what was going on. _We haven't seen any dissension in the ranks or prisoners, and the medical tents are well away from our current position._ Ranma had wanted to keep Wendy away from those, knowing the girl would break cover in order to volunteer her help. Ranma was fine with that after their mission was completed, but not before.

They followed the scent for a few seconds, then stopped as the scent became stronger, indicating that they were nearly on top of whatever was causing the smell. Still hiding up in the tree, Ranma leaned back, whispering so quietly even Wendy strained to hear from an inch away. "Wendy, ready an air attack on my mark."

Nodding, Wendy narrowed her eyes, staring at the spot where the people and blood smell was coming from. She concentrated her magic into her mouth, waiting to start the spell on Ranma's say so. That wasn't long in coming, but despite being ready Wendy almost jumped away when Ranma leaped down, feet first, shouting, "Now!"

"Tenryu no HOKO!" Wendy yelled, sending down a blast of barely condensed air which flew past Ranma to land in the area right below where he was jumping. It slammed into four people, sending them every which way. Their magic, some kind of chameleon like spell, failed as the air attack hit. All four of them wore a matte black, skintight uniform and were carrying darkened daggers. Two of them were already tinged red with fresh blood.

Before they could regain their senses from the sudden assault, Ranma's hands flashed out, a single punch sending them each into la-la land, while at the same time guards shouted from nearby and began to race in the direction of the disturbance. Waving Wendy down to join him, Ranma smirked at the guards, nudging the nearest assassin with his foot. "In the words of a famous alien from my world, take me to your leader."

One of the guards thrust a pike into Ranma's face, but Ranma grabbed the billhook and held it still, growling. "Perhaps I should rephrase: take me to your leader, or join these assassins on the ground. I really don't care either way." As he finished speaking ,Ranma twisted his hold on the steel billhook, shattering it.

One of the guards, his rank marked by a painted on stripe of white on his serf's smock, looked at Ranma and Wendy, then down at the assassins. "Yah, this be ways above my paygrade. Best be doing what he says. Some kinda mage, I'd reckon."

"Ya'd be reckoning right," Ranma drawled.

Moments later Wendy and Ranma stood in a tent slightly larger than the others in the camp. It was a simple utilitarian affair, save for a for a folding table and the map it showed, which was easily the best Ranma had seen for Minstrel, and a silk cot set to one side of the entrance.

In front of them and next to the map stood a tall man in his mid-forties or so, whose appearance immediately reminded Ranma of one of the heroes of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He had a long, meticulously cared for beard down to his chest and wore traditional Chinese silk garb done in green and a hat. By his side lay a guan do. His eyes were brown and piercing, and he stood like a man used to respect.

He stared hard at Ranma and Wendy in turn, frowning. "My guards said you wanted to speak to me, and I have accepted that request. I am San Jiao Shin. Yet I have to admit that while I realize mages can come in all shapes and sizes, I am not used to thinking of such young people as dangerous. You, I could make an allowance for, young man, but your companion?"

"She's more the support type, really. I'm the one who does most of the fighting if I can help it, though that's not what we are here for, not unless we have to," Ranma replied.

"Indeed? And what are you here for then? Other than saving my life, perhaps, from the Chameleon quartet? "

"That sounds like a band!" Wendy giggled. "Like those barber shop groups we saw in Joya, Onii-chan."

"Yeah, but I doubt they'd play any tune ya'd want to hear, Wendy," Ranma replied, laying a hand on Wendy's head to indicate that she should let him do the talking. Admittedly, this kind of silent communication was hit or miss, but he hoped it would work this time.

"Indeed," the man replied dryly. "Well, regardless, you at least have earned the opportunity to have your say."

Ranma tapped the brooch he wore on his cloak or shirt at all times these days, watching San Jiao Shin for any hint of recognition. When he saw none, he sighed. "You can call me an agent of the King's Conclave, specifically Vicotronious of Pergrande at the moment. Vicotronious and the others are worried about whether or not this rebellion was being funded or led by agents from the Alvarez Empire. They were also worried about what would happen to Minstrel if you won. A turnover of the government to some other form is fine; a total serf uprising that leaves millions dead isn't, and you've already gone quite a ways down that road."

At the phrase, 'agent of the king's conclave,' San Jiao Shin's eyes widened before narrowing in thought. "I see. And your conclusions thus far?"

"If the Empire's involved at all, I can't see it: your army isn't nearly as well equipped as it would be if they were funneling in cash. As for actual agents, I've not heard any stories or seen any evidence of mages suddenly appearing out of nowhere to offer you their aid." Ranma's lips quirked wryly. "Well, except for maybe me an' Wendy in a roundabout sort of way."

An instant later he became more serious. "The second concern is much more difficult to answer. Your army's fought a decently clean war, but your hands aren't entirely clean ,and you're not doing nearly as much as you could be to curb the serfs' excesses when they rise against their former lords. But since I doubt anyone could stop that now that the serfs know you're going to win this war, I'm more concerned about whether you'll embrace the idea of totally wiping out the noble class and anyone who backs them, or if you will just remove the counts and put something workable in their place.

"Ha-ha, you speak very plainly. Very plainly indeed, while you stand in the camp of someone who you seem to be threatening, if politely. Is this bravado or confidence?" San Jiao Shin mused, moving around the map to take a seat on a small camp chair.

"Confidence," Ranma replied bluntly. "If I wanted to capture you, your troops would barely slow me down."

"…" San Jiao Shin stared hard at Ranma, then nodded. "If you are what I think you are, then I am prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, at least. As for King Vicotronious' fears, I can understand his concerns. I share them. Sometimes these days it feels more as if I am riding a tiger than leading a movement. I cannot promise anything, but I have ordered that there will be no reprisals without trials. Until I take the capital and the counts are removed, that is the best I can give you."

Ranma frowned, staring at the man. "And you're certain you'll win?"

"The counts might have more men still, but they don't have the leaders to match me in the field, and my men are veterans fighting for their rights. Theirs are conscripted serfs fighting for fear of the lash. You tell me," San Jiao Shin said, smiling like a Buddha.

"Heh, point made," Ranma replied with a smile. "Still, I…"

They were interrupted just then by a commotion outside. Screams began to be heard, and shouts from all around the tent. Ranma bolted out of the tent with San Jiao Shin and Wendy following on his heels, Wendy beating the older man out only because he paused to grab up his guan do.

Outside they found a scene of chaos, while above them in the nighttime sky a person on a rocket pack like that Ranma remembered Fukoro using flew. He dropped these odd bubbles around the camp, and when they burst they either exploded or deposited cloaked mages in the camp.

These mages were all armed with spears whose tips were on fire, and they seemed to be able to used them as spears or as flame throwers. The men of the camp, regardless of their training or experience, were no match for these mages who had come upon them so suddenly, save for a few of their own mages, who tried to rally the soldiers.

"Requip, pistols! Wendy, Sky Dragon Roar on those bubbles still in the air!" Ranma shouted, his hands flashing with circles of magical energy as he reached into his Requip space. "Rapid Fire!" With that Ranma began to belt out magic bullets as fast as he could, target the spear-wielding mages. Some of them flew backwards, their heads gone as Ranma forgot to tamp down his magical power enough to just knock them out. Others flew backwards already unconscious before they hit the ground.

"Hai, Onii-chan! Tenryu no Hoko!" Wendy shouted, aiming the attack up into the air at the bubbles still falling to the ground. She began to run around, sending up further air attacks, disturbing the landing of the next wave of attackers. She was frightened out of her wits by the sudden attack, but with her brother there she wanted to make him proud of her.

Realizing that his dive bombing technique wasn't working, the man using the jet pack landed. He was a very tall man, taller than even Gildarts, maybe, with the features of a goat, complete with curved horns and short white fur. He had on a tight black vest cut short to bare his midriff and equally tight black pants, which presumably had a hole in the back for his goat tail. Even in the dark of night he also wore sunglasses for some reason. "I wanted to do this the easy way, but I suppose that easy or hard, a job is a job," he said ruminatively, staring hard at Ranma and Wendy, then at San Jiao Shin. "And I suppose I can always make a place for new subordinates."

"Heh, funny joke, goat man," Ranma said then rushed forward, his guns blazing.

"I am not goat man, I am Caprico of Grimoire Heart!" the goat man replied, racing forward in turn and spreading his arms out wide to either side, dodging Ranma's bullets as he ran. "Mass Recall!" with that spell hundreds of people suddenly appeared all around him from a stream of bubbles, spreading out and engaging the soldiers around them.

"San, organize your men against his. I've got the main guy. Wendy, help him!" Ranma ordered just as Caprico was on him, launching a punch forward faster than anyone Ranma had seen since sparring with Laxus years ago, far faster than the mages Ranma had fought in Seven or Bosco. The martial artist barely had the time to dodge, let alone change out his weapons to his escrima clubs. He was able to return his guns, at least, so the goat-man's next punch was caught, and Ranma's own punch rocketed up into his chin, hurling him up and backwards half a step.

Caprico staggered back, one hand rising to his chin as another sent some kind of violet spell at the ground. It didn't seem to do anything, but Ranma remained wary. "That was impressive. What is your name, mage?"

"Ranma. And I thought we were fighting!" Ranma roared, leaping forward. Caprico tried to kick him, but Ranma tapped one hand down onto the goat's leg, flipping up over the man, bringing his own foot around in a kick. Caprico barely got a hand in between the side of his head and said foot, but the blow still sent him reeling sideways. When Caprico tried to reply Ranma again used the momentum of the blow to remain in the air, and his next blow took Caprico high in the head, shattering his glasses and sending him reeling once more.

"You are good, very good! But you are a fool if you think you can face a member of Grimoire Heart," Caprico said as he replied with another series of kicks, going faster and faster, trying hard to match Ranma's speed and mobility with his own. But to his chagrin, Ranma was able to match him entirely, and, as always, the aerial style of Anything Goes mostly negated kicks to a large extent.

"Yeah, yeah. You're a big baddie, and I'm a young unknown; ain't you ever read children's stories? Yah should know how this goes already," Ranma teased before launching into a full on Anything Goes Make 'em Mad, Make 'em Stupid™ assault. "So those horns, I bet they're overcompensating for something. And those clothes, they're very trendy dude…for a bordello! Ya look like ya want someone ta chase that goat tail of yours."

"Wh, how dare you, you little bastard! I'm going to rip out your heart!" Caprico shouted in reply, redoubling his efforts to tag Ranma. But Ranma was in his element now, fighting an opponent not nearly tough enough to ignore his hits and not fast enough to keep up with him. Caprico had speed and strength, but not enough of either, and he had no style to speak of, telegraphing his moves to Ranma to a large degree now that he was suitably enraged.

Capricorn grimaced as another blow landed in his chest, and he felt something break there. _Dammit, I can't lose this! Not to a single boy mage who I've never heard of before. I'll never ascend to be one of the main leaders of Grimoire Heart if I lose here. But I never imagined I'd run into someone who could face me down in hand-to-hand so easily._

 _And it's as if my Human Subordination Magic is doing nothing to him._ That had been the purple spell Caprico had cast upon his landing on the ground.

This actually wasn't the case. Ranma could tell his body was moving slower than it should, and for some reason his magic wasn't responding like it should. But his normal physical abilities were so far beyond even someone like Caprico that it only served to somewhat level the playing field. The same could be said for his magical reserves.

However, that was only true about Ranma, Wendy, and to a lesser extent the rebel general Caprico was here to neutralize. Caprico's Human Subordination magic was an unseen aura around him once he cast it, and this now began to turn the overall battle his way. The eyes of troopers fighting his pawns suddenly went glassy-eyed, and they turned and began to strike down their fellows or attack the nearest of the mages, who thanks to their magic were better able to defend themselves against the subtle subordination spell.

What few mages there were in the rebel camp beside San Jiao Shin himself were soon out of the fight, dead or unconscious, with only the general and the two Dragon Slayers still on their feet, surrounded by enemies. Ranma found himself attacked from all sides, with Caprico flashing in and out of range to land telling hits every time while Ranma tried to deal with the troopers with kid gloves. He looked up however as he heard Wendy cry out in pain.

Wendy had been fighting nearly back to back with San Jiao Shin, trusting in her Onii-chan's orders and his fighting ability to see them through. She had taken out several of the mages using spears, treating them like bandits or wild animals, both of which she had fought alongside Ranma by this point. She only occasionally used her magic, conserving it, since she felt oddly tired.

A blow from the end of a pike caught her in her armored side, knocking her off balance and allowing for another strike to get in to the side of her head. Thanks to her Dragon Slayer toughness the mage's fiery spear acted more like a blunt object, and it couldn't really burn her, but it did sting, and the heat was painful too.

At this point in her life, had she not met Ranma, Wendy Marvel would not have been involved in a fight like this. If she ever had become involved in one and been hit like that, she would have cried and kept crying, unable to deal with it. She was, after all, a just pushing seven-year-old girl.

But this Wendy had met Ranma. This Wendy had gone on several adventures with him already by this point, and had even been hit before, though admittedly not with a magic fire spear. And this Wendy had begun to partake of Ranma's personality too. So even as she cried out in pain, this Wendy took it and, rather than collapse, began to get angry.

"Tenryu no Saige! (Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang)!" she roared, lashing out with both hands in every direction, hurling out small but super-condensed blasts of air in every direction. She sent over a dozen people hurling in every direction, launching herself forward into the mass of them, knocking both Holder mages and ensorcelled rebel troops flying. "I don't like to fight, but that doesn't mean I'm weak!" she shouted.

"Thata'girl, Wendy!" Ranma said with a laugh, leaping into the air. Caprico tried to get him with a high kick, only to be flummoxed once more by Ranma's ability to redirect the momentum of an attack in order to push himself higher into the air. In this case, He flipped further upwards as he shouted, "Get San out of here, Wendy! Let me handle this! Requip: clubs!"

A second later Ranma dodged in midair several long tongues of flame from the surrounding mages, then oofed as Caprico leaped towards him just above two such, his knee catching Ranma in the chest. A second later Caprico's doubled fists slammed into Ranma's back, sending him hurling to the ground with a crash.

"There!" Caprico said with a laugh, landing nearby. "You see, this is the way it is, boy. You chAGKK!"

"Do all evil mages talk too much?" Ranma groused, having just slammed an Escrima club into Caprico's stomach. He felt a few ribs go under the blow, and it also caused Caprico to stumble back. A second later Ranma hurled the clubs into the air, his hands flashing out either direction as bright blue water appeared around them.

"Soryu no Kaiten Tsunami! (Water Dragon's Spinning Tsunami)" Ranma shouted, flicking his arms around as he spun, the massive claws of water slamming out in every direction and knocking the majority of the mages and troopers aside.

Nearby, Wendy had moved back to San Jiao Shin and, without warning, she grabbed the back of his shirt. "Hang on, mister. Sky Dragon's Boosted Steps!" she shouted, pushing a lot of her remaining magical energy into a blast of air which she directed out of her feet.

San Jiao Shin let out a most unmanly shriek as he found himself rocketing through the air with little Wendy acting as both propulsion and pilot. The flight didn't last, the man's weight throwing Wendy off course, but Wendy had known it would and compensated beforehand by just adding more energy to the initial blast of magic. They cleared the intervening distanced between the central camp and went about halfway towards the next nearest before coming back to earth. San came back to himself as he saw the top of the trees coming at them at speed, and whipped his guan do forward. "Slicing Spear!"

The attack cut them a way through the forest and they landed, the man trying to land on his feet and failing, while Wendy didn't even try, letting go of his back and rolling forward along the ground for a bit. "Owie…" she groaned, then looked up as shouts from the nearby camp told her they had been noticed.

She wondered why the sound of the fight hadn't spread this far, but San answered the question before she could ask it aloud. "There must have been a spell or something holding in the sound. Or perhaps someone among my commanders has turned traitor. I will get to the bottom of this, never fear. For now, I suspect we need to simply wait for your brother to finish with that mage. I saw what happened to my people. I can't in good conscience send more men into whatever field that villain is generating which allows him to take them over."

Again there was a moment where a Wendy who had not been influenced by Ranma would have simply nodded, unwilling to endanger herself and feeling rather shocky. But this Wendy, despite feeling rather shocky and being in pain and tired, just took a deep breath, filling her body with the Etherano of the air nearby.

Once she felt somewhat recharged, the stuck her tongue out at the bearded man. "Nyeeeh, you don't tell me what to do!" With that she turned and launched herself skyward once more, leaving behind a gaping rebel general and several dozen gawking former serfs turned rebels who had hurried through the woods to the site of the crash.

Back at the main fight, Caprico had found himself almost bereft of aid against the juggernaut he had found waiting for him on what should have been a relatively simple assignment. He attempted to address this by falling back, ordering his few remaining mages in to stall Ranma as he brought his hands forward once more. "Knights of Midi!"

Five knights in full plate armor wielding a variety of nasty weapons appeared all around Ranma, charging forward. Their weapons all glowed with lacrima, and their armor gleamed. They also moved as fast as San Jiao Shin had been doing despite being in full plate. Two of them got in blows to Ranma's back and out-thrust arm, but one of their fellow paid for this, his own shoulder plate crumpling under a blow from one of Ranma's clubs. Another, the one who had hit Ranma in the back, flew backwards from a mule kick.

Even so, the draining aspect of Caprico's Human Subordination Magic was beginning to drag on Ranma. More blows got through as Caprico rejoined the close-in combat. Another hard knee found Ranma's gut, and it was his time to feel something give.

But Ranma rode the impetus of that blow, dodging around a strike from a broadsword, his body almost seeming to flicker around it like a willow branch. The next instant his foot lashed into the armored helmet of the broadsword user, and then Ranma somehow used that to springboard forward, bringing one club around to lash at Caprico while using the other to block a blow from a warhammer.

The blow hammered into the side of Caprico's head, shattering his horn and further shattering his glasses. Stunned, Caprico once more retreated, seeing another of his knights faltering. _God damn it, what is with this brat!?_

"Hunter of Belparaso, Samagui!" he shouted, magic gathering in his fingers as he made a gesture in the air for a moment, then pointing forward towards Ranma.

From another burst of magic appeared a primitive looking huntsman, wearing clothing that looked somewhat like the clothing that hunters in Iceberg wore. On his back he wielded a short stabbing spear and in his hand he held a notched bow, which he quickly raised, the arrow pointing toward Ranma. As Ranma was dealing with the last two knights and a group of troopers who had somehow dragged themselves to their feet, the Hunter had a free shot, pulling back on his bow and letting fly with an arrow in an instant. The arrow shimmered in midair with some kind of magical force, adding to its deadliness.

Ranma, however, simply turned and held up an arm to protect his face. The arrow shattered on his forearm, leaving a large and nasty looking bruise, but that was all. "That hurt," he said dryly, before bringing one club up into one of the knight's guts. A second later he ducked under a blow from the last, a kick taking the knight's legs out from under him and another sending him flying into several troopers, bearing them to the earth. "You're going to run out of pawns soon enough, asshole. Then your face is going to join your horn in broken land."

But Capricorn had finally got enough distance for him to feel safe to cast a longer spell, and he did so. Dark purple and black magical energies gathered in his hands and he thrust them forward. "You're strong; it will be excellent to have that strength at my command! Huma Raise!" he shouted.

Magical energy from his outstretched hands coalesced into a pitch black cloud laced with dark purple which raced forward to envelop Ranma. Some of it quickly touched Ranma's shadow, and he froze in place and stared as the smoke moved towards him.

"You might have allowed that general to escape, but you will do just as well as he would for a servant! No, better!" Caprico shouted in triumph.

Gritting his teeth, Ranma gathered his magical aura around him, shining with as much magic as he could, but it didn't work. This left him hoping that his magic could serve to protect him from the oncoming cloud. He couldn't even move enough to cast a spell.

Whether this would have worked would remain unanswered, because their battle was interrupted by a shout, this time from above them. "Tenryu no Yokugeki! (Sky Dragon's Wing Attack)" From above the two combatants Wendy sent a massive gust of Sky Magic down at the Huma Raise spell. It hit the dark spell, dissipating it utterly. It even freed Ranma's shadow.

"What!?" Capricorn bellowed. "How!? How did you…how do you have that much magic left, girl!"

Before the astonished Caprico could try to cast another spell, Ranma raised a fist and shouted "Soryu no Kussaku Tsume!" letting loose a lot of his remaining magic in one attack.

The attack hit Caprico dead center before he could dodge and drilled through his body without stopping, slamming through a few tents and several dozen trees on the other side.

He gasped, staring down at his body for a moment. To Ranma's surprise there was no blood or viscera, only a neat, gaping hole right through the goat-man's body. It was as if Caprico's body was a projection almost. Or maybe it was made of something artificial, not the normal blood and guts most people were.

As Ranma and Wendy watched, a dark cloud, closely resembling the spell he'd tried to cast on Ranma without the purple strands, began to flow out of the goat-man's body. Soon enough it coalesced into the form of a human.

This person was short, with extremely fuzzy hair down his back that was kept out of his face by a headband which had cross designs on the sides and a blue trim. He had long, thin scars on either side of his mouth, dark bags under his eyes, and a long white robe with long sleeves.

The image of the man slowly started to solidify, and he laughed loudly. "You fool, you only released me from my mortal shell! Now I will be able to take you over entirely just like I… Wait…" the spirit said staring down at himself as pieces of his form seemed to disintegrate. "What, what's happening to me!?" The spirit turned to his former body, which was also slowly beginning to disintegrate. "Capricorn! Save me!"

The goat man, which Ranma supposed this other spirit had been inhabiting, stared down at the man, ignoring the fact that he too was becoming incorporeal. "After all you have done, after what you have used my body to do, the oaths you have forced me to break, you expect mercy?! You used a forbidden magic. What did you think would happen if it was ever dispelled? Be gone, Zoldeo, and never darken this world or the next ever again!"

Dropping to one knee, Ranma stared from the two slowly disappearing beings up to Wendy, who alighted on the ground nearby. She then swiftly threw herself into his arms, hugging him tightly around shoulders. "You're all right, Onii-chan!"

"I am, thanks to you, Wendy," Ranma said, standing and pulling her up with him into a hug, holding her against his chest as he continued to stare at the bodies dissipating. "Don't suppose you have any idea was going on here, do you?"

Wendy shook her head, burying her head into his neck again and hugging him tightly, trembling from the aftershocks of the battle now that it was over and her adrenaline was leaving her. Ranma gently patted her head while holding her with the other arm as he stared at the two disappearing people.

One, the man called Zoldeo, slowly dissipated with a scream of utter despair.

The other one, who Zoldeo had called Capricorn, simply stood there stoically, actually saluting Ranma. "A most excellent fight, good sir. And I hate to trouble you further, but I don't suppose you could mail my key to the Heartphilia estate in Fiore? I have a promise to keep…"

From the air which his body had inhabited, a large golden key appeared as Capricorn finished disappearing. Still holding Wendy, Ranma moved over and picked it up gently, holding it up at staring at it in the light of the nearest campfires. "Okay… Well, that just happened…" Then he smiled. "Hmmm… I might not know where this Heartphilia estate is, but I at least know someone who's got access to a lot of other mages in Fiore."

 **End Chapter**

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Please note that this Caprico was a Zoldeo with barely two years of being a villain under his belt. He has joined Grimoire Heart by this time, but he isn't one of their biggest baddies yet, and his actual experience is next to nothing. And also his specialty, close quarters combat and mass produced grunts, does not stack well against Ranma's own specialties.

And there was no Carla. I looked it up and found that the Exceed had sent their kids through the Anima in order to save them from their island crashing due to lack of magic, not to control the Dragon Slayers as Carla and the general populace thought. Therefore, yes, Carla and the others would have been sent through as per normal, but there would be no reason to aim Carla toward Wendy specifically, and no way to do so either. Will I introduce her? Eventually, maybe, but we will see precisely how. Heh. I have also decided how to deal with the whole Lisanna question. The way I will do so is one I believe will be unique in this fandom, lololol.

Oh, and FYI, Ranma is now sixteen once more.


	5. Chapter 5

I can't draw, nuff said.

Here for the Super Bowl is chapter five of my normally only patty r on story, which just hit chapter 15 over there. Hope you all enjoy it!

This chapter has been betad by Michael once more. Please join me in thanking him for spotting the myriad small mistakes which might otherwise have ruined the flow of the chapter. JustloveReadin' also looked at this chapter for Fairy Tail knowledge, although as always it was up to me whether i changed it. Which, starting from this chapter I start to do in larger and larger ways hohoho...

* * *

 **Chapter 5: New Companions and Relationships**

Aboard a large airship powered by lacrima crystals and magics well beyond what was known by even the most advanced guilds of Fiore or Seven, there was a throne room. It was mostly rectangular, but with a slight circular bulge at one end where the throne sat. On that throne sat an old man. He was tall, with decently wide shoulders to go with a long, flowing beard and an eyepatch over one eye.

Nearby sat other chairs, smaller and less ornate than his, but each bearing a symbol on its back. In four of those chairs sat other people, whose looks and ages varied wildly. The youngest was a pink haired girl who looked around thirteen or so. She was sitting next to the next youngest, a black haired girl with violet eyes and a body that was just starting on its path to womanhood. The two of them were poring over some papers together, scowling and nodding in turn.

Near to them sat two young men, older than the girls, but not by much. One of them had a serious mien to his tanned features, earrings and thick brown hair that stuck out in every direction. The other had an almost manic look to his face, with a wild mane of blond hair. The solemn man was reading what looked like an exercise magazine, of all things, while the other was cackling obnoxiously at something he saw in a viewing lacrima, a lacrima enchanted to record an image or send it out to other paired lacrima.

They all looked up as the old man spoke suddenly, looking up at them from his lacrima. "Caprico has fallen."

"KAYAYAYA!" guffawed the blonde man, slapping his thigh. "What!? That guy was supposed to be an up and comer, right? Almost ready to be offered a seat among the Seven Sins? And he died on a simple assassination mission? What a joke! KAYAAYA!"

"This is serious, Zancrow," said the solemn man, glaring at him for a moment before looking at the old man. "Do we know anything about how he died, Master Hades?"

"No, Azuma. My agents were only able to get back to me several weeks after the fact. I suppose it could turn out that this general San Jiao Shi is tougher than Caprico expected, but I think not," Hades replied, thinking. "This could be a sign that someone among the governments of Ishgar is aware of us expanding our influence. We will have to be on the lookout for that in the future."

"Send me next, master," Azuma urged. "I will avenge Caprico and make certain the name Grimoire Heart is remembered and feared throughout Minstrel!"

"No. We have already been paid, and any agreement is null if the individual sent dies. I will send some of my agents to the capital to discover what happened. Until then, you and Zancrow will continue to recruit more members." Hades went on, turning his head slightly to address the black-haired girl. "Ultear, I have a job for you in Fiore. It will be a long term job, but it will, in the long term, both bring much information to us and provide cover for our own activities."

As Ultear perked up, and the girl next to her pouted, the old man went on, smiling sinisterly. "With its number of mages, Fiore is the most dangerous threat to our ambitions and has access to information we need, to say nothing of the deadly weapon Etherion. So you, Ultear, will weaken Fiore from within…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Laxus groaned irritably as he washed the dishes in his one-bedroom apartment. Ever since Gildarts had destroyed the men's dorm after he had returned from Pergrande, all the men had been forced to find other accommodations. Laxus had an easier time of it than most these days thanks to his pay from S-class jobs. And to be fair, his apartment was actually damn nice for a single man like him.

That sort of connected to the reason why he was feeling so irritable: his attempt at having a relationship with Evergreen was failing miserably. He had known she was younger than him, which had caused some issues at first. But she had seemed more mature than the others her age both in body and mind, so he thought it would work out. But that was just it. She had **seemed** to be.

She was still only fifteen, and while she wasn't exactly a prude, she certainly wasn't as interested in a purely physical relationship as Laxus was, and it turned out that she was also a bit of a romantic. At his age Laxus not interested in finding his 'one true love,' but Evergreen was very interested in that, and she refused to go further than making out.

 _Eesh. I try to feel her up once and she cold cocks me. What the hell is the difference between Evergreen shoving her tongue down my throat and me trying to feel her chest up over her shirt? And it was winter at the time, so she was wearing extra freaking layers._

Sighing, Laxus finished putting the dishes away and looked again at the window set over his sink. _Yep, the slap mark is still there. Fuck me if Ranma wasn't right about that whole 'feminine fury' shtick he tried to sell me. And here I just thought he was trying to be funny. I do wonder whatever happened to his old friend he was talking about._ Over the months they'd been together on the front line against the orcs, Ranma had told Laxus a lot about his past in the form of stories about a friend.

"I'll probably have to break up with her. We're clicking in terms of, well, making out, I suppose, but we've been going out for months now and we haven't really clicked emotionally. I suppose that it's better to break up now rather than let our relationship start affecting our friendship or, worse, the whole guild. Friendship matters more than romance at this point," Laxus mused to himself, then blinked and stared through the window at something outside his apartment, which was at the edge of Magnolia right near where the forest began.

Sighing he turned and made his way out the back door, giving a few of his neighbors a show, given that he was still in the boxers he had slept in. Luckily there weren't many at home this time of day, not that he would have cared. His attention was on the giant egg that sat high up in the one tree in the open area beyond his house. _So it wasn't a dream last night. Isn't that the kind of egg that Happy came out of? Ugh…_

Reaching up, he pulled the egg down and brought it inside, setting it on his sofa. "I'll just bring you to Lisanna and Natsu and have the two of them decide what to do with you."

After changing Laxus came back and was about to pick up the egg when it started hatching. "Wh…" Laxus groaned then moved backwards glaring at the egg.

A second later the egg had cracked, and a little white cat with wings hopped out. "Lady!" it shouted flying around and then settling on Laxus' head, its wings disappearing.

"Well, shit…" Laxus groaned, then growled as the little cat began to nibble at his headphones. "Damn it. Right. To the guild."

As he walked through the town, however, Laxus was stopped constantly by girls rushing up to him wanting to see the little kitten. Natsu and Lisanna hadn't ever run into this problem because Lisanna was always with Natsu when he was walking with Happy around the town. The few times Natsu and Happy walked around without her, Natsu would always rush to take to the rooftops to get away from the girls. Laxus, however, despite his technically not-single status, didn't have a problem with this. _Hhmmm… Maybe I'll be keeping you after all, little cat…_

 **OOOOOOO**

"So that's the capital?" Ranma asked, standing on a nearby hilltop and staring ahead of them. To one side several columns of Revolutionary Army troopers were moving towards the city in an organized manner. Most of the army would not enter the city. After all, even as organized as it was there was no way the city would be able to accommodate a whole army.

"What's its name again, Oni-chan?" Wendy asked, looking down from her perch on top of Ranma's head, from which she had been staring at the city in the distance.

To put it simply, the capital of Minstrel looked like someone had taken the towers of fairy tale castles and scattered them around the same ground as modern warehouses, apartment buildings, and huge, almost circus-like tents. This impression was helped by the fact that many of the towers leaned this way and that, and the warehouses were simply scattered throughout the city. Or the colors on display: the city's buildings were a literal riot of colors: blue, green, pink, and red. It was easily the most colorful city Ranma had ever seen, to say nothing of the long green banners hung here and there throughout it in celebration of the revolution's victory.

"It's called Silken Dream. Don't ask me why Silk is so prominent a name in Minstrel, Wendy. I really couldn't tell you," Ranma replied, reaching up to pat one of Wendy's little feet. Idly he noted that her boots seemed to be wearing out and made a note to buy her some in the city before they left.

"Silly name, but pretty city. Are we going to stay here long?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know. I'd like us to move on quick, but San wanted to reward us for our help against that Capricorn guy, and I want to figure out what this key is," Ranma, of course, knew about holder magic and used Guns Magic himself, but when he tried to activate the key in the same way to get more information about what Capricorn wanted him to do with the key and where this Heartfilia family might be, nothing happened.

"Boo…" Wendy pouted. This city looked like it would be really fun to explore. Still, she understood that her Oni-chan would be roped into still more work if they stayed.

After the fight against Caprico and his subordinates, the two Dragon Slayers had stayed with the army for a while. Ranma had hoped to simply get San in touch with the kings, but even after he had, the kings had asked him to protect San until another Ranger could meet them in the capital.

Or rather, the two kings he talked to asked. Vicotronious was part of the discussion, of course, but none of the other kings Ranma had met before were. Instead Ranma met the King of Caelum for the first time.

Luke Afterano was a visibly overweight man, wearing what looked to be an ostentatiously florid outfit with a heavy gold chain around his neck and a thin gold crown on his head. The colors coming through the small image of his upper chest and arm looked ostentatious to Ranma, rather like half a rainbow had puked on the man. The overweight bit wasn't in question, given Luke's heavy jowls and multiple chins.

The man hadn't seemed happy to speak to Ranma, glaring at him for a while as the conversation continued. Ranma supposed that might be because Ranma had captured a relative of his in that whole pirate thing up in the northern ocean. Despite that, the man was shrewd and actually praised Ranma's work in protecting San Jiao Shi from the assassins, though he wasn't able to give Ranma any more information on Grimoire Heart other than the fact that it was a well-known Dark Guild, something anyone could have told him.

While Ranma had been talking to kings and guarding a general, Wendy had volunteered to help in the army's hospital doing what she could to help the wounded. Wendy had never shown any sign of being squeamish before, but the idea of her seeing some of the wounds that could be caused during a battle made Ranma cringe. Thankfully, there were two other mages there working as healers, and both of them made certain to not let the little girl see anything too nasty, despite using her powers to help heal many of the worst cases. Cases that didn't involve lost limbs, anyway.

Even so, Wendy had come back to their tent and cried herself to sleep several times during their time in the army. Ranma had done his best to comfort her, but was continually surprised that rather than cave or retreat from the sights she saw, Wendy went back every day and worked herself to exhaustion. By the end of two weeks Wendy had earned the nickname of 'the little angel' from the army.

Luckily, there were no more battles after the two Dragon Slayers arrived, though the general ordered his troops out in small patrols practically every day. Those units had orders to try to put a halt to any reprisals or horrors going on as the serfs of Minstrel rose up against their former overlords. They did this by moving in quickly enough to arrest the nobles themselves, then stomping hard on any banditry going on. This was thankfully helped along by there being pockets of normality here and there. These were guarded by local serfs who clashed with others from other noble lands in the defense of their lords, who apparently had always treated them well. Ranma could have hoped that those pockets were the norm, but Ranma supposed he should be thankful there were any at all.

Not wanting further notoriety, Ranma and Wendy entered the city a ways away from the main thoroughfare, moving fast enough to watch the army's march through the city, with San at the head of it. Ranma found them a place on a roof nearby, ostensibly to watch the parade, but really to make certain no one tried a last minute assassination. That would be astonishingly stupid, but Ranma figured that the former Barons might have embraced the idea of bringing San down before he could truly install Minstrel's new government.

While Wendy was staring around in delight at the colors and the snapping pennants, Ranma kept his ears open, wanting to get a feel for what the locals thought about this beyond the cheering. _After all, any city would cheer the conquering army if they knew what was good for them, right?_

It turned out his worries were unfounded, though. The locals truly were happy the Revolutionaries had won, and the merchants in particular were looking forward to the change of management. The serfs, too, were ecstatic to see the end of serfdom, which was one of the basic tenets of the Revolutionary movement.

The ruling council was also long gone. They had apparently smuggled themselves out to a few waiting ships. The locals had heard that they were going to try and rally support from a large island that was also part of Minstrel called Buckler, of all things. _Heh, that's not going to last very long at all from what King Conrad was saying. The man might not have liked me, but he liked the idea of further turmoil in Minstrel even less. I've no doubt that ship is going to find itself being attacked by 'pirates' or stopped by 'random' commerce schooners of the Caelum navy before they ever reach Buckler. Hmm… On the other hand, Conrad might just wait until they get there, then grab the whole island while San's busy setting up his government._

 _Still, at least my part in all this is over with. I don't mind the fights or even the traveling, but this sticking around afterward just to guard San is kind of irritating, and I_ _ **really**_ _don't like being tugged this way and that._

Near the royal castle, called Tenor, again for reasons Ranma didn't understand, Ranma spotted three men in dark cloaks on a nearby rooftop. _Ugh, really?_ "Wendy, do you mind waiting here for a second?"

Wendy didn't turn from staring at the castle, simply hopping off his head as she stared at it in awe. It was easily the tallest building she had ever seen. "I'll be fine here, Oni-chan, don't worry."

"Good girl," Ranma replied, moving off over the rooftops and disappearing into the Umi-Sen-Ken. Now cloaked, he doubled back slightly and then around, moving over the rooftops easily.

The three men didn't see him coming, busy as they were setting up what looked like a large makeshift ballista of some kind, but instead of a large crossbow bolt, it was fitted with what looked like some kind of glass container shaped like an arrow but filled with some greenish liquid. All three men were bent over the device, trying to angle it down so that it would be aimed at the doorway of the castle. They were having trouble with it, though, cursing under their breaths as they hefted the ballista up onto the wall of the roof. "Damn it, this thing is heavy!"

"Quit your bitching. It's supposed to be heavy. We should have tried this earlier on the route," said the second man.

"No chance. San Jiao Shi had guards on the main thoroughfare and halfway through the city. We had to do it here. Besides, the symbolism will be massive. And the stupid up-jumped peasants will be only too happy to blame it on the barons. Now let's get this over with and get out of here."

Having heard enough, Ranma reached forward over the men's heads, plucking the bolt out of its groove. "Yeah, no. I've spent far too much damn time guarding San for me to let you kill him now." As Ranma spoke his free hand flashed out, touching pressure points on two men before they could even flinch aside, freezing them in place.

The third man, standing on the other side of the small ballista, flinched back, dropping the weapon and turning to race off rather than try to fight their attacker. This didn't save him.

As San Jiao Shi turned to enter the castle where he would begin work on creating a truly representational government, he paused, staring upwards. Then he turned at a commotion and frowned at seeing Ranma moving towards him. Gone was his cloak and the leaf of the Rangers, as it always was, save for when Ranma was actually acting as a go between for San and the kings.

The young man hoped to keep his status as a Ranger a secret, which he had been able to do thus far, though the rumors about him and Wendy were both numerous and hilarious by this point. San particularly liked the idea that the two of them were secret super soldiers he had been training to help him overthrow the government, though the idea of Ranma's female form being his lover or Wendy his new harem girl were so flat out wrong that San made certain they never reached Ranma's ears.

Behind him Ranma dragged three unconscious men in heavy black cloaks with one hand. In the other he held a glass ballista bolt with green goo in it. The sight of that weapon mad San frown, but he waited to speak until Ranma reached him. "So, what would this be, then, my bodyguard?" That was the official story they had come up with: that Ranma and Wendy had offered their services in exchange for enough money to head to Fiore. Given their abilities and the fact that the best and brightest mages all went to Fiore eventually, this made sense to the masses of the army, or at least to those soldiers not busy coming up with further wild rumors.

"Yeah, these three were trying to set up an attack on you when you entered the palace. They were talking, though, and they weren't sent by the barons." He leaned in, whispering so only San could hear him over the tumult of the crowd and the shouted instructions of his soldiers. "Seems there might be another player in this war, though I don't know if it's the same one Vic was worried about."

"I am never going to get used to the way you address royalty, Ranma, and I think I'm rather pleased by the fact you won't be along long enough for me to do so," San Jiao Shi replied. While he was very grateful to both Dragon Slayers for their help, Ranma's personality was one that very few leaders could be happy about having around. "Still, I will question them closely to see if they will give up their employers. Now, could you please go and get your sister off my new castle?"

Ranma blinked in confusion for a moment, then turned to stare up to where Wendy had been earlier, only to burst out laughing. Still chuckling, he hopped up to land on a rooftop to one side and then jumped onto the roof of the castle. From there he scaled up the tower set to one side of the main castle to where Wendy was perched, balancing on the tip of the crenellation. "You and your love of high places."

Later that day, while San began the work of creating a new government, Wendy and Ranma found the library of the palace. Like the palace proper, the royal library had been maintained after there were no more royals to use it, but it had not often been used. The room wasn't large, only about the size of a large family room, and was set up like such a room , with numerous chairs and a large sofa of the old, heavily padded and lived in variety.

As Wendy curled up in a sofa that looked almost sinfully soft for a nap, Ranma moved around the library, getting a feel for how it was organized before looking for specific sections. To his surprise, the majority of the books were books on enchantments. Several rows of books were devoted to the subject. _Okay, right here is something that's worth the trip!_

Some of the spells Wendy knew were not actually Sky Dragon Slayer spells but enchantments. The Vernier spell, for instance, wasn't a Dragon Slayer spell, nor was Troia, though her healing spells were Sky Dragon Slayer Magic. She could eventually actually learn how to create and emplace permanent enchantments on things, like many of the spells on their camping equipment, only without the lacrima most of them had to use to power the spells. _Wendy could really use these books, though it'll be a while before she can actually read them, unfortunately._

Stuffing them in his Requip space for now, Ranma moved on, finding some history books along with two books on mediation designed to let the user get in touch with the Etherano around them in the world rather than on the inside, and another dedicated to detecting the minds of other people. Both could be useful. He didn't find any books about anything like the key that had somehow come from Capricorn, though, which was irritating.

But it was the history book Ranma actually opened to read now. Moving over to a sofa, he laid out, then smiled as Wendy quickly moved from where she had been napping to curl up next to him. "Comfy?"

Wendy nodded, snuggling in and looking up at him. "Did you find a book for me, Oni-chan?"

"I found several you'll probably like in a few years, but only one you can probably read right now. It's a story about a prince who is shrunk and has to go on lots of adventures in order to get back to his family. You want it now, or are you going to keep napping?" Ranma asked, then smiled as Wendy held out her hands imperiously. Ranma handed the book over, and for a time there was no more noise in the library other than the turning of pages.

The history book Ranma had found covered much the same as others he had read: it told the tale of an ancient nation where dragons and humans coexisted. But like all the other books he had read which mentioned that nation, it was vague and written well after the time that nation had existed. Despite that, the book did have one piece of information Ranma hadn't seen before: it mentioned the location of the ancient nation's capital. This forced Ranma to pull out his map of the peninsula, and he compared it to what the book was describing. _Huh…_ "Hey, Wendy, after this I think we're going to be heading for Bellum."

"Kay," Wendy said distractedly, most of her attention on the storybook in her hands. This caused Ranma to laugh, stroking her hair fondly.

With a destination in mind, Ranma wanted to leave as soon as they could. San Jiao Shi also was happy to see the two Dragon Slayers leave, but he also wanted to reward them for their aid. "Besides," he said later that evening, "it would look very odd if you left so without visible remuneration."

"I don't need more money at this point. If I do, I'll go trolling for bandits," Ranma objected. "You let us have access to your new library, and, given the number of books I've taken from it, you've already rewarded me."

"Ah, but it is not money I have in mind," San replied, clapping his hands. The doors at the far end of his new study opened, and two servants entered, bearing some small treasure chests. They were followed by a man wearing a flowing purple and blue robe with the mark of a long road in red on the left of his chest.

As Ranma watched, the two servants set the chests down and opened them to reveal cloth. "Minstrel Song Silk. This product is the real reason why Minstrel cloth is world famous, and why there are places around the nation which are named for things involved in music," San began as the two servants pulled the cloth out of the chests. "This silk can be enchanted with up to seven permanent spells. These spells can be permanently embedded into the material, always on, as it were, or can be activated at any time by the wearer. All without any lacrima needed. It is extremely expensive, but I feel a cloak for you and a dress for young Wendy would be a decent reward, no?"

"That works. What kind of enchantments are we talking about here?" Ranma asked intently, running a hand over the silk. The material was thick to the touch, like a heavy wool, only more so, but the feel of it was indeed like silk.

"What kind do you want?" the man in the robe asked. He was an older gentleman with a basso voice.

This discussion continued for some time. First, Wendy didn't want a cloak, very happy with a coat that Ranma had bought her in Iceberg. The instant she felt the material, however, she wanted a skirt and blouse combo. While Wendy had gotten used to wearing pants most days, she preferred skirts.

While Wendy began to argue about the cut of the dress she wanted with the four women who would be actually be designing the clothing out of the Song Silk, Ranma talked with the mage who would be setting the enchantments about the enchantments Ranma wanted to see. Damage resistance was a given, of course, as was the ability to both retain heat and be heat resistant, to cool down, and to ward off the rain, for both Wendy and Ranma's clothing. For Wendy's clothing an enchantment to automatically resize both skirt and blouse as she grew was a must. Ranma was also still growing, so he was talked into getting the same set on his.

Ranma decided to add several more damage resistance enchantments on Wendy's clothing just in case, as well as a speed enhancement spell like Vernier. He felt the combination of the spell on the Song Silk and Vernier would be amazing to see in the future. For his own, Ranma added a self-cleaning enchantment. This left him with one more slot, as it were, but Ranma decided to hold off on that until he figured out what he wanted.

However, he did ask for the scraps, long strips of cloth, to be given a weight enchantment. "Ahh, you want me to make them lighter? That's a favorite enchantment for many reasons," the mage, whose name was Fierro, said.

"Ah, no. I want a spell on them to make them heavier…" Ranma said, pulling out his escrima sticks from his Requip space. Two of the women helped him wrap the clubs' blunt ends with the silk, laughing all the while about playing with his shafts for some reason, which went right over both his and Wendy's heads. In the end the escrima clubs had been covered with thin strips of Song Silk all along their lengths. They were enchanted to be damage resistant and then had the weight enchantment added. Now, while they looked the same, at Ranma's command those little escrima clubs could weigh as much as an elephant.

This process took more than a week, but after it was done, the Two Dragon Slayers moved on quickly, heading to Bellum.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma and Wendy arrived in Bellum as winter began to close in on the city. This far south there wasn't much snow, to Wendy's displeasure. She had really enjoyed playing in snow when they passed through Iceberg. Instead it became very cold and very windy, with heavy breezes coming off Bell Lake and hammering into the city. And while their new clothing kept them somewhat warm, they couldn't do much against the wind.

With Wendy clinging to his back to get out of the wind, Ranma moved through the city, thinking. _Now, I could find a place to set up our tent, but I doubt I'd be able to find a place out of this wind, and I bet the locals'd frown on that anyway. Or I could be proactive and find a place for us to stay. Wendy's been complaining lately of wanting to find some new books to read, and given what I want to do we're going to be here for a while anyway._ "Hey, Wendy, be on the lookout for any place that has rooms to rent, okay?"

Unfortunately, during the winter time most of the populace that worked Bellum's forests and few farms retreated behind the walls taking up seasonal lodging throughout the large city-state. This made finding a place almost impossible, but Ranma eventually found an inn that was willing to let the two of them live in its hay loft.

With the loft protecting them from the wind, Ranma swiftly put up the tent, with Wendy hopping inside almost before he was finished. Laughing, Ranma shook his head, but quickly followed, removing his cloak and dumping it over Wendy's head, adding its heat to that of the clothing she had been wearing. While Ranma began to pull out some food, Wendy pulled out their sleeping bags, linking them up so she could snuggle with Ranma when they went to bed. "So, Wendy, I plan for us to stay here through the winter. I want to look through the libraries I wasn't able to access last time and I want to explore the bottom of the lake. Would ya like it if I set up a tutor for you?"

"More history?" Wendy asked, her small face scrunched up in a cute sign of dismay.

"No. Mostly math, reading, and writing skills," Ranma said, pulling the little girl into a hug. Since he had basically cheated into being able to read the local languages, there was no way he was going to tease her about her issues with being bored by history or anything else. "Would you like that? You might be able to eventually read more and better books."

"Mmmm…" Wendy whispered, nuzzling into Ranma and practically falling asleep almost immediately. It had been a very long day after all.

The next day, while Wendy stayed snug in their little tent, Ranma went about the city trying to find a tutor for her, asking the local Mage Guilds and innkeepers. He eventually was pointed in the direction of a middle-aged woman who was a former teacher, who was currently dealing with empty nest syndrome. She was positively gleeful at the idea of having something to do with kids without the need to go back to a full class of kids immediately. And when Ranma introduced them, she and Wendy hit it off immediately.

With Wendy now being looked after and learning, Ranma changed into his female form and then went down to the docks. Even with the cold and the wind it was still bustling: thousands of sailors, longshoremen, merchants, and others moving about their business as bundled as they could get. To say that Ranma attracted attention when she stripped off her cloak was an understatement, though the flare of magic when she put the rest of her clothing away via Requip added to the hullabaloo. And while her swimsuit was about as sexual as a wet paper bag (this was why Ranma had chosen it), the fact that she was even thinking about diving into the cold water of the lake was more than enough to grab still further attention.

"Wh, what are you doing, you damn fool girl!" shouted a nearby dockworker, racing in Ranma's direction. Others also shouted at the insane redhead, with one sailor going so far as to shout, "Whatever happened, it isn't worth taking your life over, girl! Think it through!"

Ranma rolled her eyes, then hopped into the water without reply. She dove down then swam back up, her head bursting out of the water. The cold, like the pressure, didn't bother her at all. Her hands glowed with magical energy as the water created a sphere over her head, capturing some of the air above the waves within it. With a jaunty wave to the onlookers, who were now lining the pier above her, she turned, diving straight down and away.

As she did, Ranma activated her Requip again, pulling out a magical light that, while expensive, could do the same job as a flashlight. Even Ranma's eyesight wasn't up to seeing through the murky depths of the lake.

After a few minutes of swimming straight down, taking in breaths from her limited supply only at need, Ranma frowned. _Okay, this lake is hella deep… Weird. I mean, it is really, really deep!_ Turning, she gazed upwards and could barely make out where the water began to lighten above her from the sun. _Damn, really deep!_

Her eyes narrowing, Ranma continued on, diving straight down until she started to feel a little light headed. Realizing she was running out of oxygen, Ranma turned back, making her slow away upwards, moving slower now so as to avoid the bends.

When Ranma broke the surface, she realized that she had moved somewhat further out to sea from her starting point. "Hmm… I think I'm going to need a way to get more organized about this…" she mused as she treaded water.

It took Ranma several days to figure out how to organize her search, never having done anything like this before or having heard about anything similar. Nor could Ranma leave physical markers behind which could be seen from a distance. The lake was too deep for that, and even floating markers would have been tough to try, given the amount of traffic this segment of the lake saw. Eventually Ranma was forced to try and use markers on the land to judge her progress, and that really only worked while Ranma was by the edge of the lake.

Still, with the weather forcing them to remain in Bellum for a time, Ranma persevered. He worked on exploring the lake during the mornings and afternoons, spent his meals with Wendy, and worked with the local city watch to break up fights occasionally to earn some pocket change.

For her part Wendy was happy to spend winter in the city. While Wendy enjoyed traveling with Ranma, it was because she was traveling **with** Ranma, rather than any liking of actual travel. And winter was her least favorite time to travel, the little Dragon Slayer not enjoying being cold at all.

But despite being relatively happy with their living arrangements and one another's company, of course, both of them ran into various kinds of roadblocks. Ranma disliked how slow his progress was in searching the lake for this ancient city, so much so he was tempted to give up, but was too stubborn to. Wendy, in turn, had hit a wall in terms of her education. Her tutor had realized early on that Wendy's writing ability was nowhere near her reading ability and had quickly shifted their sessions to emphasize that.

It might have been the frustration from all of this that caused the two semi-siblings to have their first real argument. On a slightly sunnier and less windy day than normal, Ranma had decided that the two could head to a real restaurant rather than eat in the inn whose hayloft they were staying in. The two of them were walking back to their temporary abode from the restaurant he had chosen when Wendy spotted a toy store down another street.

Pulling to a halt, she grabbed Ranma's hand in both of hers and she turned, gesturing to the toy store. "Hey, Oni-chan, can we go in there?"

Ranma looked and sighed. "I don't know, Wendy. Your tutor said you weren't really able to concentrate yesterday. Do you really think you deserve a treat like that?"

Pouting, Wendy tried to pull Ranma in that direction, giving him the puppy dog eyes attack at the same time. "Please, Oni-chan? I only want to look, that's all."

Despite having many more years of life to call upon than his physical age would suggest, Ranma still had not developed any resistance to this dreaded technique. Sighing, he nodded and allowed Wendy to drag him towards the toy store.

Inside they found dozens of toys of all types and varieties, including many that looked really nice, if expensive. Ranma knew money really wasn't an object for him at this point, but even so he didn't want to spoil Wendy. _Well, not too much, anyway._

He watched with a faint smile as Wendy raced around everywhere, trying many of the toys on display and staring in awe at more than a few. She seemed to be enjoying herself greatly, her earlier doldrums evaporating. _Now if only I could get over my own irritation at not finding that damn city! GRAAA…_

Eventually he called Wendy over to him. "Come on, Wendy. We have to head back if you want to be on time for Mrs. Macey."

Wendy pouted at that, but nodded and dragged over several toys. "Oni-chan, can you buy these for me?"

At that Ranma frowned. "Now Wendy, you said we were only here to look. I told you already that your work with Mrs. Macey hasn't earned you a treat. And your training with me hasn't been very good either. You whined and begged out of it yesterday, and I agreed. But do you think that's the kind of attitude that has earned a treat?"

Wendy looked as if she was about to cry. "But, Oni-chan…"

"No buts Wendy. Now come on," Ranma said, reaching down to touch her shoulder.

At that point Wendy did indeed begin to cry. "No! I want it, pleaaasssseee, Oni-chan? pleaseeeeee!"

"Wendy, come on," Ranma groaned, uncertain how to deal with this. "You're causing a scene now." Indeed they were, since there were several parents of both genders looking at them, some commiseratingly, others more judgmentally.

Sighing, Ranma pulled off his cloak and dumped it over Wendy's head. Thanks to their difference in size, the cloak acted like a blanket, covering her from head to toe. Wendy's cries were somewhat muffled, and Ranma scooped her up in his arms, cradling Wendy to his chest as he turned toward the door. If she tried to fight back, her movements were sufficiently muffled by his cloak such that it didn't matter.

Stepping out of the shop, Ranma made his way back to their dwelling, grimacing at the impact of the wind which had picked up once more. _Rule number five of Anything Goes Big Brothering: Don't give in to the puppy dog eyes or crying. At least, not right away. Make use of rule number 1 instead._

By the time Wendy, with her arms trapped in his cloak and squished against her own body, was able to even get her head out from the folds of Ranma's cloak, they were back at the inn, and Ranma was hopping up onto the hayloft. She tried another sniffle, but the fight seemed to have gone out of her.

Ranma set her down then and, looking at her little red-eyed face, sighed, then shook his head. "I'll tell Mrs. Macey that you're not feeling well and be right back." This didn't take long, and Ranma was soon back. He found Wendy still standing in the same place she had been when he left.

She looked up at Ranma, then blinked, seeing Ranma in his female form. Ranma spent so much time swimming and perforce in his female form since they had arrived in Bellum that he/she was almost frantic about not spending any more time in that body.

Seeing the look, Ranma shrugged, sat down next to Wendy, and scooped her into her arms, running one hand down her back. "I figure if we're going to talk about feelings, I should be in this form. It's easier to think about them this way. Now, why don't you tell me what brought along this moment of brattishness?"

Wendy opened up her mouth, but Ranma mock glared at her. "Yes, Wendy, you were indeed being a brat. I told you before we even entered the toy store that you hadn't earned a treat. You told me you wanted to go there only to look, but then you tried wheedle a toy out of me. And when you didn't get your way, you cried and whined. That's being a brat, not at all like the little sister I know and love. So come on, tell me what's bothering you."

Wendy sniffled a little, but burrowed into Ranma's soft chest and began to explain. It turned out that once more she had been trying to make friends with the local kids, but it hadn't worked. She apparently didn't look like a Bellumese and was a little too smart to get along with kids her own age, and a little too young, and far too shy, to get along with anyone older. This, coupled with the problems in learning to write, had made Wendy depressed. She hadn't wanted to complain to Ranma, knowing her Oni-chan was having her own problems, but it had boiled out at that toy store. That and the honest fact she didn't have any toys really except for a puzzle square and a stuffed dragon doll.

Hearing all that made Ranma apologize for not bending on the no toy rule, and she promised that they could go back the next sunny day. The redhead stayed curled up with Wendy for the rest of the day, forgoing training for once and simply spending time with the young girl: reading to her, wrestling with her, and even playing make believe with her stuffed dragon doll. But he also pulled out a promise from Wendy to try and do better in her studies with Mrs. Macey.

The next sunny day, as promised, Ranma took Wendy back to the toy store. There he and the little girl went through the store until Ranma found two toys he felt Wendy could play with for months and not get bored by: a large container filled with foam square puzzle pieces that could be fit together into different square based shapes and a set of small dolls made of something like playdough, but which you didn't need to continually wet to reuse.

Ranma then asked Wendy which one she would like and watched in amusement as Wendy, her face scrunched up in thought, moved from one to the other, playing first with one set on display and then the other. Her confusion and her obvious desire to make the right choice was really funny. _New rule: While toys should be bought in moderation, forcing the little brother/sister to choose between two can be hilarious._

Winter passed in this manner. Wendy slowly overcame her mental blocks and started to write and use math as well as she could read, though she still didn't enjoy history and had problems keeping dates in her head. Her search for friends ended without any results, but, knowing the problem, Ranma had begun to make more time to be with Wendy. He would head out while Wendy slept in to explore the lake, then come back to spend a late breakfast with her before training for a time until Mrs. Macey came back.

While Wendy was with Mrs. Macey, who truly loved the magic tent, claiming it was warmer than her house, Ranma would train. Then, when Wendy was done with Mrs. Macey, the Dragon Slayer siblings would explore the city, with Wendy tucked into Ranma's cloak in one way or another. Her skirt had been a good idea, but it just didn't cover enough skin to be useful in this weather, despite its warming enchantments. Ranma would then put Wendy to bed and train some more or work for the local city guard if he was asked to.

All of this, of course, slowed down his/her search of the lake. But as winter began to end, Ranma found herself swimming over a large grotto. Or what looked like a grotto at first glance. Closer inspection under the light of her magical flashlight showed a building. Swimming slowly over it, Ranma absentmindedly smacked a too inquisitive shark out of her way as she stared at the tableau beyond.

On the other side of that first building was a city, a large one that stretched well beyond the sight of Ranma's little flashlight. It looked to have been made mostly of stone, or perhaps something like concrete. _Hmm… Looks like a lot of these buildings were demolished at one point or another. Well at least now I know my guess about the ancient capital of the dragon/human nation being here was right. Still, makes me wonder what the heck happened to it. Was it a natural disaster of some kind that created Bell Lake, or something else? A magical attack?_

Ranma held back a shiver that had nothing to do with the ice cold water around her as she thought about that idea. After all, Bell Lake was the same size as the Black Sea back in her old dimension. The idea of any magical attack that could do that was utterly terrifying. _But then, if something like that had happened, would it have left any of the capital intact?_

Still swimming forward, Ranma shook that thought off. _Well, whatever. It's here, and I can only hope that there's something here to find about Dragon Slayers, our magic and history. While my water manipulation skills have come a long way, I could use a better explanation of how to train more draconic things into my style, and any help I could get with Wendy would be great. I can train her in martial arts and stuff like that, but not in any special attacks from her school or how to get the most out of eating air._

As if the thought about Wendy eating air had reminded her, Ranma found that she was once more becoming short of breath. _Damn it, I'm going to need to head back now._ While Ranma could hold her breath for far longer than even the greatest Olympic swimmer, there were limits, and despite being the Water Dragon Slayer, she needed to breathe. _It took me so long to get down here I barely had any time to search! Going to need to figure out a way to solve that issue. Maybe Wendy could help…_

Swimming slowly to the surface, Ranma had barely a second to breathe before she had to duck down to avoid being brained by a passing ship. It passed on, not even seeing her as he spluttered in its wake, screaming obscenities. Hopping up onto the water with a brief spurt of his magic, Ranma raced back to Bellum.

She found Mrs. Macey just leaving the tent, shaking her head once more. "Magic like that, it's really amazing you know," she said not for the first time as Ranma hopped up into the loft.

"Heh, I'll tell the company that makes them that there's a market here in Bellum for them, Mrs. Macey. It might be too far to ship, though," Ranma said, giving the woman her daily pay and walking her to the gate of the inn as she asked, "So, how was she today?"

"Little Wendy was her normal darling self. We finished up all the final tests I wanted to give her; indeed, her progress was quite incredible. She will still need work on her vocabulary, but her reading and writing skills are more than acceptable, as is her math," Mrs. Macey replied, then went into detail before shaking Ranma's hand and wishing her well on the next leg of their journey.

Ranma had told the woman they would be moving on once winter broke, and they were making for Pergrande. As far as Mrs. Macey was concerned, the two of them were just two sibling mages looking around for a guild to join. She had even believed that Ranma's curse was part of the price she made for control of water, which no real mage would have believed for an instant. Even in a nation with several prominent guilds, the nonmagical population didn't really know much about how magic in general worked.

Bidding the woman farewell, Ranma returned to the loft and entered their tent, smiling at Wendy who was putting away some of her coloring and reading books. She smiled up at her, then eeped, as Ranma, still wet from her time in the water, made to pick her up in a hug. "NO!" she squealed hopping away.

The chase continued with much shrieking and laughingr abounding in the tent until Wendy threw one of their small pillows at Ranma's legs. Ranma decided to let it hit and flopped down comically. "Ugh, I am slain!"

Laughing, Wendy tossed several towels onto Ranma, then hopped onto the redhead, rubbing furiously. She giggled and tried to bolt as Ranma started to tickle her mercilessly. Eventually, however, Ranma simply hugged the little girl to her chest, laying on her side and staring at the small heat lacrima set into the floor of the tent.

Craning her neck, Wendy looked up at her Oni-chan. "Oni-chan? Is there something wrong?"

"Nope. Just thinking big thoughts, oh small one," Ranma replied, smirking as Wendy puffed out her cheeks in outrage. "I found that city I was searching for. What do you think about coming back to Bell Lake sometime soon? I still want to go back to Appledore, since I wasn't able to ransack, erm, that is, search their royal library for information. But after that we could swing through Bell Lake again, then choose a different direction from there. But I'll need your help to search down there."

"Mm! You can count on me!" Wendy replied, happy to be of help. This caused Ranma to smile and pull her into a deeper hug, which the little girl leaned into, once more giving that odd draconic purr.

The two Dragon Slayers left Bellum the next day, heading across the lake until they landed at the tiny trade town they had stopped at before, then headed up the river to Appledore. There Ranma once more found his friend's house and asked if the two of them could impose for a few days. Laitha was there rather than William, but she replied just as quickly and affirmatively as her husband would have. "Of course you can, Ranma. We said we owe you more than we can ever hope to repay, and we meant it. You're just in time to help with supper, actually."

Seeing Wendy perk up at that, Ranma patted her head, pushing the girl into the house ahead of him. "Actually, if Wendy could help you with that for a bit, I have an errand I need to run over at another friend's house. It won't take long."

Laitha nodded, putting a hand on Wendy's shoulder and ushering her into the kitchen set to one side of the house's front door. "We're going to have fresh bread with supper, so if you could knead the dough out for me, that would be a major help…"

As Wendy nodded in the affirmative, Ranma turned and moved off through the city quickly. Supper sounded good, and he didn't want to be late for it any more than he wanted to explain to Wendy why some of his other old friends were wearing so little.

Stopping in at Melona's, he found the girls dressed for their chosen profession, as he had feared, but after the rounds of teasing were finished, Lisa provided him with the photos he was after of Gildarts. "Where the heck did you and that little cutie run off to anyway, Ranma? I had these all prepared, and the next day you're no longer around, and no one knows where you went," Lisa admonished, hands on her hips. "Now you come waltzing back in after the better part of a year?"

"Er, well, I'm sorry about that, but, um, in my line of work, well, crises kind of pop up sometimes," Ranma replied, pulling at his pigtail sheepishly.

"Your line of work… You know what? I don't think I want to know." Lisa sighed, but held out the packet to Ranma. "Anyway, here they are. Since Gildarts hasn't returned here since then, it shouldn't be a problem, but if he does, know I'm going to tell him that you took those in the first place, all right?"

"Fine, that's fine," Ranma said. Actually, if the photos forced Gildarts to come after him that was more than fine with Ranma. Ranma knew he learned best when facing off against opponents above his weight class, and if there was a better way of describing Gildarts, he didn't know it.

With the pictures in hand, Ranma returned to William and Laitha's house for the evening just in time to help set the table and greet the man of the house as he came home from the factory next door. William reiterated his wife's welcome, pumping Ranma's outstretched hand and leading him inside. Though the look in the Royal Armorer's eyes told Ranma that William had some idea of where Ranma and Wendy had run off to nearly a year ago now.

Since Ranma had Wendy practicing hopping around in the air or propelling them through the water throughout their journey since they left Bellum early that morning, she began to nod off almost before the meal was finished. This caused Ranma to gently grab her head before she could dunk it into the spaghetti they had been eating. With Laitha leading the way, Ranma put Wendy to sleep in their guest bed. Ranma would sleep either with Wendy or out on the sofa.

"It looks as if you're still doing a decent enough job with young Wendy. I don't mind telling you I really would never have imagined that," William said dryly, pouring them all glasses of spiced peach brandy, a local favorite that both blacksmiths had come to enjoy.

Ranma didn't particularly like any alcohol, but knew it would be rude of him to decline, so he sipped at his cup as he shrugged uncomfortably. "I'd like to think so, but there have been a few times where I have to wonder about the wisdom of me raising a kid in the first place. I love Wendy, sure, but up here," Ranma tapped his forehead, "I sometimes have trouble remembering that she is totally dependent on me rather than just a martial arts student I've had to take on. Erm…you got any advice for me, Laitha?"

"Not really, no more than I gave the last time you were here, anyway. Maybe if you describe a few of these instances, we might be able to see a common thread," Laitha replied dryly, slugging back her own drink, earning a dismayed squawk of protest from her husband.

It sounded well-rehearsed to Ranma, who figured it was one of those married couple things. "Sure. If you can see something I'm doing wrong, that'd be a big help."

William and Laitha listened to the moments of friction that had popped up occasionally between Ranma and Wendy, but couldn't spot anything they all shared. "Frankly, it sounds more like Wendy should be nominated for sainthood dealing with moving around like that, all the random upheavals and your daily regimen. Most girls her age would never be able to take that," Laitha said after Ranma had finished.

"Well, if ya can't give me any advice, would you mind promising to give her the Talk when she needs it?" Ranma asked, almost but not quite succeeding in keeping a tone of pleading out of his voice.

"Ha!" Laitha barked, while William looked more sympathetic. "Hells. no. That is all on you."

"Damn it," Ranma uttered. While that moment was years into the future, Ranma could feel it looming horribly. The first time he'd had the Talk with his old man was bad enough, to get the female version of it from Kasumi was worse. And besides the girls at Melona's, Laitha was the only female friend he'd made in this world. _I suppose I could count Ikaruga among them too, but there's no way I'd ask her to talk to Wendy for me. I'd have to be there to make sure she doesn't go into too much detail or leave things out just to screw with me._

Elsewhere in Appledore, Ikaruga paused in her walk beside her new husband as she suddenly sneezed explosively. "Ara."

"Catching a cold, love?" Roland asked teasingly, before gesturing down to the kimono she was barely wearing. "Perhaps it's a sign you should be wearing more?"

"Aa, but then where would your eyes go if I did not entice them at all times?" Ikaruga teased, her free hand trailing down the side of the kimono on one side of her chest as she looked at Roland with bedroom eyes. As he flushed and looked away, her pink lips twitched into a victorious smirk before she frowned, raising a finger to them thoughtfully. "Strange, though. I just had the odd feeling someone was talking about me in a most unflattering yet accurate manner…"

Taking some pity on Ranma, or so he thought, Laitha smiled, waving the bottle of local brandy. "How about this? If you can drink me under the table, I'll agree to give Wendy the whole period talk when it comes time for it and if you're in Appledore when it does."

"Meh, that's a lot of ifs, but I'll take what I can get," Ranma said. He took the glass offered him and slammed it back, barely even tasting the brandy before it finished its journey down to his stomach, but it still caused him to gasp in shock. He watched Laitha do the same, while William, a small smirk on his face, leaned back as he decided to be the referee.

The rest of the night passed in a blur to Ranma, and he fell asleep half on and half off his friend's sofa, not having even come close to beating Laitha in her contest.

The next morning Wendy came in from her room woken up by the smell of breakfast. To her surprise, however, Ranma didn't move from his place on the sofa, despite being closer to the kitchen than she was. Blinking in surprise, she turned to look at Laitha, who was doing the cooking, William having already left for the day. "Is there something wrong with Oni-chan?"

"Ah, nothing time and a lot of water won't solve," Laitha said, grinning impishly and winking at Wendy. "Why don't you go and wake him up?"

Nodding, Wendy raced over to Ranma, but paused, wondering how to go about waking him up. It was the first time she would be waking him up instead of the other way around, and it had to be spectacular. With a shrug, she decided to just go with a way she'd heard some other kids do to their parents. She suddenly hopped, rear first, onto Ranma's chest.

At that point Ranma learned something truly horrifying: falling into an alcoholic stupor blocked his ability to use Sleep-Fu. Wendy's little body crashed rear first onto his stomach, causing Ranma to wake up with a sound somewhere between a gargle and a moan. The weight of her sitting on him didn't bother Ranma, of course. The throbbing headache he instantly became aware of after becoming conscious was. "GAhhhh… Wendy, why are you waking me up?"

Giggling and bouncing in place, Wendy replied. "Good morning, Oni-chan. Laitha says that breakfast is nearly ready, and you need to drink a lot of water to get over whatever is wrong with you,"

"Oh, she did?" Ranma grunted through his hangover, scowling over Wendy's head toward Laitha. Carrying Wendy for a moment, Ranma entered the kitchen and moved to drop her into a chair while glaring at Laitha. "My vengeance will be swift and terrible," he warned, grimacing at the light through the windows

"Troia!" Wendy intoned, holding a hand up to Ranma's forehead from where Ranma had lifted her up.

Ranma felt his headache and queasy stomach disappearing under the touch of the cure-all spell. Ranma blinked, then hugged Wendy thanks for that, while Laitha looked on in shock. "Did, did she just…"

"Just get rid of my hangover entirely with a spell? Yep," Ranma replied with a nod. "That's my little Dragon Slaying nurse." Wendy beamed at that, but then Ranma went on seriously. "Wendy, this is a great and terrible power you have. Promise me you will only ever use it for good."

"I promise," Wendy said, equally seriously, then both of them broke out into laughter as Laitha rolled her eyes.

After that Wendy and Ranma went to the royal palace, with Wendy once more perched on Ranma's head, peering all around them. As soon as they entered, of course, Vicotronious knew about the Two Dragon Slayers return. But since he had no new job for the young Ranger and had gotten numerous reports on Ranma's progress, he decided to leave them alone for a bit, then come down to the library when they had settled in for the day.

He found them working alone in one of the myriad little homey corners of the library Vicotronious had always liked himself. To his chagrin, his current librarian was nowhere in sight. Sighing at that, he made a mental note to fire the man. He spent far too much time in the wine cellar with the chief butler, not doing his job. Going over to the alcove, he stuck his head in, seeing the two Dragon Slayers curled up on a sofa. Ranma had one of the books Vicotronious had ordered his librarian to find for him, while the young girl was reading a book called 'Enchantments for Dummies' by Warrod, the Wizard Saint.

"Tell me at least that my librarian was here to point you in that book's direction?" he asked.

Ranma looked up, then shook his head, and Vicotronious sighed before looking around and bringing back several other books which had been set aside behind the librarian's desk. "These are all we have that mention dragons, I'm afraid. My soon to be former librarian might be a drunkard, but given enough time to see to a task he has done well enough to have retained his job for a few years now. That's not enough to retain it after today, however."

"Thanks anyway. I doubt I'll find much, but…" Ranma paused, looking at the old king thoughtfully before going on. "Did you know there was a city where Bell Lake is now? It's not right in the center of the lake, more to the south and east, but still, it's down there."

"No, that's the first I've ever heard of it. How old is it, and why are you interested in it?" Vicotronious asked, somewhat shocked. The look Ranma had also told him that there might be a connection between that city and Bell Lake, a horrifying thought.

"It might be the capital of an ancient empire where dragons and humans lived together," Ranma said, and then paused as he read something. "This book here mentions the name of the nation and its queen, the 'Great Queen Irene,' though it says it's more legend than fact."

"Ah, now that name I know. But I too thought it merely legend. Interesting. And you're interested in it because you want to see if you can find anything more out about your Dragon Slaying magic?" Vicotronious had been told about Laxus and Ranma's Dragon Slayer magics, though he had taken the idea of Ranma actually having been raised by a dragon with a grain of salt. Then Ranma had come back with a young girl seemingly left behind by another dragon, which had made him rethink that.

"That and any hint as to where Grandeeney, Wendy's mother, could be. I've sort of hit a plateau on what I can figure out on my own, and Typhon never really gave me much instruction in the first place. He gave me just enough to make sure I knew how to call on my magic, then tossed me into the figurative deep end," Ranma groused, patting Wendy's head, feeling her stir from next to him and looking between Ranma and the king. "And Wendy, for all that her mother gave her a better grounding than Typhon did me, was too young to make use of a lot of the magic. And Grandeeney, whatever happened to her, didn't leave any clues behind."

Wendy sniffled a little at being reminded of her missing mother, but Ranma put an arm around her, holding her close, and her sad mood faded quickly.

"I see… Well, I'm sorry I couldn't help you more than I have in having these books prepared for you. Unless there's something else you need help with?" Vicotronious had a bit of a follow on gift (part gift and part payment, really) for Ranma, or rather Wendy, but he still wished to help the young Ranger as much as he could with his personal quests. The youth had served Ishgar so well since coming onto the scene that anything Vicotronious could do for him, he would.

"Yeah, actually, I've got something you could help me with." Ranma held up a hand, and, in a flash of Requip magic, he was holding a large, golden key. "I've been trying to figure out what this is, but none of the mages I've talked to in Bellum or Minstrel had any idea, and I didn't run into any mages in Desierto."

Vicotronious looked at it closely, frowning as she saw the sign on it. "Is that a zodiac? Hmm… That rings a bell, but I can't imagine where. I'll ask around. There are a few mages in residence in the palace; maybe one of them will know." He smiled. "Indeed, one of them is young Ikaruga, who you no doubt remember from the Orc War."

"Ah, yeah," Ranma muttered, looking down at Wendy and wondering if he wanted to introduce her to the nearly exhibitionistic sword mage.

"Heh, she's mellowed somewhat since getting married, but not much, so I can see your concerns there. Still, she's not the only one. A Rock and Earth mage is here too: a prodigy with it, I understand. The Earth Shakers has been trying to recruit him since he showed up, but despite having been born in one of their monastery training centers, he has a wish to go to Fiore. Since he has reached the end of what they can teach him about earth manipulation, he rather has a point."

Vicotronious turned to a servant who had followed him into the library. A terse order, and five minutes later the mage in question was being ushered into the library. Ranma stood as he approached, as did Wendy, her eyes sparkling as she stared up at him. "Wow!"

The reason for this was the man's size: he was at least as tall as Gildarts, possibly an inch taller, with equally wide shoulders, and the bald head and robes of the Earth Shakers. But while the clothing was the same, Ranma couldn't see a guild mark on the back of his neck as he turned to thank the servant, so knew that he hadn't officially joined them. From what he remembered, the Earth Shakers all had their marks at the point where their neck met their shoulders. He looked to be six or seven years older than Ranma, if he had to guess, with a serious but friendly face and deep brown eyes.

Before the king could introduce the newcomer, Wendy had raced forward and then begun to actually scramble up the mage's body as he looked down at her, torn between amused and bemused. Ranma, however, held back a chuckle as Wendy perched on the newcomer's head, looking around in awe. "Such a high place."

"Um… How is she actually perching up there without me feeling any weight?" the man asked, rolling his eyes up to try and look up at the top of his own head.

"Anything Goes Aerial Style. It teaches you how to redirect your weight in a way that makes it feel as if you weigh nothing at all. Nice job there, Wendy," Ranma said holding up a thumbs-up to the little girl. "But in the future you should probably ask permission before climbing people like that. Buildings are fine, trees and mountains better, but people need to tell you it's okay before you can perch on them. And don't do it to complete strangers either. Now come on, get down from there."

Wendy nodded, blushing a little now as she realized what she had done to a complete stranger, overcome by her love of high places. She hopped over to Ranma, now sitting on his shoulders and hiding her face in his hair. "Sorry, sir," she whispered, sounding extremely embarrassed.

"No harm done, little miss," the man replied, then looked over at Vicotronious.

The king smiled faintly, shaking his head. "Ranma Oceana and Wendy Marvel, be known to Jura Neekis. Jura, these two are wandering mages of a very ancient and strange style. Ranma you might have heard of from Guild Master Ordras. He was instrumental in beating off the Orc incursion several years back."

"I have indeed. It is an honor to meet one of the mages who helped save Pergrande. I wish I was part of the decisive battles, but I was serving under Ungolo's command at the time." Jura replied, grasping Ranma's hand after naming the king's brother, who had been in charge of the middlemost Tine. His grip was strong, but his eyebrows rose as Ranma gave as good as he got. "Still, I doubt that the king asked me to stop in just to introduce us."

"Nope. I wanted to see if you knew about what this could be?" Ranma asked, letting go of the mage's hand and holding out the golden key.

Jura took one look and nodded. "Yes, I do. That is a Celestial Spirit key. It contains a link to a specific Celestial Spirit, which Celestial Spirit mages can use to create contracts with them. That branch of magic is somewhat exclusive, and its practitioners have never been very numerous. I believe that the only known mage who practices it is Miss Fiore, a model at the moment. I don't know of any mage in Pergrande who uses Celestial Spirit magic, that is certain."

"So I'd have to be a Celestial Spirit mage to do anything to it? The spirit within asked me to send him to a family called the Heartfilias, but didn't give me any information on why, other than a promise to keep. Given how it fell into my hands, I was sort of leery about sending it, too, without getting more information." Despite Capricorn proving to be very different after the spirit of Zoldeo left him, after the fight Ranma hadn't been willing to take him at his word. And then he had sort of, kind of…forgotten about it during their travels after leaving Minstrel's capital.

"I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you. I suppose an advanced enchanter could come up with a way to create a ritual in order to contact the spirit, but that is all I could tell you."

"Damn. Guess I'll have to go with my first plan then: send it to Laxus, and hopefully one of the other Fairy Tail mages will be able to either use the key or, like you said, get an idea of why Capricorn wanted to go there."

"I can arrange for a special mage-locked box if you want to send it to Fiore from here for you. But before you leave, come back here. I have another gift for the two of you, or rather, Wendy." Wendy looked inquisitive, and the king smiled. "I sent to Fiore for a magical armorer specialist. I realize here in Pergrande we don't make much use of magic armor, there being so few actual mages, but Fiore is different, as you might or might not have known."

Ranma indicated that he did know that, and would indeed return the next day for the king's gift. They did, and Wendy was outfitted with her new, improved armor. The magical armorer worked the suit of chain mail that Wendy had already been given, working several enchantments into the steel. Unlike with Song Silk, however, these enchantments would run on the wearer's magical power rather than be self-contained, much like the various pieces of camping gear the two Dragon Slayers had acquired from Seven.

The final product could do several things on Wendy's command, and others it would do automatically, though both types, of course, would drain her magical reserves. It could harden into plate mail on command or under impacts. It could give her powers of flight and speed, much like her Song Silk dress, and could enhance her strength to boot. It was an extremely expensive build on top of the original metal, which had been of the highest quality, but Vicotronious cheerfully footed the bill.

The armorer took two days to finish the armor, and the next day Ranma and Wendy once more left Appledore. With Wendy once more on his back, Ranma zoomed down the river back to Bell Lake. Once there it took him nearly an entire day to find the markers he had used ashore to mark where he had found the outskirts of the city. With Wendy now snoozing on his back, he returned to shore and set up camp nearby.

From there the two of them moved out onto the lake once more, early the next day. Ranma was once more in his female form, just in case, and Wendy was on his shoulders. "Ready, Wendy?"

"Ready, Oni-chan!" Wendy reported, even saluting as she stared down past Ranma's shoulders to the water of the lake.

Blue magical energies grew from around Ranma's hands, and she reached out, grasping the water around them and beginning to pull it up as she started to sink into the water. Once she was trading water with her legs rather than standing on the water, Wendy went to work too, gathering air around them. The result of their actions was a large globe around Ranma's head and the upper half of Wendy's body, her legs sticking out below it and out behind Ranma's back.

"Okay, Wendy. I'll do the steering, you do the power, right?" Ranma said, swimming so they were aimed down at a diagonal through the water and moving further down.

"Right, and I should be able to also use my Sky Dragon Slayer powers to create new air for our bubble," Wendy said brightly. They had tested this before and found she could do it, but that it took a lot out of her to use Sky Magic when she wasn't actually in the air. She could do it about fourteen times before she would have to rest, but that and the added speed she could add to their search even in water were a major help.

"Cool! Now, let's get searching!" Ranma replied.

"Right! Tenryu no Owofuro (Sky Dragon's Spinning Tail)!" Wendy shouted, and the two of them shot down deeper into the water.

Wendy's power allowed them to descend far faster than Ranma had been able to on her own, and they stayed down for nearly half a day before they retired, both Wendy and the magical flashlight they had been using showing signs of tiring. They found lots and lots of buildings, numerous statues, and other things which pointed to this indeed being at least a city, if not the capital, of the ancient nation where dragons and humans had lived together. With that first day's exploring having gone so well, they both eagerly went back the next day and the day after that, fascinated by the search.

The second day they ran into a bit of a problem. As they swam right over the floor of the lake by a large, battered building of some kind, there was a stir under the rubble. Ranma saw it out of the corner of her eyes and turned in time to see a massive crab, as big as she was tall, pushing its way out of the sand and scuttling toward them. The thing was spiny and had huge claws, with tiny, beady eyestalks.

It clacked its claws angrily at the intruders, but Ranma quickly changed direction, shifting around the thing and sticking her hand out to grab a spine, using it to flip around and up onto the thing's back. The thing kept going, trying to scrape her off as it scuttled through the ruins. Ranma tried to free a hand to strike at the thing, but it was moving around too wildly, and under the water Ranma couldn't balance nearly as well as she would have been able to in the air or on the ground. Of course, to Wendy this was all good fun, and she was giggling and laughing as she hung onto Ranma as she hung onto the crab.

Eventually the crab tired, after which a hammer blow swiftly shattered its back carapace and destroyed its brain. Or at least Ranma thought it did; she wasn't certain crabs had brains, really. Looking at Wendy, Ranma was unsurprised to see her staring at the crab in awe. "Let's take a break early, okay, Wendy? I think a crab roast sounds delicious."

But as their searching continued over the next few days, Ranma ran into a problem he cursed himself for not having realized earlier: that it had been so long a time since this city had been made. There were no books that hadn't turned to sludge from the water. There were no statues that, while still retaining their shape, had not been worn smooth. There were no plaques, no lacrima, no signs, nothing. There were jewels and gold pieces, but they too had been worn smooth. Ranma took them, putting them into his Requip space, but they weren't why the two Dragon Slayers were down here.

But that goal, to find something on the history of Dragon Slayers that could help them in their training or to give them an idea as to where Grandeeney had gone, seemed to have hit a dead end. It was a near crushing insight, given the fact they'd been at it for weeks, but Ranma persevered.

The reason for this was because the two of them had found the center of the city, and it was marked by several dragon statues scattered around a main parkland area of some kind. If there was anything to be discovered, Ranma felt, it would be here.

The two Dragon Slayers went over it for several days, and it was Wendy who finally spotted something. "Oni-chan, that one statue over there, the small one, way down there, its mouth looks weird."

Ranma turned their course in the indicated direction until they hovered right in front of the dragon statue in question. Like all the others, its surface had been scoured smooth, but there was indeed something odd about its mouth. "Wendy, is it just me, or does it look like a chipmunk that bit off more than it could chew?"

"Hehehe, yep!" Wendy said, nodding her head and rubbing her neck against the top of Ranma's hair.

"Hmm… Did any of the other statues have that kind of look?" Wendy shrugged at that, and the two of them went around making sure before coming back to the 'chipmunk dragon,' as Wendy had immediately dubbed it.

The two of them moved around it for a time, looking for anything else odd, but finding nothing. At that, Ranma tapped the statue with a finger. "Well, here goes nothing, Wendy. Hide your face behind my head, just in case." Ranma waited until she felt Wendy duck behind her entirely, then pulsed her ki out into the rock in a manner she had learned when fighting a certain piggy. "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

With that touch the stone of the statue shattered, spreading in every direction, the sound of the explosion a loud rumble through the water. Ranma caught the bits that launched in their direction easily, tossing them aside, then lashed out to catch the metal box which had been hidden within the dragon's mouth. It was matte black, about as wide and long as Ranma's forearm. As she touched it, a single word suddenly blazed out on its side in gold before fading back into matte black. "Belserion? Now I wonder what that is, and what this is, too."

 **OOOOOOO**

"Oy, Laxus, ya got a package, retard! Does your girlfriend know you've got a secret admirer?" cackled Mirajane, to the delight of the rest of the guild as she hefted a package over her head. The devilish girl hurled it upward onto the second floor where only S-class mages could go.

"I don't have a secret admirer or a girlfriend anymore, you little…" Growling, Laxus caught the package that Mira had hurled up with surprising accuracy, given that he shouldn't have been visible from the first floor, and turned away as Mira continued to cackle. The tale of how he and Evergreen had broken up had spread throughout the guild, of course, and, even now, Mira and a few of the older men continued to make fun of him.

He opened it, then blinked as a small magical bird popped out of it. "This is for Laxus Dreyar, Laxus Dreyar. Please state what you called Ranma Oceana when you first met him by the count of three or the box will close again, three… two…"

Grinning, Laxus blurted the answer out and smirked as the bird and the runes around the device disappeared. Inside was a small wooden box tied shut with a ribbon and with a note attached to it. Opening the note, he read:

"Yo, Sparky, long time no see. I've been trying to get to Fiore for a few years, but other things keep coming up (smashing slavers, pirates, giant ass demons, that kind of thing). The latest issue saw me involved in a fight down in Minstrel against an asshole from some Dark Guild he called Grimoire Heart."

Laxus scowled at that. _Lucky prick. They're supposed to be one of the strongest Dark Guilds out there. Maybe they'd give me half a challenge, not like the pussies the Mage Council lets us take on._

"Anyway, long story short, it looked as if the actual evil mage was some kind of spirit who had…taken over a spirit. Yeah, weird, I know, but apparently true. The second spirit in question is a Celestial Spirit who apparently was called Capricorn. He might have been used against his will, and his last words to me were that he wanted to be sent to the Heartfilia family. That's all he said before disappearing. I tried activating the key thing later, but nothing happened. It took me a while to even find out what it was, let alone how to do anything with it. But I figured since you're part of a guild, you might know a Celestial Spirit mage who could get more out of him. If not, then use your own best judgement as to whether to send it to the Heartfilias. Apparently they are a big time important family of merchants or something in Fiore."

"I'm not your damn errand boy, Ranma," Laxus growled, but without real heat.

His words, however, drew his grandfather's attention from where he had been balancing on the guardrail looking down at the rest of the guild. He hopped closer, looking curiously at the box on the table in front of Laxus.

"But don't think I'm asking you to do this for free. I've sent you some pictures from a certain prank you and I pulled on Gildarts in Appledore. Let's just say the results were everything we could ever want. Hopefully I'll be seeing you in person in a year or so; was thinking of swinging down to check out Midi, then up to Caelum and ending in Fiore. We'll see how it goes. Hope you still have that electric personality of yours, Ranma."

After reading that, Laxus quickly opened the box, pulling out the golden key first. Nearby, Makarov recognized it and quickly reached out a hand, grabbing Laxus'. "Who the hells sent you a golden Celestial Key, Laxus?"

"An old friend of mine that I met during my time in Pergrande. He took it after a battle against a Dark Guild mage," Laxus replied, then looked at his grandfather quizzically. "Why, what's so special about it?"

"Heh, if you're not a Celestial Spirit mage or a collector, nothing. If you are, those bad boys are worth millions of jewels," Makarov replied dryly. "Still, you certainly can't use it. Are you going to sell it?"

"…No, I don't think so. My friend says the spirit inside it or whatever wants to be sent to the Heartfilia family. They are the heads of a merchant guild, right?" Laxus asked.

"Indeed, and very rich besides. Still, let's find out what the spirit has to say for himself…" So saying, Makarov hopped from the balcony onto the table in front of Laxus. Plucking the key out of his grandson's hand, he set it down in the middle of the table and quickly went to work creating a series of runic glyphs around it.

Watching this, Laxus' eyebrows rose. "I didn't know you knew runes, Old Man."

"Bah! When you get to be my age, it's easier to list what magic you don't know than what you do. The nature of Caster magic might keep me from using a lot of what I know, but runes are holder type magic, at least for something like this." So saying, Makarov cut his palm lightly and let some of his blood touch a few glyphs.

There was a flash of yellow that caused a few of the mages down below to wonder what was going on up on the S-class level, and then a tall being who looked like a cross between a goat and a man stood there, looking somewhat bewildered behind his sunglasses. "My word, that was very strange indeed, and rather unpleasant, like being squeezed through a tube, almost. I have never been summoned in such a manner before. I take it that was some kind of ritual?"

"Indeed, Celestial spirit, it was. My name is Makarov. Your key has come into my grandson's possession as a part of sending you to see the Heartfilia family. However, because they are a fairly important family and because you were apparently taken after a battle with a Dark Guild, I feel I need to make certain of your intentions."

"Of course, that is perfectly understandable. My name is Capricorn, as you no doubt know. What you do not know is that I was once one of many Celestial spirits to have contracts with the Lady Layla Heartfilia. When she retired I was given to a servant named Zoldeo, who had a modicum of Celestial mage power. But he turned to evil and used a forbidden magic on me…"

From there, Capricorn explained how his body had been taken over, and how he had been used for several years to do perform evil deeds under Zoldeo's control. He ended his tale by describing how he had been freed by Ranma and Wendy after they defeated him, along with Zoldeo's own mad attempt at taking the Dragon Slayer over.

At that point he was interrupted. "Wait, Ranma's got a kid traveling with him!?" When Capricorn nodded, Laxus began howling in laughter, throwing his arms wide and shouting, "Know my pain and feel my suffering!"

Below them Erza scowled and looked up from where she had been about to engage Mirajane in another fight. "Why do I think Shishou just insulted me?"

Mira would have replied to that, but decided to let it go for once, looking up at the second floor too. "I seriously wonder what's going on up there…" Then she spotted Natsu sneaking up the stairs. "Now that's not a bad idea." Swiftly moving around Erza, she followed the Dragon Slayer up the stairs, both of them crawling up them slowly and silently. The Take Over mage took a moment to thank Lisanna for having taken Happy with her today before they both stuck their heads out onto the second floor and watched the three people there, sweat dropping at the sight of Laxus cackling in laughter at something.

"It's a goaack!" That was as far as Natsu got before Erza clamped a hand over his mouth as her arm clamped around his throat in a choke hold.

"Quiet, or they'll see us!" the redhead whispered.

"Wh, where did you come from? And should you be up here at all, Ms. Goody-two-shoes?" Mira muttered.

"I have to admit to some curiosity myself. Besides, unlike you two, **I'm** a shoo-in to be nominated for the next S-class trials, so this isn't breaking the rules so much as bending them," Erza replied primly.

Mira would have taken offense at that, but Makarov had begun to speak again. Natsu wouldn't have let that stop him from doing the same, but he was too busy trying to breathe, his hand tapping Erza's in an effort to get her to let go.

"Yes, well, ignoring my crazy grandson, you're saying you were supposed to be given to Layla's daughter Lucy, should she show she was a Celestial Spirit mage?" When Capricorn nodded, Makarov went on. "That can be arranged, certainly. Thank you for your time, Capricorn, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

As the goat man disappeared, Makarov turned back to his grandson. "Now, don't you think it's about time you told me about this friend of yours you made during that business in Pergrande?"

Laxus glared at his grandfather, but decided there was no reason not to tell him about Ranma beyond his old anger at his grandfather for expelling his father from the guild. "Ranma and I met during the orc incursion in Pergrande. He was an eleven year old punk ass at the time, but still damned deadly. If it wasn't for him, we might well have been pushed out of the Tine the mages and I were fighting for, with a lot of losses of life. The two of us held the line against the orcs until more mages arrived, then spearheaded the assault to retake the Wall Fortress. We wouldn't have been able to if not for Gildarts arriving."

He paused, his eyes far away. "If you've never been in a war, you don't know how it changes you, how the bonds formed in the heat of battle can become deeper, faster. We started as rivals and then became friends, and we learned a lot from one another. I later used some of the same training ideas we talked about on Erza, and I have to say it worked very well."

Makarov looked at him thoughtfully. He could tell there was more that Laxus wasn't saying, but really, that was enough for now. "Hmm. We'll leave it at that, though I can tell there's more you want to say."

"Well, yeah, but we have a few eavesdroppers, Old Man," Laxus replied with a drawl in his tone, pointing at the trio by the stairs.

Turning, Makarov scowled as Mira and Natsu made a break for it. "You little brats!" With that roar he gave chase, but Natsu doubled back, ducking underneath several tables on the second floor while Mira raced down the steps, forcing Makarov to choose who to chase after.

Erza, on the other hand, stood still. "I apologize, Shishou, Master Makarov. I let my curiosity get the better of me. Please hit me."

"None of that. You sort of had a right to hear that much, at least. It was the others I didn't want hearing it," Laxus said, shaking his head. "In fact, you might say that Ranma is another connection between the two of us. He was the friend who I mentioned to you once after you joined the guild." Erza's eyes widened at that and widened further as Laxus went on. "The next time I heard of him he was doing much the same thing: it was Ranma who smashed the slavers in Bosco."

As that began to percolate through Erza's mind, Natsu hopped onto the table in front of Laxus and dove towards the balcony in an effort to escape Makarov. This upended the box Capricorn's key had come in, sending the other small pieces of paper in it into the air, floating around haphazardly. One of them nearly blinded Natsu, and he was caught the next instant and hurled down to slam like a fleshy meteor into the floor below them. Groaning, he looked up at Gildarts, who had just come in, having actually used the door for once. "Yo, Natsu. Getting a little ahead of yourself, are we?"

"Guh, I'd have gotten away with it if not for this… What is… PFFFHHAHhhahahah!" Natsu had pulled the paper away from his face only to find it was a picture: a picture of a bald and badly tanned Gildarts. "AHAHHAHAHA! A bald Gildarts!"

"Wh, what!" Gildarts snapped, grabbing the picture out of Natsu's hands, tossing him to the side.

Up top, Laxus had grabbed a few more of the pictures and had begun to laugh too. "AHAHAHA! Oh, so that's what he meant, hah! I didn't know they took pictures!"

Hearing this, Gildarts turned, lashing out with Crash magic to bring the entire second floor down. The three people still up there fell with it, but landed on their feet. "You promised to never tell anyone about that incident!"

"I did, but Ranma never promised anything of the sort! Don't blame me for the pictures, Old Man! Besides, I think you look a damn sight better in them than you do in real life," Laxus retorted. "I think those pictures are masterpieces!"

Nearby, Makarov and the others all started to look at the pictures then from the pictures to the enraged Gildarts, trying desperately not to pour more oil on the fire.

But it was, alas, too late for that. "Oh ho, it sounds like Gildarts is going to have to choke a bitch." Gildarts stated cracking his knuckles as his magical aura rose up all around him, pushing or crushing everything nearby.

Laxus stood, facing him, his body suddenly crackling with lightning. "You'll never take me alive, Old Man!"

"I don't want you alive brat!" Gildarts shouted then two of the three monsters of Fairy Tail charged one another.

Makarov (monster three) stared for a moment, terror overcoming his ability to respond. Not terror for what would happen to him, no, but the terror of what it would cost to repair the damage these two powerhouses would cause. "My guild, the city, nooooo!"

Just having entered the guild with Carla and Happy, Lisanna nodded brusquely and turned right around, followed immediately by Carla. "Right, I think it's best we try to stay away from that."

"Hmmmf. Thugs and mindless hooligans, the lot of them," Carla said grumpily. Though younger than Happy by a year or so, her speech was better than Happy's, though not by a wide margin. She spoke haughtily and seemed to have somehow developed a ladylike personality that was at odds with the guild as a whole, and with Laxus too.

"Well, look at it this way, Carla," Lisanna said, reaching down to pick Carla up and set her on a shoulder. Behind them Happy had begun to cheer on Natsu in the fight as he began to attack anyone nearby. "At least this way it looks like Laxus won't be using you to troll for girls today."

Shuddering, Carla nodded at that.

 **OOOOOOO**

Deciding to get it over with, Makarov left the next day to take the key to the Heartfilia estate personally. That this got him out of helping the rest of the guild repair the damage the fight yesterday had caused was just a bonus. The guildhall had been nearly leveled, and Laxus had been put in the hospital, along with Natsu who had tried to join in. Gildarts, looking much the worse for wear, would be leading the repairs, with the newly returned Gray and Cana helping him as much as they could. Though younger than most of the other Guild members, the two of them hadn't been part of the fight and were stronger magically then any of the others who had tried to escape the fight rather than join in. Mira and Erza, who would normally have been there in their place, had been almost as bad in how much destruction they caused as Gildarts and Laxus had.

Makarov spent a few hours blissfully sleeping the day away on the train before hopping off at the nearest place to the Heartfilia estate. The estate was huge, beyond massive, sprawling across the same amount of space as Magnolia itself. At the far end he saw a mansion, about five stories tall with multiple wings and massive doors, larger than the doors that lead into the Fairy Tail guildhall.

He was met at the front door by a butler, who visibly sneered at the diminutive Guild Master. "Yeas, cahn I help you?" His tone and affected accent made it clear the man was thinking more about helping him off the estate and into the nearest dumpster.

Smiling, Makarov scratched at the back of his neck. He loved moments like this, when little tin pot dictators realized they had just bitten off way more than they could chew. The movement of his hand pulled out the necklace he always wore, which had a flat, silver-like disc on it, marked with a symbol on it that nearly every man and woman in Ishgar would recognize. "Yes, actually. I'm here to see a Ms. Lucy Heartfilia. Could you tell her that **Wizard Saint** Makarov is here to see her, please?"

The man seemed to shrink in on himself under Makarov's even stare, and he disappeared with a speed that had Makarov thinking of young Jet. An instant later, however, the door burst open and a young woman appeared there. She looked to be about Levy or Lisanna's age, but her puberty had come early and bountifully. The young, blond-haired girl wore a dress that was very in keeping with the rest of the mansion, but had simple flat shoes on her feet. She also had a face made to smile, but a few signs along her eyes that told Makarov she had cried herself to sleep a few times.

"Are you really Master Makarov of Fairy Tail!? I've heard so much about you and your guild! Is it true that Laxus Dreyar became an S-class at the young age of seventeen?! And that you held off the great beast of Bushaiin Village?"

"Haha! It is indeed, young lady. Do I have the honor of talking to Lucy Heartfilia?" Makarov asked, smiling and holding out his hand. That incident had occurred a few years after he had taken the Guild Master position, but it still made headlines these days, since it was only after that that he had been considered worthy of becoming a Wizard Saint.

"Oh, um," Lucy began, then looked around and seemed to realize that her race to reach the door had outstripped any of the mansion's servants. She grinned then, holding out her hand and shaking the old man's hand eagerly. "Yep, that's me! I, um, I'm really a fan of Fairy Tail," she finished somewhat lamely.

"Ah, does that mean you are a mage as well, Lucy?"

"Er, well, I don't know. I've always been fascinated by magic, though, and especially Celestial Spirit magic. And I remember that my mom was one, but…" For a moment there was look of loss on Lucy's face that Makarov had become all too familiar with ever since he'd started to bring young children into the guild. Then a flash of anger crossed her face as she looked into the house. "I've asked my father about that, but he never answers me. He's even forbidden me from looking at my mom's stuff. And fired several of the older servants when he heard they were telling me about her magic and stuff."

There was a sense here, Makarov thought, of a young girl slowly starting to build up more anger towards an overbearing parent than fear of him. That wasn't good. A responsible, respectable adult would probably try to make peace between the two of them. Makarov, on the other hand, also got the sense that the overbearing parent wouldn't take kindly to any such attempt, and his sympathy laid entirely with the girl, who might grow some great boob…that is, with the distraught young girl.

Coughing as he shook off the image of what Lucy would look like in a few years,Makarov slowly pulled out Capricorn's key. "Well, then we can kill two birds with one stone, Lucy. You see, this key is…"

That was as far as he got before Lucy grabbed the key out of his hand, gushing over it. "Oh, wow! A Celestial Spirit key, a real one, and it looks like is one of the Zodiacs: Capricorn. Wow, these are really rare, and their spirits are so darn cool! I remember my mom telling me stories about them when I was younger. Those were always my favorites."

Laughing, Makarov gestured at the key. "In your readings about Celestial Spirit magic, have you ever read about how to activate keys?"

Nodding, Lucy began to breathe in deeply, then her eyes and hands began to channel power into the key. It was a slow process, but it was obvious Lucy had begun training herself in how to channel her magic before this. Given that Celestial Spirit mages could not use other Caster and very few Holder magics, that was remarkable perseverance, Makarov thought.

Just as the glow of Lucy's magic began to push into the key, Makarov heard a shout from inside the mansion. Through the still open doors he saw a middle-aged man with a rather unfortunate mustache racing down the steps, his face a red mask of fury. From behind him was the same butler who had answered the door. "You! You there! Get away from her! No daughter of mine will…"

But the man, obviously Lucy's father, was too late. An instant after Lucy had begun to turn at his shout, her magic flared through the key and Capricorn appeared there, looking far more solid than during the ritual Makarov had used to summon him the other day.

Capricorn looked down at Lucy and quickly went to one knee in front of her, bowing grandly. "Lady Lucy, you look just like your mother did when she first became my contractor."

"You, you knew my mom?" Lucy asked, her face showing a longing that made Makarov want to either hug her or beat her father into a bloody pulp for not telling the little girl more about her mother.

"I did indeed. In fact, I promised to watch over you for her once she began to fall ill. It will be my honor to see that promise through and make you a fantastic Celestial Spirit mage, if that is your desire," Capricorn replied, a smile on his face as he bowed his head, one arm crossed over his chest, his other hand down on the ground.

"Never! I forbid it!" the man of the house bellowed, marching towards them. "Lucy is not going to follow her mother into that mage madness!"

He moved to grab Lucy's shoulder, but Capricorn went from kneeling in front of her to holding the man's hand lightly but firmly. "The duty of a Celestial Spirit is to protect the contracting mage. Even from her own family if need be. I do remember you as well, sir, interacting with Lady Layla. But I do not remember you being so petty-minded."

The man seemed to stare at Capricorn for a moment before pulling his arm out and turning with a loud 'hmmpf.' "If the girl wants to waste her free time on learning magic, she may, but it better not cut into her etiquette and other lessons."

"Of course," Capricorn nodded, turning back to Lucy. "That will be fine, will it not, milady?"

"Erm, fine, I suppose. But before we start learning about magic, tell me about any adventures you had with my mom," Lucy ordered. "I remember her telling me about some of them, but not many. And I think hearing about those adventures will serve to train me and let me get closer to my mom too."

"I think we have an agreement, milady. But we should also look around for other keys. I remember that Lady Layla could call upon many other spirits, but her favorite was Miss Aquarius. If she retained any key after becoming sick, it would be Miss Aquarius."

Nodding, Lucy turned back to Makarov, who had simply been watching events play out. "Thank you for this, sir. Bringing Capricorn here, I mean. You don't have any idea what this means to me!"

"Oh, I think I do," Makarov replied with a chuckle, reaching up to pet Lucy's shoulder. "Just remember, my girl, that if you do ever want to follow the path of a mage, that my guild, Fairy Tail, will always welcome you. Whatever your circumstances might be."

Lucy blinked at that, wondering how the elderly man had figured out she had sometimes thought about running away. But Makarov had already turned and walked off down the trail leading to the front gate before she could ask. She watched him go, then turned to Capricorn. "So, where do you want to start?"

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma and Wendy stayed on the shore of Bell Lake for a few days, trying to open the box, but that had been a complete and utter failure. Brute force, magic, even just attempting to find a seam hadn't worked. But in trying to open the box, they discovered that the box was magical, extremely magical. After all, if it hadn't been, a full power punch from Ranma should have at least dented it, rather than plow it several feet into the ground.

With that the two Dragon Slayers headed to Bellum to ask other mages for advice on what it could be. One of the mages, who dressed much the same as the mages Ranma had met years ago at the logging camp, helped them look through the guild library, a marked change from when Ranma had been looking for information on dragons. Then the mages had either laughed at him or ignored him, but the box was something solid and real they could see and touch, so they were more willing to help Ranma's search for knowledge.

"What you have there is an ancient example of a memory box. There's actually nothing in it; the box itself holds the message," the mage said after pulling out several books and looking through them. "They fell out of favor because of the amount of time and magic needed to create them and the fact that the individual they were destined for needed to know how to open it." The mage, one Isaac by name, shook his head ruefully. "And, given the sheer number of things that could be used as a key, that was a major problem."

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, while Wendy had sat down at a nearby table and pulled out her latest coloring book. It was quite a bit more advanced than the first few Ranma had bought for her and told a real story rather than just being a series of coloring pictures. Ranma had actually bought it a few stores down from the guild they were currently visiting on Mrs. Macey's recommendation.

"Ah, you see, I mean, it could seriously be anything: a type of light, a tune, a sound, a specific heat level even. The only way to override the lock would be to have some blood from the individual who had last used it," Isaac replied. "Worse, there's no way to tell what the key could be."

"Ouch," Ranma muttered, laying a hand on Wendy's head. "Still, thanks anyway."

"Are you sure I can't buy it off you? Even if we can't see the message, studying the memory box could be fascinating," Isaac said. "I think the guild would be willing to pay quite a bit of money for that."

"Heh, I don't think so, no. Wendy I will try to open it on our own time. Thanks for your help." With that Ranma stood up and hefted Wendy onto his shoulders, book, crayons, and all. When Wendy made to object, Ranma smirked. "This way you can use my head as a table, Wendy."

"Oh!" Wendy replied, nodding and setting her book on Ranma's head. She didn't look up for a while, and by the time she did they were deep into the ironwood woods which dominated Bellum. She looked around, staring up at the tall ironwood trees and watching as the sunlight from on high filtered down through their leaves. "Pretty…" Wendy then frowned, staring all around them. "Where are we going, Oni-chan?"

"We're heading into the deep woods, Wendy. I want to help you create few more attack spells, and those tend to be destructive. There are several meditation type things I want to try out too." In particular Ranma wanted to try and train his mage sight and ki sensing abilities, along with a few of the more esoteric martial arts skills he had seen back in in his previous dimension. _Until I can find out more about Dragon Slayer magic, I think I've reached a plateau of what I can succeed with on my own. But I can still become better at the martial arts, at least._

"I'd also like to just get away from everyone for a while," Ranma finished. Ranma was not really a natural city person: he could deal with cities so long as he could take breaks, but having been stuck in Bellum for so long over the winter had irritated him. "Besides, this way we can just eventually follow the shoreline through Bellum, then move across the sea from there to Midi. I've never been there before."

'Hhmmm… Okay, but that's only so long as we can spend time in the trees," Wendy said.

"Ha! I can go one better than that, Wendy. In those books of yours, have you ever seen pictures of tree houses?"

The squeal that nearly deafened him was her only reply, and Ranma laughed, hopping up into the treetops and away even faster than before.

With summer all around them, the forest was alive with birdsong and light, an amazing contrast to what it had been like when they had arrived in Bellum before. And with no real destination in mind other than simply getting away from other people for a while, the two Dragon Slayers wove through the woods with no set course, simply exploring. This deep into the forest all the trees were ironwood, making human habitation nearly impossible. Indeed, the two of them might have been the first humans to see some of the sights they saw: hidden waterfalls, massive clumps of ironwood trees taller than any castle, and strange, deer like animals which could hop like kangaroos through the underbrush, to name just a few. The sight of those particular animals had had Wendy nearly squealing again, wondering if they could be tamed.

Eventually, three days into their travel, Ranma found a perfect place for them to stop and set up a permanent camp. A ironwood tree had split for some reason in the distant past, its main trunk becoming two thick trunks splitting off at an angle, halfway up its height, but the tree was healthy despite that. Nearby a small rocky stream meandered down the side of a hill, its source under another ironwood tree's roots. There was a tiny glade between the stream and the tree that was Ranma's choice. And from nearby both Dragon Slayers could smell and hear animals moving around, animals that had not learned to fear man, perhaps, or simply didn't know to fear the smell of the two Dragon Slayers.

"So, what do you think, Wendy?" Ranma asked, stopping as he leaped down from one tree to stand and stare up at the split ironwood tree.

"Pretty… This is an amazing place, Oni-chan!" Wendy gushed.

"Yep, which means we'll have to be careful to add to it instead of wrecking it." With that, Ranma set Wendy down and led the way away from the spot he had chosen by several leagues. Nearby he found several ironwood trees competing for space around where one of their fellows had apparently fallen, creating a break in the forest's canopy. Deciding on two of them, Ranma pointed at one of them. "Okay, Wendy: training time. Let's see you use your Roar on these trees. I want each large branch cut off as close to the trunk as possible, then the trunk cut as near to the base as we can get it."

Nodding, Wendy moved around the tree, thinking about where to start the job. Ranma watched, and then, when Wendy pointed at one of the larger upper branches, nodded. "But step back a ways, Wendy, so the branches can't fall on you."

Once more nodding, Wendy did so, moving well away from the branches. "Soryu no Hoko!" she shouted, sending out a roar. But Wendy had misjudged the angle of her roar slightly, and the spinning whirling mass of air smashed through the branch she had been aiming at and the trunk behind it. the trunk withstood it, only a quarter of its bulk being ripped away.

"Good power there Wendy, but we need to work more on your aim. Don't worry though, that's easy to fix. Here, let me," Ranma said, moving forward and pulling away the now dead wood and setting it to one side. "Requip: paint." A second later Ranma held a small tin of paint. "Tell me where you think you should aim." He hopped onto Wendy's tree and began to paint markers here and there under Wendy's direction.

Once done, he smiled, sent the paint back to his Requip space, and then moved over to rub Wendy's head. "Here's your goal, Wendy: I want you to try your best to hit those marks. There are fifteen of them. If you can hit twelve dead on, I'll let you have one of the cookies I bought back in Bellum." Wendy's eyes lit up, and he quickly held up a hand. "Only one, though. Those cookies are huge, but we don't have many of them, and there's no chance of us finding chocolate out here, so they'll have to last us for a while."

"Hai!" Wendy barked, turning back to the tree, her little face scrunched into a look of intense concentration. "Sorry, Mr. Tree, but it's for a good cause! Soryu no HOKO!"

 _Heh, it's all about motivation: rule number six._ So thinking, Ranma turned and moved over to the first few large branches that Wendy had already cut. Around one hand water appeared, and he began to cut the smaller branches off the larger ones, setting them aside in a small pile. Once that was done, Ranma placed his hands down onto the larger branch and started to concentrate on his Water Dragon Slayer powers.

Wendy paused in her own work, gulping in air and delighting in the hint of pine in it here, deep in the woods. She always liked to taste new air like this. Before she could start up again, she paused, watching Ranma work. "What are you doing, Oni-chan?"

"Power isn't everything, Wendy. You need to train control just as much, if not more. This is a way for me to train my control. As to what I'm actually doing, what does it look like?" Ranma asked, his eyes closed. Around his hands magical circles of deep blue had appeared, showing that Ranma was using his Dragon Slayer magic.

At first Wendy didn't see anything more than that, but trotting over she saw something that looked like a shimmer of some kind of mist or steam coming out of the wood. As she watched, the steam began to turn into actual water seeping out of the tree. "Oooh... You're pulling the sap out! That's amazing. But…" Wendy paused, then smacked one fist into the palm of the other. "Oh, green wood wouldn't be very good for building things, right? I didn't think ironwood trees needed to be, um…"

"Seasoned is the word you're looking for, Wendy. Good job. And yeah, they do. That's why the Tree Huggers Guild has so many members." The two Dragon Slayers exchanged a giggle at the Bellum guild's name before Ranma went on. "They use a lot of different types of magic to take the water out like this." Finishing his job, Ranma gestured, and the water from the now seasoned wood was flung to one side. He then wiped a hand over his brow. "It's tough work, though, using my magic like this. Now, don't you have a cookie you're trying to win?"

Nodding, Wendy turned back to her own job.

For the next few days the two of them worked on creating enough material for the treehouse that Ranma envisioned. It wasn't actually a house, though, more a series of platforms, three of them. One of them, the tallest, was set up for the tent, which poked out of the canopy of the forest just enough to let the two Dragon Slayers gaze up at the stars. The second platform, set below that one, was set up for meals. The third and lowest was also the largest, build around and between both large trunks of the split tree for training purposes.

It had taken the two Dragon Slayers more time to prepare the material than for Ranma to actually create the treehouse, even with Wendy following him around and asking questions about what he was doing and how. Eventually Ranma actually had her start helping him by smacking in the makeshift nails, and also began to train her in finer control of her Sky Dragon Slayer powers, so that she could conjure up ultra-thin claws of wind that could slice through her target. The effort nearly put her on the ground the first few times, but as she got used to controlling her power to that degree, it became easier.

"Well, Wendy, I think we did good work, don't you?" Ranma asked, only to blink as he noticed that once more Wendy had rushed up to climb to the highest point of their new house, gazing in awe all around her. "So, does that mean you don't want s'mores?" he yelled up at her.

"What are s'mores?" Wendy called back.

"A treat we're going to have for a job well done. Trust me, you'll like them."

At that Wendy hopped her way down the tree, nearly falling twice, but catching herself both times. While her hand eye coordination had increased significantly over the years since they had met, Wendy still had issues sometimes with her footwork.

She discovered that Ranma had set up a small fire pit at the base of the tree. Once they had the fire ablaze, Wendy sat nearby wondering what these s'mores were. She watched as he roasted marshmallows, then stuffed a few pieces of their precious chocolate along with the marshmallows between two graham crackers, her eyes widening all the while. A single bite of the delicious treat was enough for Wendy to declare them the best treat ever.

This idyllic celebration was interrupted, however, by a roar from one side of the small clearing. Out from the trees around them stalked several large, dinosaur-like creatures. To Ranma's eyes they looked like a cross between a short T-rex and a lion. They had manes like lions and the general look of a T-rex, with a large head and short forelimbs, along with a long, thick tail. They were also running like a T-rex would, at least according to the few books on dinosaurs Ranma had ever seen. The roar, though, was more like that of a lion.

Staring at the things, Ranma groaned and hopped to his feet, lamenting the interruption. But Wendy's response was much more violent. "Grrr!" she snarled, standing up quickly and lashing out with a Sky Dragon's Claw at the nearest beast. While large, this attack was unfocused, and so hit more like a condensed blast of wind rather than a cutting force. It hurled the beast backwards with a cat-like squawk of dismay. "No interrupting snack time!"

"Huh, I wonder if one can osmose the Saotome stomach," Ranma mused to himself, before launching himself forward, crashing into the next few monsters. Since the beasts were no real threat and they didn't need to add any meat to their stores, he didn't kill them, merely knocking one of them out. Wendy was only a little better, growling and launching long range attacks at them every time one of them tried to get around Ranma, and eventually the pack of beasts gave it up as a bad job and raced away, leaving two of their fellows unconscious on the floor of the forest.

Staring down at the beasts, Ranma quickly pulled out Gildart's book and began to leaf through it. A second later he felt Wendy climb up his back, staring over his shoulder. To his surprise, however, the beast wasn't shown in the book. "Huh. That's cool, Wendy; we just discovered a whole new species. Maybe." Staring down at the beast once more, Ranma said thoughtfully, "I wonder if they're tamable?"

Wendy giggled at that, but then hopped off, racing back to their fire. "Well, if you're going to try and do that, it means more s'mores for me."

"Gah! Heck, no!" Ranma retorted, kicking the beasts out and over the forest like they were two overlarge footballs rather than dangerous predators, before turning and catching up with Wendy, hefting her into the air and tickling her furiously to her shrieks of laughter.

The two of them stayed there for a time, starting up a new daily regimen. They would wake up in the morning to explore the forest via the treetops, since that helped Wendy continue to train her coordination. Then they would return, and Ranma would continue to train Wendy more in the Aerial Style of Anything Goes. At this point that had shifted to how to maintain her balance in midair, along with some specific katas. After that Wendy would have some free time where she could do anything she wanted, so long as she remained within sight of Ranma. Mostly she used this time to play with her square puzzle pieces, creating amazing shapes with the small foam things, or reading, while Ranma trained himself nearby.

In the evenings Ranma would lead Wendy in her first meditation practices to get in touch with her magic power more, growing her reserves slowly. While she did that, Ranma tried first to work on his very limited mage sight. He hadn't been able to make it any better since first coming up with the skill and had never found any books on the subject in any of the nations he had been in. He bet that Fiore would have some, but he was in no rush to once more retrace their steps through the nations between here and there overland.

He also began to train himself in ki sense, the ability to sense the ki of people around him. Cologne had used this technique extensively, as had Happosai, though his had seemed more haphazard, while Cologne's was like a radar system that was almost always on. Ranma wanted that, and if he could enlarge his ki reserves at the same time, so much the better.

These two skills were, along with his personal preferences, the main reason Ranma had wanted to get away from civilization for a while, figuring that they would be easier to train without a lot of 'background noise.' And while the first eluded him entirely, Ranma made a lot of progress on the second.

Several days after they had finished work on the treehouse, Ranma was meditating alone one morning, allowing Wendy to sleep in since she had worked herself to exhaustion the day before mastering her Sky Dragon's Claw attack to a better degree. He was trying to use the image of a flame to concentrate his mind, feeding all his errant thoughts into it.

One moment that was all he felt, then, the next, his consciousness expanded. It was as if he felt the flow of life all around him: the feel of the trees, the presence of various animals all around them, some birds which Wendy had begun to feed hopping around the tree above him, with squirrels and other little critters a little further away. His senses then found Wendy, a far brighter, more powerful spark, coming towards him. He idly noticed that she had left the treehouse at some point and wandered off, and he wondered what she had been distracted by this time. _Kids: what can you do?_

At that thought he came out of his meditation, a dull throbbing beginning behind his eyes. It was only then that he realized he was mentally exhausted from that short meditation exercise. Like magic, using ki in that manner called for more mental strength and flexibility than simple physical power. _Flexibility, I got; mental strength, well, that I'll have to build up, just like any other muscle. It's going to take a while before I can use that to pinpoint actual people, let alone have it on all the time like Cologne did. Eesh, that old woman was way more terrifying than I ever thought if she was able to keep that up for so long and still concentrate on the physical world around her. It could take me decades to get to that point!_

Shaking off that thought, Ranma turned in the direction he had sensed Wendy was coming towards him from. Staring down into the forest, he saw Wendy coming towards him, followed by what looked like a bear cub. She stopped as he watched, turning to give the little bear a scratch behind the ears with one hand, while holding out something for the little cub to eat in the other.

Behind them, Ranma could see a large mama bear following their trail slowly but surely.

Hopping towards the girl, he was not surprised that Wendy saw him coming and stopped, waving brightly up at him. "Oni-chan look what followed me home! Can I keep him?"

 **OOOOOOO**

Standing once more on the balcony of the second floor of the guild hall, Makarov gestured with one hand towards Erza Scarlet, who was standing to one side of him staring down at the crowd of their guild mates. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail's newest S-class mage, and the youngest to ever receive that title in all of Ishgar!"

He looked over at his grandson slyly as he said that last, wishing to needle the brat. Even after the beat down Gildarts had given him, Laxus still had a little too big a head for Makarov. For her part Erza looked apologetic at having beaten her Shishou's, or rather, former Shishou's record. On the other hand she was eating up Mira's look of jealousy and the congratulations of her friends, even if Natsu was interspersing his praises with loud shouts for her to fight him. It all sort of evened out in his mind.

Yet, much to Makarov's chagrin, Laxus didn't look to care. Laxus and Carla had gone on a week-long job recently to stop a herd of giant animals from overrunning a small town near the center of Fiore, so he hadn't taken part in the trials. This had left it to Gildarts, who had put the redhead through the wringer.

Laxus simply smirked at his grandfather, shaking his head. "Whatever, Old Man. You know I was S-class ranked at least three years before you let me actually take the trials. That would've made Erza my equal in terms of age." Ignoring Makarov's scoff, Laxus turned to Erza, who had just stepped away from the balcony so as to not be drawn into a shouting match with Mira down below. "Since you're S-class now, we should go on an S-class quest together to celebrate."

"I think it's a good idea. S-class jobs are very different from the normal jobs you've been **allowed** to go on before this," Makarov said, emphasizing the word 'allowed' and looking back at Laxus with a glare, remembering how Laxus had stolen the request for mages to head to Bosco to help the new queen several years ago.

Erza nodded, smiling slightly. She and Laxus hadn't had much time to even talk, let alone go on a mission together, for quite some time. It would be nice to catch up. _And maybe grill him on this whole dating thing._ While she had no interest in Laxus, having slotted him neatly into the older mentor, bad influence role years back, she found the idea of maybe dating in the future interesting, and he and Evergreen had been one of very few couples in the guild. The others were all older, and Erza would not give Evergreen the opportunity to lord anything over her by asking her for advice.

"Hmm, let's to it, then," Laxus said, standing up and moving to the S-class job board at the far end of the S-class area. "You can choose if you want, Erza, but make sure it's something with enough combat to go around, no bounty hunts or investigation missions."

Following Laxus, both Erza and Makarov read through the requests on the board, none of them noticing that once more Mira and the others of Erza's age group had come up the stairs to spy on them. Eventually Erza chose a job to hunt down the Dark Guild Flame Bearers, a guild of various fire magic users who had turned from taking jobs to pure arson. They were considered dangerous, and had at least four S-class mages among their number, though Makarov scoffed at the idea that the smaller, less known guild's S-class mages would be of equal skill to Fairy Tail's. The last known location of the guild was only a few hours away by train, too.

The two of them decided to leave that very day, since it would probably take them a while to discover the trail of the guild after they reached the town where the Flame Bearer's guild hall had been located before they had been declared a Dark Guild. "Why the fuck does the Magic Council just announce that declaration before they can actually move against the guild in question?" Laxus groused. "This is the second Dark Guild mission I've seen come around, and both could have been avoided if the Council realized they had to at least be in a position to arrest the assholes after giving out their fucking mandates."

"Laxus, you shouldn't curse so much," Erza interjected, "or talk about the Magic Council like that. While this decision on their part might not have been wise, they are still worthy of respect."

"Feh. You take a few jobs straight from them and then see if you still believe that. I've dealt with the governments of Seven, Bosco, Pergrande, and Caelum, and the most useless of them all is the Magic Council," Laxus retorted, shaking his spiky head as the two of them entered Magnolia's train station. "It's as if setting up a separate administration just for mages sucked all the common sense out of those on the council."

Rolling her eyes, Erza refrained from starting an argument on this point. Laxus didn't really have any respect for anyone who, in his opinion, had gained their position via age or appointment rather than sheer power. If you weren't strong, physically, mentally, or magically, Laxus didn't have any time for you. It was an attitude that grated on some of the guild sometimes, but since he didn't denigrate the others in the guild as he did the Magic Council, it didn't cause many problems.

Instead of engaging Laxus in a pointless discussion on politics and the need for a bureaucracy (after all, someone had to do the paperwork, and it certainly wasn't going to be Erza or anyone in Fairy Tail), she turned her thoughts to something else: the number of questions she wanted to ask Laxus about his friend, Ranma. The two of them had had literally no time in the past few weeks to talk, what with Erza training up for the S-class exam and Laxus being away on his own missions before that. But time had not made her questions about the young man turned boy who had tried to free her early into her life as a slave go away. If anything, the knowledge that he and the mage who had dismantled the slave trade in Bosco were one and the same had made her even more interested.

She looked up, however, as the nature of Laxus' muttering changed. "Oy, what the hell are you brats doing here, huh?"

Looking in the same direction as her current partner, she saw the loathsome form of Mirajane standing in front of a worried looking Gray and an eager Natsu, the little flying cat Happy sitting on his head as always. Now two years old, the little ball of blue fur was becoming quite the snarky little so-and-so, but he helped Lisanna keep Natsu from causing too much damage in his daily challenges towards Laxus, Gildarts, Mira, or Erza. _Oddly enough, he doesn't challenge Mirajane as often._

"What's it look like?" Mira asked mock-innocently. Dressed as she normally dressed, Mira was incapable of doing anything truly innocently. "We're going with you. You might need our help to get rid of this Dark Guild, what with having to lug around Erza's fat ass."

"What did you say!?" Erza growled, stalking forward.

Before she could get to her rival, though, Laxus spoke, his head in his hands. "God damn it, when did I become the guild babysitter?"

"Hey, I resent that!" Mira shouted, then leaned forward, bringing attention to her chest, which at fifteen had really begun to blossom. This was shown off easily in her normal goth tomboy clothing, though thankfully Lisanna had been getting her more interested in more girly clothing lately. "Unlike flatty Erza, I'm no child anymore. Want me to prove it, Laxus?"

Erza's eyes nearly went as red as her hair at that taunt. "Damn it, you're not the only one who's grown breasts over the years, Mira! Unlike you I don't have to thrust them into everyone's faces just to make myself feel better!"

"Gah, who cares about that girly crap!" Natsu bellowed, stepping around the two girls and pointing at Laxus. "You're taking on an entire guild of flame users; no way could I pass up the chance at that kind of feast." He paused, looking sheepish before going on. "Er, I mean, no way could I pass up the chance to show that my Fire Dragon Slayer magic is the best Fire type magic around!"

"Hah, yeah right! That's why I'm around," Gray stated, moving around Mira from the other direction. "I want to prove that no Fire magic can do any better against my Ice mage magic than flamebrain's can."

Natsu turned, but before he could shout at Gray he felt the unfortunately all too familiar feeling of someone grabbing the back of his head and pulling him into the air. "If you idiots want to join Erza and me, you're going to have to earn it. If you three can work together and put either me or Erza down for the count of three, I'll take you along. If not, I…"

That was as far as Laxus got before Mira interrupted him, attacking Erza quickly with a Devil Spark. "Why didn't you say so!"

The fight that followed this was short and very nasty. Natsu and Gray against Laxus simply couldn't land a single hit, the older mage making a fool of them and continually making them hit one another. The two eventually fell to infighting, after which Laxus simply shocked them into unconsciousness. Mira fought Erza for quite a bit longer, but again Erza overcame her with her greater endurance and ability to dodge more of her opponent's attacks than Mira could. Mira simply couldn't quite overcome the difference in training, it was as simple as that, hence her always trying to get Laxus or Gildarts to help her train in order to catch up to the girl she saw as her rival.

Standing on top of the pile of groaning bodies, Laxus looked around and sighed as he saw the damage the fight had done to the interior of the train station. The fact that said interior opened out to the exterior in numerous places was just icing on the cake. _Magnolians might be used to stuff like this with Fairy Tail having been here so long, but even so there's a limit to what we can get away with._

"While I don't hold with most of Erza's hall monitor attitude, you really do make us all look bad when you start fights in public places like this." Ignoring Erza's whine of, 'not you too, Shi-er, Laxus?' Laxus opened up a pouch and pulled out a pen and paper. Writing down a few quick lines, he turned and handed it to a nearby station operator. "Here. These are their names and the bank where they all have accounts. If they aren't willing to help repair the damage they caused, they can at least pay for it."

Below him Mira made a noise of disagreement, but Laxus simply shifted his weight slightly, causing the girl to wheeze and fall silent. With that taken care of, Laxus turned to Erza, sweatdropping as always at the sheer amount of luggage she carried around. "Well, let's get out of here before Gramps finds out about this and decides we're as much to blame as these three."

Several minutes after the train carrying Erza and Laxus left, Lisanna showed up, sighing in exasperation as she walked into the badly mangled train station, nodding politely at the people around the three still out of it mages. She talked to a few of the workers there and gave the numbers of a few of the accounts the Strauss siblings used, along with the one account of Natsu's she knew about. She asked only that they take a third of the money needed for repairs from them, and the final third from Gray's once they got it out of her.

She threw her sister over one of her shoulders, then grabbed Natsu's shirt, beginning to drag him away. Despite being noticeably younger looking than her sister and being of a slimmer build, Lisanna was quite a bit stronger than she looked. "See, this is why we can't have nice things, Nee-chan, Natsu-kun."

"Aye," Happy said from on top of Lisanna's head. It had been her little pseudo-son who had come and gotten her.

Lisanna had barely taken a few steps outside the train station before Mira pushed off her shoulder, walking next to the youngest Strauss without speaking. Lisanna looked at her, sighed, and continued to drag Natsu along silently, knowing Mira was in no mood to talk after her latest defeat at Erza's hands.

In reality, Mira wasn't as angry at her latest defeat as Lisanna thought. Mira knew she was coming closer and closer to beating Erza every time they fought. Erza was unpredictable, adaptable, and had both training, experience, and endurance, but all of those could be said for Mira too. It was the gap in the last two which Mira was slowly closing: experience through fights like this one and from missions, and endurance through training her magic. _I'm close to unlocking a new Take Over form, I can feel it. The next time the S-class exams come along, I'll be ready for them, and then I'm going to wipe that smug smirk off Erza's face at last._

Hearing her sister start to cackle, Lisanna moved away from the oldest Strauss quickly, looking at her warily.

Back in the train station, Gray lay where he had been left, semi-naked and shivering, though for no reason that had to deal with the actual weather. "So, so cold…"

 **OOOOOOO**

After Ranma had begun to get a handle on his new ki sensing ability, he decided it was time for the two of them to leave their idyllic little forest home. As he had said when they left Bellum the city, he did this by leading the pair of them southwest. He intended to follow the coast of Bellum into Desierto, then along it until they could then make a straight line with a compass across the ocean to Midi. From there they could again go across the ocean to Buckler, a large island that was part of Minstrel, then to Caelum, and finally to Fiore. Traveling via water like that would be good endurance training both magically and physically for both Dragon Slayers, and this would let Ranma see segments of Desierto he had not seen yet and Midi as well.

This would also allow Ranma to meet and talk to as many new mages as possible in the hopes of finding some way to access the memory box. Ranma felt that there had to be a way to at least narrow down the type of medium needed to unlock it, whatever the Tree Huggers' librarian had said.

They had traveled through the forest for some time, and after about five days of travel the forest had begun to fade away. The forest shifted to rocky scrubland, while in the distance the Dragon Slayers started to hear the sound of the ocean. Moving in that direction, they discovered another reason why this area of the continent had no human habitation: the scrubland here that marked the end of the ironwood forest also marked the beginning of a large cliff face that ran straight down into the ocean. There was no let up as far as Wendy could see, hopping high into the air with a spyglass Ranma had bought in Pergrande.

"Really, wow. Well, that's one minor mystery solved. Still, let's see if it continues that way when we start into Desierto. After all, with my powers, it's not like having the water down there is going to be that big a deal," Ranma said, then felt Wendy's familiar presence on top of his head. "And that means you get to walk until lunchtime, Wendy."

Pouting, Wendy hopped off, running along beside Ranma for a time until her endurance began to flag. When that happened Ranma would switch to walking for a time, letting her regain some energy before running again. This happened several times as the land around the two Dragon Slayers changed, becoming rockier, and rockier. The last trees faded away completely, and even most of the bushes changed to some other type.

This type had a dark red flower that looked almost like a violet would, and Wendy was immediately entranced by them. She moved towards one of them, reaching for one of the flowers, but Ranma caught her hand in his own, far larger one. "Easy, Wendy. Look closer at what's around the flower."

Wendy did so and gasped, seeing several large thorns here and there. They seemed to glisten with something, but she couldn't tell what.

As Wendy backed away, Ranma pulled out Gildarts' book, and, unlike the time a few months back, it did have a picture of the bush. "'Bleeding Bushes. Perhaps the most aptly named thing in the world, these bushes have something on their thorns which stops your blood from hardening, whatever the word is. Their flowers are parts of really expensive potions once crushed and dried, but definitely not worth the scars to get them. The Rattaka, the unholy combination of a bee and an ant, like them too, and those buggers, pun intended, are poisonous.'"

"Mou, but they're so pretty," Wendy said, then sighed and nodded, moving further back.

"Pretty things often have thorns, Wendy. Trust me, that's true for anything," Ranma said dryly, before barking a laugh as the joke went over Wendy's head.

Travel from then on slowed down as Wendy hopped through the air above the bushes and Ranma wove his way through them. They went on for miles, not in a solid mass, thankfully, but not spread out enough for Ranma to make good progress either, despite his speed. The problem was that the thorns were only rarely visible among the leaves of the bushes, and they were nasty even to Ranma's healing ability. The first cut he got from one didn't close until Ranma actually concentrated, mentally redirecting his ki into the area.

Ranma paused at one point, getting down on one knee and looking at the ground underneath the bushes. Scowling, he then stood up, not even looking up as Wendy settled down on his head. "What did you see, Oni-chan?"

"Bugs. Small bugs, but able to both burrow and fly. And that book said they were poisonous. We're going to have to keep going through this mess and a bit away, Wendy. The bugs might not be attacking us as long as we're moving, but I don't want to chance setting up camp anywhere near them."

Wendy looked a little worried by that, but nodded. She kept on flying as much as possible through the day, coming to rest permanently on Ranma's back that evening, while Ranma pulled out some food for them to eat on the go. He kept traveling at this steady pace, which was much slower than he would have been able to do otherwise, for several days, before they broke out of the deadly shrubbery.

Or at least seemed to. It was nighttime when they broke out into a wide area cleared of the Bleeding Bushes, but almost immediately Ranma noticed that the break wasn't natural. The area was too regular, and the opened area seemed to lead into a small gully which would have been a natural place for such bushes, restarting a ways away on the other side of it and all around. Frowning, Ranma reached up to where Wendy's head was slumped against his shoulder, waking her up with a gentle touch to her forehead. Wendy snorted but kept quiet as Ranma held his finger against her lips.

Both Dragon Slayers strained to hear and could make out voices coming from in the gully. Moving forward to the edge of the gully they saw it slopped gently downwards, and went on for a ways longer than Ranma had thought by at least another league. "People?" Wendy mouthed into Ranma's ear. She well knew by now when to be quiet.

"Yeah, but I can't think of a single reason for someone to be out here like this, hidden among the Bleeding Bushes. We might have stumbled upon something bad…again," Ranma muttered.

Nodding, Wendy kept her mouth shut and eyes open as Ranma moved forward. As they did, Ranma stiffened, having noticed something that Wendy, thanks to her youth, had not: that the voices in the distance were speaking in cadence, like a song, or a ritual.

Moving forward even faster, yet still quietly, Ranma kept to the shadows of the gully, idly noting that there were several dozen fruit bearing plants down here, all of which must have been brought in at some point, since they weren't native to the area. Whoever was hiding here had been here for a long time.

Soon, through the small copse of trees, Ranma could make out the light of a bonfire and dozens of shadows. Once more making certain that Wendy knew to be quiet with a finger to her lips, Ranma moved forward until he was close enough to see what was going on.

Ranma took it all in at a glance. There were possibly around a hundred people, mostly men but with some women, organized into a series of quarter circles facing what looked like an altar of some kind and another man in a reddish robe. The people in black were chanting some kind of mantra, while the man in red read off or recited something in a slow cadence. Set on the altar was a strange looking crystal shaped like dozens of odd animal skulls, only a few of which Ranma recognized from his time in Desierto, in the light of the bonfire, set on the far side of the altar.

Through the pathway set between the quarter circles, four more black robed men led several dozen chained prisoners. These were not slaves: they didn't have that worn down, broken look, and their clothing was, generally speaking, of decent quality, despite the numerous tears that adorned them. But they were all chained heavily, their feet chained together and their arms chained in front of them to go with the gags around their mouths.

 _I might not understand all I'm seeing, but I can tell enough. Human sacrifice is a no-no, people. Time to show you why._ Backing away slightly, Ranma turned his head to whisper into Wendy's ear, knowing that he would need her help if he was going to both stop the ritual and save those prisoners. "Wendy, these people are bad news. Those prisoners, they are going to try and kill them; not certain why. I'm going to start the fight from over there," he said, indicating a point about twenty feet away from their current hiding position. "Once I get stuck in with the crowd, you head out and attack any of them between you and the prisoners. Get them out and back into the woods, okay?"

"Hai, Oni-chan!" Wendy stuttered, looking afraid, but determined. Ranma wasn't worried. Once the battle was joined, Wendy's Dragon Slayer nature would pull out enough adrenaline to get through her hesitance. She had proven herself time and again to be a lot tougher than her age would suggest, reminding Ranma strongly of himself when he met Ukyo, though Ranma knew he had lost his happy go lucky attitude soon after that meeting.

Moving away through the woods, Ranma quickly did just as he said he would, firing out a full powered "Soryu no Hoko!" into the mass of demon worshipers, cannibals, or what have you. The blast of tsunami like water slammed into fully half of the worshipers knocking most of those out of the fight, dead or broken.

"Requip: guns! Guns Magic: rapid fire!" Ranma shouted as he raced out into the opening, moving away from where Wendy was still hiding, grabbing all the survivor's attention, one after another. His precise shooting took out first the high priest, or whatever he was, the scroll he'd been holding, now visible as Ranma had shifted position, and the four guards, before Ranma started to truly lay into the survivors.

All of those he shot went down permanently, with gaping holes in their chests. Ranma was not going to try and take prisoners of anyone who would practice human sacrifice.

Now, however those survivors got over their shock and regrouped. Many of them pulled out staffs, swords, or guns themselves and began to fire back. Ranma quickly sent his pistols back into Requip space and raced forward, getting in close. Fists and feet lashing out, he was in among them, hopping around, over and through them as his hits laid them out two or three at a time.

As this was going on, Wendy raced forward, heading for the prisoners. Sensibly enough, they had ducked down and were watching their rescue with wide eyes. About five of the cultists, however, had enough presence of mind to move in their direction, weapons raised intent on taking them captive.

Wendy hit them like the tiniest meteor in existence. "Vernier! Tenryu no Kyusoku Juden (Sky Dragon's Rapid Charge)!" With Sky Dragon Magic flaring out around her, she slammed into three of them, sending them rocketing backwards. Using what Ranma had taught her, she used that momentum to shift around and kick out at the fourth, while the fifth found himself being hit by the ironwood staff Ranma had bought her, the end of it coming down right between his eyes.

She landed gracefully in front of the prisoner who had been at the end of the line, gesturing quickly over her shoulder into the copse of trees that formed the rest of the gully. "Come on. I can't break those chains; you'll have to run with them for now until Oni-chan finishes with the rest of these people."

Four more cultists realized what was going on at that point. One tried to simply shout it out, but the moment the words, "the prisoners," escaped his mouth, he found it full of Ranma's fist, shattering his teeth and jaw, hurling him backwards in a bloody ruin. The others tried to attack the prisoners, but Wendy protected them, smashing them aside.

With the prisoners out of the way and Wendy hiding with them, Ranma cut loose even more than had had been, lashing out with wide area Water Dragon Slayer attacks, ending the fight quickly. Only about two minutes after the prisoners had been taken out into the woods, the last cultist fell to a spinning heel kick that shattered his skull and the brain beneath.

Staring around the ruined, blasted, very water logged area, Ranma nodded in grim satisfaction before turning to the altar. "Now to destroy that freaky little statue thing."

"You weak willed fools!" shouted a voice, loud almost to the point of pain for Ranma and Wendy, coming out of thin air, or so Ranma thought. It was only a second later that he realized it was coming instead from the statue.

Between one second and the next the statue glowed, a sickly, yellow mustard glow. The same sickly sort of glow appeared around the bodies of the cultists all around them: the bodies, Ranma realized sickly, that might have just acted in the same manner as the prisoners' sacrifice would have. After all, what mattered were the souls or whatever being offered up, not where they had come from.

The glows from the bodies rose into the sky and streaks of smoke pulled towards the statue. Wendy and Ranma both tried to disrupt the steams, attacking them with magic, but it was like the mustard glow wasn't real, with no substance for them to attack. "Wendy, get those prisoners out of here!" Ranma roared, sending an attack the statue's way now.

The statue's glow flared, and then there was a massive arm shooting out from it, blocking Ranma's magic from impacting. "OW! You dirty human, I'm going to enjoy flaying your flesh from your bones!"

As Wendy obeyed, feeling fear for the first time in a very long time since meeting Ranma, Ranma tried another attack. It blew off chunks from the arm as the mustard glows from the bodies merged into the statue. Within seconds the statue was glowing almost as brightly as the bonfire Ranma's attacks had put out at the start of the battle.

An instant later the statue was gone, and in its place stood a demon. It was shorter than the others Ranma had dealt with, only two stories tall, but it had the same near-birdlike legs, the same long arms. It had skin that looked like an amalgamation of several hundred different animals: fur, scales, chitin, and skin. It didn't have any claws, its hands looking almost human-like, save for built up portions on the knuckles, and it had several forward curving spikes on its forearms, heavy, far larger spikes coming from its shoulders, and two curved fangs sticking out of its lip, going down. Its eyes were like that of a fly: wide and multi-faceted. From its head sprouted dozens of antennae.

"Damn, you're ugly," Ranma mused, staring up at the demon like a lumberjack staring at a recalcitrant tree. "A bit of a runt, though. What, your mama not feed you enough when ya were a little scrub?"

"I'll grow on the souls of my victims soon enough, boy! Starting with you!" the demon roared. "I am the Demon Plagutarno, and after I kill you and these others, your souls will let me call forth the legions of bugs and animals which will…"

At that point the self-proclaimed Plagutarno was interrupted by a massive fist of water impacting him in the gut, or rather, the area where a human would have had a gut. Ranma followed this up by using a geyser of water shot from his feet to get in the demon's face, his fist flashing out with one of his clubs held in it, slamming into the demon's bug like eye. "Weight Max," he intoned, right before the Song Silk draped club impacted. What would otherwise have been a pinprick, even backed by Ranma's strength, hit like a blow from a titan, splattering the eyeball.

"Even if you're the first demon I've met who can talk, I don't give a damn about your villain speech!" Ranma shouted, pushing down and changing his direction when the demon tried to catch him with a return punch, flailing backwards and roaring in agony at his ruined eye.

"Your soul will be a feast, boy!" Plagutarno shouted. The antennae on the demon's head twisted, and from their ends came out beams of magical energy, searing white energy in the moonlit night. Ranma dodged a few and used another torrent of water to shoot backwards out of a crossfire from several of them before launching another Water Dragon's Titan Punch at the demon's face. The demon, however, protected against that, and one of the beams caught Ranma in the legs.

Pain seared through Ranma for a moment, but his durability was up to the job of defending him from the magical blow. It hurt like a bitch, but only made Ranma's skin look like it had been scalded, searing away his pants in the same moment. The worst thing the hit did was to upset Ranma's sense of balance in midair, causing him to lose control of his magic, the torrent of water he had been using to stay in the air cutting out.

Before Ranma could recover, the demon's fist found him. It smashed into his face and head, hurling Ranma down to crash into the ground far below. "Hah, that's what you get, you stupid human! Know your fucking place: in the damn dirt with the rest of the bugs!"

However, when the dust from Ranma's impact had settled, Ranma had stood up again. The blow had hurt and cracked a few bones. Indeed, Ranma could feel it had also knocked a tooth out. But again his durability was up to stopping the demon's blow from really hurting him, and Ranma's healing ability had already kicked in. "Soryu no Setsudane Tsume (Water Dragon's Cutting Claw)!"

The crescent shaped claw of magic infused water flew through the air, cutting deeply into the demon's hastily raised arm. It was the same arm the demon had manifested to protect its cage, or whatever the statue had been. The forward facing spikes gave it some protection, taking the brunt of the cutting attack and breaking it up, getting sliced off in turn but protecting Plagutarno's actual arm. It still cut deeply in sections, but the arm remained intact.

Launching himself forward, Ranma dodged further blows from the thing's laser-like magical attacks coming from its antennae. He was forced to hop to one side, however, as Plagutarno tried to kick him, lashing out with a "Soryu no Kussaku Tsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!" at the demon's pivot leg.

Plagutarno, however, hopped up into the air from that same leg. It then roared, its antennae and mouth glowing as it fired a massive series of attacks towards Ranma. But Ranma dodged through them, disappearing under the Umi-Sen-Ken between one second and the next. One of the antenna beams slammed into his head and back, searing the clothing off Ranma's back, but once more doing no more permanent damage. It did knock him out of his cloaking technique, however, and more of the demon's attack hammered in, forcing Ranma to throw up his globe shield once more. Keeping it in place drained Ranma's reserves something fierce, but nowhere nearly as much as it would have the last time he'd run into a demon.

As the demon landed from its leap, Ranma was in its face, "Soryu no Kussaku Tsume!" This time the attack hit, ripping out half of the demon's throat. It screamed, one hand rising to its neck, the other lashing out towards where Ranma had leaped up into the air through main strength, rather than with his Water Dragon Slayer powers. Ranma pushed off the blow, moving with it and lashing out with a Water Dragon's Cutting Claw, this time from his leg. It caught the demon in the side, cutting through to its ribs, but once again being stopped by the tougher substance of the demon's bones.

But the damage had been done. With half its neck gone, Plagutarno was now falling back, trying to buy time for its slower healing power to heal the damage. Yet the demon's damage couldn't regenerate missing bits, and it was far slower than Ranma's own healing ability. Now slowing down from its wounds, Ranma was able to get into Plagutarno's blind side. A Soryu no Hoko caught it right in that side of the face, and this time Ranma put so much magical power into the attack that it shattered the demon's skull. "Noooooo…"

The demon began to fall, but it's body slowly began to disintegrate, revealing the falling statue. Another Water Dragon's Roar lashed out, catching the statue in midair and disintegrating it in a welter of stone dust.

"Oni-chan, that was so cool!" Wendy shouted, coming out from where she and the prisoners had been hiding. A few of them were staring at Ranma in awe, while two of them, both young girls, were blushing brightly, staring at Ranma rather than the destruction he had caused. While Ranma's durability had withstood the test of the battle, Ranma hadn't been wearing his Song Silk cloak, and the antenna beams, which had acted almost like lasers, had seared his clothing away when they hit.

"Heh. Thanks, Wendy," Ranma said, then frowned as he stared down at his hands for a moment as felt something shift in his magic aura. Something had been added there or had changed somehow, and for a moment Ranma had seen some kind of symbol all in black appear on his hands. _That is weird. I'm going to have to see if I can meditate later and figure out what that was._

Shaking it off, Ranma hugged Wendy back when she crashed into his legs at speed, chuckling and ruffling her hair before he moved on to the prisoners. "For now, let's get you free of those chains, then get some food in you. After that, I need a change of clothes."

After freeing the former prisoners and setting up a the grill for Wendy to make them some food, Ranma changed into new clothes, black pants and a white T-shirt, and moved well away from the area where Wendy and the others were underneath the trees. He picked up the weird book that the head asshole had been reading from and then made his way out of the gully into the rest of the desert.

Once there he pulled out his broach and, cutting his thumb, rubbed his blood into the recessed green lacrima. It glowed, and Ranma waited a moment. A second later Vicotronious' voice appeared, sounding groggy. "Ranma? What's wrong?"

"Relay me to the others. I want you and all the other kings up for this so I don't have to go over it twice," Ranma said grimly. Ranger broaches worked to allow the kings and their chosen troubleshooters to communicate over any distances, but the ranger could only contact the nearest king from his present position. Since Bellum was ruled by a merchant's council and Desierto a series of chieftains, that meant Vicotronious in this case.

A heartbeat of silence passed and then the broach glowed. In front of him Ranma now saw an image of Vicotronious' head and shoulders staring at him. The image was silent for another heartbeat, then it nodded. "We gave you that broach because we knew you'd find trouble. I suppose we need to also trust you to know when you need to talk to us all. But you better be right."

Ranma simply nodded at that and waited. Over the next five minutes Vicotronious contacted the kings of Seven, Fiore, Caelum, Iceberg, Joya, and Stella, and the queen of Bosco. Luke once more seemed to glare at Ranma along with the King of Stella, whose name Ranma couldn't bother remembering, simply thinking of him as 'the skinflint bastard.' In contrast to those two Joya's king simply looked on neutrally and the king of Iceberg just nodded.

"Well, we're all here Ranma. Care to tell us why now?" Rose asked gently, though her eyes were hard. It was near to the time she'd be getting up anyway at this point, but damn it she needed her beauty sleep. She was getting scant little sleep as it is between running the country and trying to spend time with her young baby girl.

"I just fucking killed a demon and ran over a cult of demon worshipers. The demon called itself Plagutarno and spoke about how it would spread plagues via rats and bugs, but I was able to deal with him. The thing is, the demon worshipers had this book and this statue thing which contained the demon." From there Ranma went into greater detail, describing the fight from start to finish. "So, I have to ask, is this kind of thing normal, or are we seeing more demon worshipers now, and, if so, why?"

At first the kings and queen had been disbelieving, but that hadn't lasted. Now they were angry, very angry, and worried. "This isn't the first demon Ranma's been called upon to deal with, and even if you discount that, there have been other demon sightings of late," the King of Iceberg said, drawing attention to the fact that his own capital had been attacked by one such.

"True, but Zeref worshipers have been around for hundreds of years. They are a weed: you can cut them back, but they always spring up again," The King of Fiore said. He was a middle aged man with a smiling sort of face and a well-trimmed beard. Through a lacrima sent hologram like this, that was all Ranma could tell. "The fact that they have been successful in bringing back demons, or bringing them to life from wherever they were stored, is not a good sign, but one we can either contain or simply endure."

"Say that to the slaves or prisoners they sacrifice," Ranma said harshly.

The King of Fiore flinched back, then his eyes narrowed, and he looked to be building up a head of steam, but Vicotronious cut him off. As the oldest there, Ranma supposed he was the one acting like the head of the conclave, if there was one in the first place. "Ranma is right. We need to be more proactive about hunting these groups down."

"Damn Desierto anyway!" Luke groused. "I agree we should, but there are places where we can't go. Desierto and Bellum we can influence, but what of Midi, Sin, and Enca?"

"Sin will not be a problem soon. My armies are marching into Sin as we speak. Enca will fall soon after. Pergrande has had to deal with their depredations for too long. Midi can look after itself; no Zeref cult would ever get by their censors," Vicotronious replied.

"King Abdel and I will get in touch with San Jiao Shi. We might even be able to help him step into his role of king, if he hasn't had any luck in finding notes about the various magics available to him as such," Rose said. "That will leave dealing with the merchants of Bellum and Desierto's chieftains to you, need to get the word of these cults spread as fast as possible."

"They can't be organized," protested the King of Stella, looking almost afraid at the idea. Then he went on, frowning. "But then, they don't have to be, do they? Indeed, chaos could cause more trouble than if they were. This way we have to smash them each in turn, while if they were communicating, we could roll them all up one after another. Like Ranger Oceana did with the slavers in Bosco."

"I like what I'm hearing, but I want to know more about these demon worshipers in general. I also want to know more about this Zeref bastard too." Ranma said, bringing the rulers' attention back to him.

The other kings turned to the King of Fiore, who scowled lightly, but as the king of the country which was at the front of magical research and use, he was the obvious choice to answer this question. "Zeref is a Dark Mage. He's called a cursed god of magic from almost hundreds of years ago, well before Fiore and the other countries of today's Ishgar. Where he came from, if that really is his real name, no one knows today. What is known is that he was the most powerful mage in existence, a master of nearly all magics, enchantments, and everything else. Eventually he was overcome, or died, or sealed away; again, no one is certain. Many of the rumors say he is still alive, but with his magic sealed somehow. Rumors about him outnumber what is real, so the truth is a mystery. On the other hand, if he was still alive and at full power, the world would surely know it."

The older man shook his head. "Zeref worshipers believe that by returning him to power or freeing him or bringing him back to life they can create a utopia. Beware such people, because those trying to create a utopia are able to stoop to such evils that most normal villains would shirk from."

There the man changed tack. "Zeref is known to have dabbled in a lot of magic, but most of all Life Creation magic, the creation of demons in particular. We don't know how many he created, but Fiore has several examples of his work sealed away in various hidden vaults. The more we study his work, the more we can try and contain further outbreaks." He looked through the hologram at Ranma, one eyebrow rising. "I presume you took this statue intact? I'd like to see it sent to the Mage Council of Fiore as soon as possible."

"I got no idea why you'd presume that at all. All of the cultists are dead; those that weren't after the demon summoned itself into being died during my fight with it simply because they couldn't get out of the way fast enough. As for the statue, I destroyed it the second the fight was over," Ranma said bluntly.

"WHAT!? Do you know how much we could have discovered if we were able to study that statue? The magic council could have figured out a spell to find similar items!" the Fiore king bellowed. "You had no right to destroy such a priceless artifact!"

"Your Magic Council has been saying similar things for decades now, always demanding that our mages hand over any artifacts of Zeref they find," Vicotronious interjected, his voice harsh, bringing up the other king short. "And making no friends doing it either. We all acknowledge that Fiore and Seven are the centers of magical research and that many of the most powerful mages in history have come from or been trained in Fiore. We even acknowledge that your Magic Guilds are the largest and most powerful in Ishgar. That doesn't give you the right to make policy like this for the rest of Ishgar, especially when your own polices are patently stupid."

"Indeed, I believe that Ranma did right here. In fact, Ranma, I think we should order you to seek out and destroy such items wherever they can be found," Rose said.

"No! If he does that we will never learn how they were created in the first place, and if we can't do that, how can we try to find others? Besides, some of Zeref's creations can't be destroyed safely. Remember that Stone Disc from twenty years ago? The site of the explosion is still denuded of all life, isn't it?" he asked, looking at the King of Joya, who stiffened angrily.

"If the Magic Council would at least give us updates on their progress then I could agree to that. But either they aren't, or you haven't been willing to pass them on to us. Which is it, I wonder?" said the king of Iceberg icily.

"Fine. I won't argue that this Ranger should seek out and destroy any artifact of Zeref that he can find elsewhere in Ishgar. I can even agree that the idea of destroying his worshipers is a good idea. However, we need prisoners to question at least, and if any Ranger enters Fiore we will expect him to follow the laws of Fiore," the King of Fiore said grimly. "That means no killing unless given the Order of Execution from me or the Mage Council. If you cannot follow these orders, then I do not want you in my country."

"You are free to repudiate the agreement to allow Rangers to act in your stead, of course," Rose said equably, though her eyes were hard. "And we can repudiate any and all trade with your country and impose an embargo on you in turn! From the way you're talking you sound more worried about the chaos Ranma or others might cause than the threat of Zeref."

"Indeed, if you're going to throw stones at our Ranger here or our own policies, then I suggest you get your own house in order!" the King of Seven, Meredrain, said angrily.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!" the King of Fiore roared.

"It means that for every two good mages Fiore creates, it creates one mage who joins a Dark Guild. None of us are happy with the proliferation of Dark Guilds that start off in Fiore and then leave the country. Indeed, between you and Caelum, it could be said to be your major exports at this point!"

"Bah, you're overreacting. None of the Big Three started in Fiore, and we shut down and arrest most guilds which break the rules. You're all simply jealous that most of the Wizard Saints come from Fiore!"

"And I don't want to hear any of that shit from you!" Luke roared at the King of Joya. "At least most of my guilds obey my orders! Unlike you, you tightfisted bastard!"

Listening to this, Ranma didn't know what to think and decided his presence was rather surplus to requirements. The kings all seemed to have axes to grind with one another, and he didn't need to stick around to hear it. "Right, well… I'll leave you all to it," he said, tapping his broach and ending his portion of the transmission. The kings didn't even seem to notice, so busy were they shouting at one another. "Yeesh. That's the last time I call for all of them at once. Better to deal with them one at a time."

As the images from his broach cut off, Ranma turned, hearing Wendy's voice behind him. "Why were those old people being so silly?" she asked innocently.

Ranma figured she hadn't recognized Meredrain's image, since it had been a few years since she had seen him. And seeing that she had brought some chicken skewers with her, Ranma had no interest in chastising her. "I'd have said egotistical and foolish rather than silly, but other than that, I agree with you, Wendy."

The next day Ranma and Wendy started to help the prisoners along, out and away from the area of the Bloody Bushes that had been cleared. It wasn't easy, and it slowed them down horribly, with Ranma actually needing to cut his way through rather than slide his way through the bushes. Apparently one of the dead cultists had been a mage able to control the bushes, or to make the thorns soft and turn aside, the prisoners weren't clear on which it was. Luckily, the cultists had a lot of supplies, so there was no shortage of water or food, even if Ranma ended up carrying most of it in his Requip space.

More than a week after they left the gully they finally broke out of the area dominated by the Bloody Bushes. Almost immediately they saw a barely there road marked out on the rocky desert floor by a few white stones sticking out here and there, and one of the former prisoners pointed it out saying it would take them to a village. Since this was Desierto, Ranma decided that they had to walk the prisoners to the town at the very least, which again slowed them down considerably.

Several days after that they did indeed find a small village. But, not liking the looks of the locals, all of whom dressed the same and wore long white robes, Ranma and Wendy pushed on at once. The prisoners, at least a few of them, were welcomed, but Ranma saw looks sent his and in particular Wendy's way that he didn't like. So he dropped the supplies they had confiscated from the dead cultists and moved on.

From there Ranma led the two of them further south once more to find the shoreline. They followed along the cliff, using Ranma's Water Dragon Slayer magic to pull up water from the ocean, then he separated the water from the salt, which was yet another training exercise for his self-control.

Now, with no one else slowing them down, Wendy and Ranma sped up, racing along the cliff. Eventually the cliff began to curve inland, then slowly ended, sloping down to what looked like a decent sized natural cove, complete with a decent sized town. "Huh, didn't expect that…" Ranma muttered, looking at the town. "Well, let's see what Desiertans are like here, Wendy."

"I hope they are more friendly than the others we've seen, Oni-chan. I didn't like the looks some of those people from the last village we saw gave me," Wendy replied.

"I didn't either," Ranma said. "We'll move on the instant we see any of those white robe guys; don't worry, kiddo."

Nodding, Wendy moved over from where she had been running beside Ranma, scrambling up his back to perch on Ranma's head as per usual. "Still, don't think I'll be looking for high places, though," she muttered.

"Good thinking," Ranma replied with a laugh.

The moment they entered the town, however, both Dragon Slayers were arrested not by any unwelcome sight of white robes, but by a smell. It was a very pleasant smell, like hot cinnamon, sugar, and other good things, not quite overwhelming, but certainly the best smell the two of them had ever run into so far. The two of them turned as one, their noses leading the way as they wound through the town into a bazaar. It was packed with more than a thousand people, many of whom came from the ships Ranma could now see occasionally through breaks in the walls of the city.

"Incense, tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, a treat for your senses that can bring your minds to other realms, calm you down, energize you better than the greatest coffee!" shouted one shill into the crowd, before becoming surprised as Wendy and Ranma pushed through the crowd to his stall. "Er, yes, young master, can I help you?" he asked, trying hard not to stare at the little girl perched on the young man's head like a bird.

The two Dragon Slayers sniffed around, then as one pointed to one of his samples, a small bowl filled with a reddish powder. "What is that?" Ranma asked.

"Ahh, we call that Findicay, or Dragon's Breath in the old tongue. It's an inexpensive smoking weed. For most it's not really a refined enough smell, though it has some interesting calming effects on various animals," the man replied.

"Dragon's breath?" Ranma murmured, feeling not so light headed as at peace, as if his aches and pains had just left him. Wendy too looked much the same way. "How much do you have on hand? And how much for a pipe?"

Ranma bought several dozen pounds of the strange type of tobacco, interested in what it would do for their senses long term. The two Dragon Slayers stayed in the city for a few days, replenishing their spice supplies as well as replacing some of their broken plates, buying breads and other things, which here were very expensive, unfortunately. As they did, they talked about their response to the smell, and Ranma meditated after smoking his new pipe a few times. As Ranma had hoped, the tobacco like substance helped him concentrate, and Wendy, when she tried it, also began to meditate on her magical core successfully for the first time.

However, beyond food and Dragon's Breath, the town was rather like any other port town, and there just wasn't enough there to interest them. So a few days after that they left. Ranma hopped out onto the ocean, her magic activating as she did. Ranma had changed to his female form for this, figuring to get it over with first. "Ready, Wendy?" she asked, ignoring the looks they were getting for the whole standing on water thing.

Wendy clung to her back, grinning as she prepared herself, her magic aura appearing around her legs. "Ready, Oni-chan!"

"Then let's go!" Ranma shouted, and the two Dragon Slayers set out over the open sea.

 **OOOOOOO**

Gildarts had left for a century level quest, a quest that had not been completed successfully for a hundred years but which was still viable. Laxus had bowed out swiftly, though only at the last minute. His note of, 'sorry old man I forgot a dentist's appointment,' was so unbelievable and irritating that Makarov had decided to jump right to **IT** the next time he saw his grandson rather than give him a chance to defend himself.

But thinking about that did not change the reality of the situation Makarov found himself facing: that only one of his three current S-class mages were available to take part in the S-class exam. And of course, like clockwork, Mirajane Strauss, one of only three mages Makarov felt was capable of being an S-class, had found the path leading to Erza Scarlet.

"Heheheh. This has got to be some kind of fate, bitch. Seriously, this is the way it had to play out. You, me, fighting for me to become S-class," Mira said gleefully. She stood across from Erza in her Satan Soul Take Over mode: her arms and feet were covered in lizard-like paws up to her elbow, her hair was standing on end, and a black scar had appeared to go down from her forehead to her cheek, crossing over her eyelid. Her face had matured slightly, becoming harder and more angular. Her body too had matured slightly, becoming curvier, which was shown off by her outfit, an equally lizard-like outfit which covered her privates but left her hips and thighs bare, along with showing a bit of her cleavage.

"I wouldn't want it any other way, skank!" Erza retorted hotly. At present she was wearing one of her newest sets of armor, the Heaven's Wheel Armor, with numerous blades flying all around her.

"You might've been able to get a leg up on me over the years because Laxus was training you, but now, now I've learned too! I've learned to take my Take Over to a whole new level!" Mira shouted in reply.

"Laxus might have given me a bit of extra training, but I am as good as I am because of my own will and strength to be the best I can be. Don't blame my beating you so often on his teaching! After all, you got some training from him a time or two in the past! As for your new Take Over form, bring it on!" With that Erza raised a hand, and then gestured forward. At that gesture Erza's magic grasped the spinning swords that had been dancing around her body towards Mira. "Circle Sword!"

At the same instant Mira's body began to glow, and an instant later she shouted, "Take Over Form: Sitri!" A second later there was a bright flash, and Erza's swords were thrown back, shattered or simply shifted off target. And out of this blinding flash came Mira's new form. Gone were the green scaled hands and feet; gone was the tail. In its place were blue scales, high, lizard-like ears, wings, and an even more plunging neckline.

Erza cocked her head thoughtfully to one side, conjuring up another pair of swords to her hands as she prepared herself. "Amazing," she said dryly. "You truly have upgraded. Your sluttiness, that is!"

Mira didn't bother applying verbally, instead crossing the intervening distance faster than even Erza could keep track of for a second. A blow hammered into her face, hurling her backwards, but Erza skidded along the ground, blocking and deflecting the next few blows with her swords before another blow got through defenses, slamming into her stomach and heaving her upwards and away.

Midair, Erza Requiped new armor, a cheetah-like outfit equipped with a spear, the sight of which made Makarov go goggle-eyed for a moment, since it looked like nothing more than a furry bikini. Still in midair, she flipped over and landed, sprinting forward faster than Mira could follow as she in turn had raced forward to keep the momentum of the fight. The spear, which was only vaguely dulled, hammered into her gut, hurling Mira away. A second blow came in, hammering into Mira's head as Erza pressed on.

But Mira recovered enough to put her arms between the next few blows, striking back quickly and taking to the sky, limiting Erza's ability to use her legs as another means of attack. At this point Erza realized that, while she was keeping up with Mira now in terms of speed, her actual hitting ability was nowhere near good enough to get through this new Sitri form's natural defenses.

Between one second and the next, she Requiped into another new outfit: the Flame Empress armor that she had bought last week. She had intended to wait to use this until Natsu was able to give her an actual fight. She could tell the young boy had a lot of magical potential in him and that eventually he might be as powerful as she was or even stronger. But it had the mix of power and flight, which could allow her to fight this new form of Mira's on equal footing.

A second later Mira gasped as the next blow smashed through her defenses, hurling her into the air. Erza immediately closed once more, and the two most powerful women of Fairy Tail began to exchange blows throughout the sky. Their battle took them literally through several hundred trees, a crashing thump occurring as they slammed into a boulder, shattering it.

They disengaged for a second at that point, rolling along the ground despite their wings. A moment later Mira shouted, "Soul Extinction!"

Erza responded with her own attack, "Flame of Darkness!"

Both women instantly dodged their opponent's attack. These attacks continued, of course, slamming into the ground and doing further damage to the woods, which had long been the place where Fairy Tail's S-class exams took place.

Huge furrows about a mile long were seared or blasted into the ground, destroying trees, bushes, and one luckless rabbit in its warren. Mira's attack was thinner, but seared deeper into the ground, along with going slightly farther. But Erza's attack was far wider by about five yards.

Seeing all this finally broke the old man out of his stupor. "All right, all right, fine!" he shouted, racing forward and waving his hands frantically, tears streaming down his face. "Mira, you're an S-class now! Just stop destroying the training area, both of you!"

The two girls ignored him, still going at it hammer and tongs until he transformed into his Titan form to separate them by force. By then it was too late. The training area was utterly demolished, with several fires needing to be put out and the entire area looking more like a war zone than a forest.

"… I've got both the local mayor, the Magic Council, Wizard Saint Warrod, and numerous hunters and trappers screaming into my ear about the damage you two did to the forest! Paying for the remunerations will cripple Fairy Tail's budget for years, and that's to say nothing of what Warrod has threatened to do to me personally if Fairy Tail even looks at another one of his forests! What the hell do you two have to say for yourselves?!"

Makarov was currently pacing in front of the two thoroughly hammered girls, while Porlyusica, an irascible old woman the same age as Makarov who served as Fairy Tail's chief nurse, saw to their injuries. They were in her home deep in the same woods the two young women had almost entirely flattened, and given how close their fight had gotten to said home, Porlyusica's ministrations of the two were a little more forceful than they would normally be. Makarov's tone too was somewhat sharper than it would normally be to any of his children, but he was also crying and shaking as he paced, which took away from the effect.

Despite this, Mira was unrepentant, putting her hands behind her head as she leaned back, letting Porlyusica treat her and Erza's wounds. Erza was somewhat more repentant, looking down with her arms crossed in her lap for all the world like a chastised child.

Despite that their response to this question was almost comically alike. "She started it!" they both said, pointing at one another.

An instant later Porlyusica slammed her fists down on the top of their heads, beating Makarov to the punch by a bare second. "I hate humans, and your destruction of this forest just proved my point! So you two should just sit there quietly and let me heal you."

Growling, the Grand Master leaned back in his chair rubbing at his forehead. "So you're both to blame, fine. That just means you'll both be taking turns cleaning up the mess you made! And instead of putting this on the guild's shoulders, I'll be taking all of the remunerations out of **your** pay checks!"

"Master, you can't do that!" Mira shouted. "You know my siblings and I pay for our own apartment!"

"And I need money to buy more armor. And to replace two of them," she said, glaring over at Mira. Mira had shattered two sets of Erza's armor during their fight. In return Mira had taken a broken thigh bone, and several of her fingers had been broken as well, while Erza had come away with light bruising. Copious numbers of bruises and cuts, but the same could be said for Mira, so that evened out.

"This is my caring face," the Grand Master said, staring at them with a glare that sent a shiver down their spines. "If you two are going to act like brats, then you're going to at least pay for the damages you cause!"

With that, in a final huff, he pulled out a small rolled up scroll marked with the Fairy Tail guild mark done in wax treated in a magical formula, hurling it towards Mira, who caught it. "There, your official S-Class certificate. And I don't want to see either of you back at the Guild until the damage is repaired!"

The two girls winced as he slammed the door to the nurse's tree house home, then looked at one another before sniffing and turning away. After a moment the two were kicked out of Porlyusica's home, literally smacked out of the door with a broom and a screech in their ear about how Porlyusica hated humans.

The two of them walked through the woods and, after only a few minutes, came to the start of the area they had demolished. They stopped there, staring out over it, then rather sheepishly turned to one another. "I think they have a point. We um, we really did overdo it, didn't we?" Erza said, her tone far more hesitant than any Fairy Tail mage had ever heard.

"Yeah, I guess we did," Mira replied.

The two girls stood there in silence once more, united in embarrassment more than they ever had been by anything else. That, and a bit of pride too. After all, it wasn't every mage who could destroy hundreds of acres of forest without even trying.

As they walked through the blasted, torn area of forest, Erza sighed. "I wonder where Master Makarov will host the next S-class exams. I know he said he would be holding off on them for a while, but he never said where they would occur. Still, it's a pity they won't be held for a while. I know that Natsu and Gray were looking forward to their own shots at becoming S-Class."

"Ah, that'll just make them cuter," Mira said with a laugh. "Their crying, whining faces are so funny! It makes me want to tease them more."

"You are evil," Erza said dryly.

"Don't I know it!" Mira said with a laugh.

 **OOOOOOO**

If Ranma had to describe the nation of Midi in a single word, that word would be disappointing. The two Dragon Slayers put to shore in a large port town, the size of which was almost as large as the ones Ranma had seen in Minstrel and Seven. Yet almost immediately Ranma noticed something very odd.

For one thing, there weren't any lacrima lights on the streets. There were large braziers stuck here and there, but none of the ubiquitous lacrima lights which Ranma had seen in nearly every other large city they had been in and even in some towns, like the port in Desierto from which the two Dragon Slayers had put to sea.

For another, Ranma noticed the type of ships in the harbor. They were all of a kind here. Most of them looked like river barges, which made sense, since Ranma could see a large river passing through the town heading further inland. The others were all small galleys, ones that didn't look like they would be able to head out into the deep ocean. There were only four other ship types, and all of them, heavy-bottomed galleons that flew the Minstrel flags, sat at anchor well out from the docks for some reason.

Ranma slowly realized those ships were the only ones that were flying a foreign flag. The rest, every single ship beyond the four, flew the flag of Midi, a red stripe across a white background. _That's very weird. Is the city under lockdown or something?_

As two Dragon Slayers moved through the docks after hopping up onto the port, Ranma quickly noticed the looks they were getting, which seemed to flow out from where they had hopped up onto the wharf as word of mouth spread the news. They became worse when Ranma took a moment to change back to his male form, having been turned female after a brief squall out at sea. These were not the normal shocked, astonished, disturbed, or intrigued gazes that they would've gotten anywhere else after arriving like that or after someone saw his curse. No, these looks were antagonistic. _Now is that because we're strangers, or something else?_

As they moved to the city, Ranma noticed that the looks were not just directed at him, but at Wendy, who he had just told to practice hopping up into the air for something to do as he began to look around for an inn to stay at. She too noticed this almost immediately and stopped her practice, moving quickly to hide behind Ranma's legs, worried and now feeling both embarrassed and scared.

Resting a hand on her head, Ranma stared around at them, one eyebrow raised as he cocked his other hand into a fist. "Anyone got anything they want to say?"

Something about Ranma's stance and eyes warned off the crowd of dockworkers and sailors around them, who backed away, muttering under their breath. "Mages," Ranma heard more than once, a tone of disgust, even hatred, in the voices who said it. "Thieves," another voice said, spitting to one side and moving off quickly.

"Wendy," he said slowly, "I think we need to move on. I want to ask a few questions, figure out what's going on here, but I don't think it's a good idea to stay the night here, okay?"

Wendy nodded, almost trembling against the back of Ranma said legs. "I'd like to leave now, Oni-chan!"

Ranma turned, going to one knee and pulling Wendy up into a hug, holding her in one arm and feeling her curl up into his neck and shoulder. "Yeah, I know, but I still want to know what's going on here. If they've had problems with mages or something like that, we can do something about it. If it's more historical or something, well that we can't do anything about, and we'll move on, okay?"

He felt Wendy nod against his neck, and Ranma moved further into the town, now moving quickly enough he could hopefully leave word of mouth behind. Soon enough he found an inn, though this inn also looked like a café of some kind. The innkeeper, or a worker, anyway, was outside cleaning up some of the tables set out under an awning, and Ranma called to him as he strode up to the gate which separated the outer tables from the street. "Excuse me, but can you answer some questions for us?"

The man turned, sizing them up as strangers in an instant. But he didn't become immediately antagonistic, so that was a start. "That depends on the question, stranger. If you're asking where to register yourself for your stay in Midi, that's down the street and…"

"Register? Um, no," Ranma said, shaking his head quickly. "I'm just wondering why we're getting so many strange looks."

The man's face seemed to close down a little as he took that in. "You mages?"

"Yes. But that's never been a problem anywhere else!" Ranma said tartly.

"It is a problem here," the man said calmly, even as he stepped backwards and away from them, putting a table between them as if he thought Ranma was going to attack him. No, Ranma realized after a second. Not as if we're going to attack him, as if we're diseased. "We don't want mages here," he said simply.

"Yes, I understand that," Ranma said, grasping his evaporating self-control with both hands. "My question is, why? Have mages caused trouble here in the recent past or something? If so, I'd be more than willing to step up and bring them to justice or whatever."

"No, it's nothing like that," the man said, not relaxing the slightest. "You're a mage: that's enough. You see, mages steal from the world. You steal the Etherano from the air we breathe, the ground you stand on. You cheat further generations, further people from life with every act of magic you take."

The man smiled sadly as if he was condescending to Ranma, which among a few other things got Ranma's back up like no one's business. "It's not your fault that you were raised to be a thief. Magic is flashy; magic is simple and an easy solution to life's problems. In that manner it will always gather those of weak will. Under the Faith of the Circle here in Midi we have created a society that is not weak. We have no need of magic. We do not steal from the world around us like you, and we do not welcome those who do. We don't want to proselytize or convert by the sword, but neither do we want you around."

Ranma's teeth ground together as he clenched his jaw muscles from spitting out something that would probably get him into a lot of trouble with the locals. _Not that the idea of caving in a few of their faces isn't fun, but it wouldn't exactly set a good example for Wendy. I'm a bad enough role model in a lot of other ways for that to be added to the list._ "Are there any libraries here?" he asked instead.

"There are, but no outsider would be allowed into them. Unless you are looking to learn more about the Faith of the Circle?"

"Right," Ranma said turning around abruptly. _No information is worth putting up with this crap._ "That's enough of that. I might be tired, but I'm not so tired that I want to stay a single day in this place."

He turned away and nearly ran face first into a tall mountain of a man in a dark red suit holding a clipboard. Behind him were several other large men. All of them were armed with rifles though they looked even older than the ones Ranma had seen years ago in Pergrande. "Are you the mage which just arrived?" the man said abruptly, glaring hatefully at the two Dragon Slayers.

"Just arrived and just leaving," Ranma said, while Wendy once again burrowed her head into his neck, unwilling to see the looks of scorn and hate on the locals' faces.

"Excellent," the man said, smiling. It was a very obviously a foreign expression on his hard face. "Then you would not mind us escorting you back to your boat?"

"We didn't take a boat. I used my magic and my own damn feet to cross the ocean from Desierto," Ranma said, growling, now itching for a fight. He wouldn't actually throw the first punch, but if they did, Ranma was in the mood to educate them on how bad an idea it was to antagonize him. _I won't even use magic to do it!_

The man's face tightened at that. "In that case, let us escort you out of the city now! We do not want thieving mages here."

Rolling his eyes, Ranma nodded and stepped forward deliberately, moving into the man's personal space, holding the man's black eyes with his own blue eyes. "Well, you going to get out of the way?"

The man glared at him, but Ranma simply stared back. Eventually it was the larger man who backed away, following after Ranma. Ranma sent him a sneer, but went willingly and made no move to twit the man or his guards after that. A few minutes later Ranma and Wendy were once more out on the ocean, speeding out of port.

"I'm sorry we couldn't stay there, Wendy," Ranma said.

"I'm not, Oni-chan!" she said, shuddering which Ranma felt where she was pressing into his back. She was also using Sky Dragon Slayer magic to send them along the waves at a fast clip. She could now do so for over a few hours, whereas when Wendy had first done this activity she had only been able to do it for less than one hour. "I really didn't like that place at all. What was he saying about us being thieves? We're not thieves!"

"It's all bunch of religious, cr, um, dung, Wendy," Ranma said correcting himself quickly. He had been trying to not curse in front of Wendy for a while now and wasn't about to let running into those assholes stop him from doing so. "Don't worry about it, Wendy. I can keep going for a few days like this."

Keeping the shoreline in sight at all times, Ranma rounded the Cape of New Midi and then headed up past it, stopping in at the first port in Minstrel he spotted to buy more supplies and rest for a time. From there however he didn't head further inland but back out to sea, heading for the island of Buckler.

If Midi was a gross disappointment, Buckler proved to be more than expected, even well before they actually made landfall. Once more standing on Ranma's head, Wendy shaded her eyes with one hand, staring ahead of them for a moment. "Oni-chan, I see something out there that looks like a giant circle thing sticking out of the land. Is that more of the Circle religion from Midi?" she asked hesitantly.

"I don't think they'd go into big stuff like that, Wendy," Ranma said, hopping up into the air for a moment from where she, after another squall, had been using her magic to skate along the top of the water. At the top of her hop, she hurled Wendy higher into the sky. "Here, let's get you a better look!"

"Hehehe! Tenryu no Nobashita Tsubasa (Sky Dragon's Flaring Wings)!" Giggling, Wendy thrust out her arms, slowing her descent and almost hovering as she peered ahead of her. Then she slowly drifted back down to be caught in Ranma's arms, still laughing. As she reported what she saw, Ranma kept on going, cradling Wendy in her arms now rather than on her back. "I don't know what it is. It looks as if it's like some kind of small train or something, with a loop and weird twirls in the distance. It's huge, though!"

"That sounds like a roller coaster, Wendy," Ranma said slowly as she recognized what Wendy was describing. "And I think it's a very good excuse for you to use your healing spell on us so we don't get motion sickness. Just trust me; you'll enjoy it when we get there. In fact, if there's a roller coaster there, that probably means there's an entire amusement park here."

Ranma went on to describe what a roller coaster was, and Wendy started to nod eagerly, agreeing with the redhead that it sounded like something she would find fun. "Well then," she said, speeding up and leaving a wake behind them now. "Let's stop wasting time!"

Coming ashore, this time Ranma didn't bother changing back to his/her male body, figuring there might be a water portion of the park too. Said park had become more and more visible as they closed with the island. It seemed to dominate at least a quarter of the island, with the skyline equally dominated by the larger roller coaster and at least fifteen other rides Ranma could see from the small, well organized port where they came ashore. The roller coaster was called Magic Mountain, rather unimaginatively in Ranma's opinion, but the entire place looked simply amazing, something like what Ranma had heard of Tokyo Disney.

Wendy didn't know where to look. She darted here and there, peering over the fence that separated the outside world from the amusement park, trying eagerly to get a view of each of the rides in turn. Ranma waited in line, figuring it would be better to buy a ticket then to simply hop over the fence like she could. _Can't do that kind of thing anymore, Ranma. You have to be the responsible Oni-chan,_ she thought morosely.

However, the money she spent on their tickets cleaned Ranma out of ready cash. Worse, a sign on the door as they entered the park said that they did not accept barter here. That was not a good sign if they wanted to eat any food while in the amusement park, but Ranma realized with a start that she was already in 'his' female form anyway, so had a solution readymade for that problem. _It's been a while since I pulled that trick. In fact, I can't remember if I have used the whole flirt for food thing since arriving in this universe._

Looking down at her body, Ranma nodded. Ranma was now the same age or thereabouts that she/he had been before the mushroom incident that de-aged her right before Gosunkugi's rent-a-spell magic sent her here. _So I could certainly pull that off without needing to find a loli-creep. That works,_ she thought to herself, gesturing for Wendy to come over and take her ticket as well as the band on her wrist which signified they had paid. Then the two raced into the amusement park, having no need to buy a locker for their stay.

For the next few hours the two Dragon Slayers raced from one of ride to another, stopping a few times to let Wendy cast Troia so they could keep enjoying the rides. Other than that and the knowledge that they were building up an immunity to that spell which might cause them trouble in the future, the two Dragon Slayers had a lot of fun.

Eventually, however, their stomachs began to grumble. Wendy patted hers then looked up at her big brother, currently big sister, pleadingly. "Can we have some food, Oni-chan?"

"Sure," Ranma said then looked around for a café. Finding one, Ranma sent Wendy to get a seat for them, before heading towards the bar, putting a bit of a swish to her steps as she moved, leaning forward slightly and quickly pulling at her shirt to make it stick to her body's curves even more than usual. _Pity we didn't come straight here after we hit up the water rides, but I'll work with what I have._

As she moved toward the counter, which wasn't very busy at the moment, thankfully, Ranma slowed down, her eyes lingering on a blonde girl Ranma's age or slightly younger who had just left the counter with something that looked like a salad. She was—there was no other way to say it—gorgeous. She had a trim, athletic frame save for her chest and hips which were on display thanks to the bikini she wore. She also wore a strip of cloth tied around her waist that fell to one side of her hip and down the back of her leg a diaphanous thing of blue and pink in contrast to her suit which was a light blonde color almost matching her hair. Said hair was done up in a ponytail that trailed down to near mid-back, and two long strips of hair framed a face which could have been on any magazine, with long eyelashes and full lips, finished with a bright blue flower in her hair and eyes of a blue only slightly lighter than Ranma's.

As the two of them passed one another, Ranma found herself actually trying to make conversation with the girl for some reason, nodding at the flower in her hair. "I like the flower, though I suppose with my hair color I'd have to find another type."

The girl laughed and nodded, but moved off without saying anything. Breathing a sigh of relief at that and the fact that it had stopped her from making a fool of herself, Ranma continued to the counter. _Damn it, Ranma. Yes, she's beautiful. That's no reason to forget you're a girl too at the moment. Besides, it's not like you and Wendy are going to be staying around here for long enough to get to know her, really._

With that thought Ranma leaned down, her breasts smooshing into the counter and giving the pimple-faced boy on the other side a view straight down her shirt. "Hey," the redhead said breathily. "How're you doing, cutie?"

Because of her attention on her technique, Ranma missed the fact that the blonde had turned back as she heard Ranma begin his flirt eyes widened in surprise at the move actually working. The blonde's blue eyes then narrowed, and she scowled. _That redhead is totally letting the side down, acting like that! I'm all for getting guys to fall over themselves trying to win my affections, but there's a difference between that and scamming the park out of its money! Ugh, I'm going to have to have a talk with her. Although it is kind of hilarious that Ricky fell for it._

Following behind the redhead, the blonde wondered whether she should laugh at her or give her a piece of her mind for doing that. She watched from a nearby table as the redhead set the tray down at a table which already had a young, and very cute blue-haired girl, the table out of sight from the counter where she had gotten the food. The redhead said something to the girl then marched off to one of the large family bathrooms rather than the girls' bathroom for some reason.

Undeterred, the blonde girl followed her target into the bathroom. She paused, watching the girl pull her shirt off followed by her pants, revealing boys underwear and the fact the girl didn't believe in bras. Not, the blonde reflected, that she needed them. The girl's stomach was so taut there was an actual six-pack there, and her breasts, topped with tiny cherry red nipples, stood high and proud on her chest.

The girl's nakedness might have made the blonde pause, like one artist surveying another's work, but she still wanted to give her a piece of her mind. So she strode through the few people in the family bathroom until she stood right behind the girl and opened her mouth only to stutter to a halt as, without skipping a beat and ignoring everyone around them, the redhead dumped a small cup of hot water over her head, transforming into a man.

Stumbling, the blonde began to fight back a blush as she took in the girl turned man. He stood at least a foot taller than the girl he had been and was just as fit, if not fitter. While he didn't have the build of a weight lifter, his body was tight with incredibly well-developed and toned muscles, even the muscles most men didn't even know they had to exercise, like those in his calves or his sides. The six-pack the redhead had sported was now even sharper, visible as the black-haired man turned slightly to pull his shirt on once more.

"What, what the…" the blonde stuttered, bringing the man's attention to her. "What just happened!?"

"Um… You mind?" Ranma asked, grabbing his pants and pulling them on quickly. "Last I heard it was rude to stare at someone as they were changing."

"That's normally the case, but I doubt your kind of change is what most people think of when they think of the word!" the blonde retorted, beginning to smirk at Ranma. "I came in here to give you a piece of my mind about how you flirted that food out of poor Tommy, but I think there's a story behind this whole changing genders with water thing that I just have to hear."

"It isn't my fault. I have jewels and things I could exchange, but there's no barter here," Ranma protested, having felt both dirty and underhanded as he flirted his and Wendy's food out of the man behind the counter. Having had his female body for so long Ranma had gotten used to the idea that both forms were his, and knowing 'she' was being lusted after by men made Ranma just feel dirty. "And wasn't his name Timothy? At least, that was what his nametag said. And what's your name anyway, miss? My name's Ranma. Suppose if you're going to harangue me ya should know my name."

"Jenny, Jenny Realight. Heh, you must not be from Buckler if you've never heard of me, I'm one of the Sparkles, the mascots of the park here," Jenny replied, waving the name correction off. It wasn't like she was friends with the other park worker, after all. "As for the no barter thing, that we can do something about. Now," Jenny said, flirtatiously linking her arm with Ranma's. "Why don't you tell me that story, handsome?"

"If you want to, you can join my little sister and me for lunch. It's kind of a long story," Ranma replied, actually doing something he would never have done back in his old world or before he had been tutored in the soft side of romance by the girls at Melona's. He linked his arm with Jenny's in turn, taking her hand in his and walking out of the bathroom like that.

Sitting down, Jenny quickly got the shy Wendy on her side by cooing about how cute she looked and promising to do something with her hair later. "You've got great hair, darling. Just letting it fall loose like that is a waste." Since despite being a girl himself half the time Ranma wasn't anything like an expert on femininity, Wendy lapped this up.

Sitting down across from Jenny, Ranma recounted the same story he'd told Laxus and others who had inquired about his curse: that he had been cursed when he was younger thanks to his father's stupidity. It was close enough to the truth it wasn't even a lie, just a story that left out a lot of details.

The two of them began to talk about magic in general, the places the two Dragon Slayers had seen, and other things of that nature. Ranma was unsurprised to find that Jenny was a mage, quipping, "Well anyone could see there's something magical about you."

Blushing at Ranma's rather smooth compliment, Jenny hid it with a cough and a hand over her mouth. Though she had heard things like that before, for some reason Ranma's tone told Jenny he really meant it. "Nice one, but I've heard that line before. Anyway, yes, I'm a Take Over mage. Though instead of anything that's technically alive, I Take Over the soul of different mechanical devices. It's called Machina Soul."

She sighed, shaking her head and looking away. "I'd like to join a guild someday; my parents were part of Blue Pegasus when they were younger. But I just don't know if my magic's strong enough to get me in."

Ranma had heard about Blue Pegasus from Laxus years ago, but their name hadn't come to his attention since so he figured they were a Fiore guild. He knew that the best and brightest of other countries tended to head to Fiore, though he wondered how that trend had started. Ignoring that idle thought, Ranma stared across the table at Jenny. "Are you worried about your magical reserves or that your actual magic is too weak?"

Laughing ruefully, Jenny looked down at her plate of salad, having carried it with her as she had chased after Ranma earlier. "Both? I mean, I think I've got a decent reserve of Etherano, but enough to match up to Fiore mages? And my magic is also really limited to the mechanical things I've been in contact with." She sighed, picking at her salad. "I'm proud of my body; I'm happy I can use it as a model here, and I've no doubt I could do the same thing in Fiore. But I'd really like there to be more to me than a pretty face."

"Hmmm… Well I can give you some ideas about growing your magical core, though I bet you'd be able to find exercises and meditation techniques to do that in Fiore easily. But as for your magic… Hmmm…" Ranma mused then began to smirk, remembering a lot of the mecha anime he had seen glimpses of here and there during his time in Nerima. "Tell me how your magic actually works. Do you need to be able to see or touch the device you're trying to take over?"

"No, I just need to be able to find the device's soul." Jenny laughed. "It's really hard to explain, but I basically open my mind to the Etherano around us and then create an image in my mind of the device whose soul I'm searching for. The soul then comes to me, the speed of which depending on the soul's power. Touching the device helps a lot, but it isn't always necessary."

"What do you mean about the soul's power?" Ranma asked intently, leaning forward now.

Flushing somewhat at the intense look in Ranma's eyes and realizing that he really was trying to help her, Jenny replied just as earnestly. "It depends. Sometimes for simple souls it has to do how loved the specific item was. In others it has to do with how important the item is to its users, how many people use it, and other factors."

Scratching at his pigtail thoughtfully, Ranma nodded. "I wonder… Hmm… Okay, here's an idea. Have you ever tried to find the soul of something that doesn't exist here? I mean, something that has been imagined?"

Jenny chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, I um, I have… There was this story about a magic lamp I read once, a lamp that could light up the nighttime sky for hundreds of miles around and warned of dangers to its owners. I really liked the idea, and I thought being able to light up like that could help me and the other Sparkles in our shows. It did, too. Saved big on special effects."

"Excellent," Ranma said, thinking how best to go about doing this.

Next to him, Wendy giggled. "Oni-chan, you've got that 'martial arts madman' look again."

"Heh, guilty as charged, little sister. Tell me, can you draw any, Jenny? I figure your job would be easier with a visual aid?"

"I know a man who can use a magic pen. Would that do?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, it would. See, here's the thing. During my travels I ran into books that depict these giant robots… Um, those are like fully mechanical men who sometimes move via being controlled like a pilot, other times like nearly living body armor."

Jenny's eyes widened as Ranma began to describe them in more detail, then they began to glitter as a fierce grin came to her face. This sounded like it had a lot of promise, a **lot** of promise. She finagled a promise from Ranma to come with her during his and Wendy's stay on Buckler to her artist friend. With a visual aid, Jenny's attempts to find the machine's souls would be easier.

For his part Ranma figured this was a shot in the dark. He had no idea if Jenny would be able to pull the soul of Gundam, or whatever else she could find, from one dimension to another. He didn't have any idea if the souls of one dimension's make believe machines would carry over, or if all souls went to the same place. But it was the best idea he could give Jenny for a new direction to take her power.

From there Wendy reentered the discussion, asking whether Jenny could recommend anything in the park or out of it for them to do.

Unfortunately, Jenny reported that there wasn't much outside the park to do unless you had loads of Minstrel currency. Buckler was part-park, part nobleman's holiday resort, with the price of a lot of the other things the island offered being commensurately expensive. "And if you haven't booked a room in the hotels in advance, you won't find a room anywhere for any amount of money," she finished.

That wasn't good news for the two Dragon Slayers, since they hadn't seen even a fifth of what the park had to offer. There were several longer rides, including one that traveled deeper into the island and into a series of caves there that Ranma was particularly interested in, which they hadn't tried. Wendy also wanted to see the petting zoo and maybe even go horseback riding, which was another thing the park offered.

Jenny however also offered a solution. "I can put you both up at my place, if you like?" she asked, smiling down at Wendy while also glancing Ranma's way, a small smile on her face. "It'll be a bit of a squeeze, but that'll be fine."

"Um, are you sure your parents won't object?" Ranma said, looking back at Jenny and wondering what she was really offering here beyond the obvious.

"Since my parents both died a few years back, that would be a no," Jenny replied dryly. She waved off Ranma's apologies, saying he had no way of knowing. "The house is still mine, though it was actually never designed as a home for more than two people. I came around as an accident, apparently." She smiled at Wendy. "You can share the bedroom with me, while your Oni-chan here sleeps on the sofa." She shifted enough to send a wink at Ranma as she continued. "So long as I can trust him to not ravish a nubile, young maiden like me?"

Rolling his eyes at that, Ranma stood up to grab their plates and take them over to drop them off. "Question is, do you want me to or not?" he whispered as he passed Jenny, causing her to giggle and flush at the same time. Jenny honestly wasn't certain what her answer to that question was though.

Agreeing to meet up later that day, Jenny broke off from the duo then to head to her job. After a few more hours of going around the park, Ranma and Wendy decided to take in the show Jenny had said she was a part of, which turned out to be half Sentai show, half concert. Both of them enjoyed it for very different reasons. Wendy enjoyed getting into shouting with the rest of the young kids when called upon, while Ranma enjoyed the sight of Jenny prancing around the stage, using her magic occasionally as her part demanded it, but otherwise simply moving around in the same bikini she had been in when they met earlier. Though he certainly wasn't shouting or screaming at her and the other Sparkles, that didn't mean he wasn't enjoying the show they were putting on.

With Wendy standing on Ranma's head the two of them were very visible and Jenny, who was singing backup to the main singer of the small group, saw them both smiling and waving their hands. That sight caused Jenny to smile for real in turn, a far gentler, more personal smile than the one she had to show the audience.

Meeting up later that day, Jenny showed the two Dragon Slayers to her house, laughing and chatting happily with Wendy about the show while Ranma followed behind them, taking in the sights. Since Jenny had winked at him when the two girls passed by him Ranma figured he was allowed. This was proven with the way Jenny put an extra swing into her hips as she walked.

The house she led them to was a small, one-story house with a single main room connected directly to a kitchen, a bathroom and a single bedroom. Figuring it was his job as a guest and knowing it was time for dinner, Ranma moved to the kitchen immediately, calling out over his shoulder, "Since you've been kind enough to give us a place to stay, cooking is the least I can do in return. Any requests?"

Unfortunately for Jenny, and even Ranma's, hopes, it had been a long day for Jenny, and after a delicious dinner she couldn't outlast Wendy as she had hoped. Instead both girls were nearly falling asleep on the couch as Jenny plaited Wendy's hair, trying to figure out which look suited her best and which Wendy was most comfortable with. Instead she retired with Wendy to get changed and headed straight for bed. And despite his earlier attempt at flirtation, Ranma was nowhere near comfortable enough to go after her, especially not with Wendy sharing a bed with her.

Later that night Ranma was woken up from his position on Jenny's sofa by his Ranger brooch going off. Grumbling, he grabbed it and stared at the image of the king of Caelum which popped into existence over the small tea table next to the sofa. "What's the issue?" he grumbled, though he didn't say anything more than that, despite the hour. Given the impression he'd gotten from Luke of Caelum, he wouldn't be bothering Ranma about minor issues. If it had been Meredrain who seemed to think of Rangers as his personal tools, or Blowhard the Overcompensating of Stella he would have, but not for this one.

"Sorry to interrupt your sleep, Ranger Oceana, but I'm hoping you're already on Buckler?" Luke asked, his voice brusque but also sleep addled, something which made Ranma come awake even quicker. "This is serious: war." What little fugue Ranma had left disappeared at that word. "A fleet tried to come across the ocean from Alvarez recently and while we've dealt with that we…"

"Wait, what? You're going to need to unpack that," Ranma said, hopping up and grabbing his clothing, changing brusquely.

"Vicotronious told you we've all been worried about Alvarez? Well, my response to that was to create dedicated squads of fast moving schooners to patrol the eastern oceans between Ishgar and the continent as far out as possible. They passed the word along via communication lacrima over a month ago, more than enough time for us to gather our forces," Luke explained patiently. "Between them and similar schooners from Minstrel we are able to cover the majority of the ocean around Ishgar.

Nodding at that, Ranma came back and sat down in front of the image again, pulling on his cloak and setting the brooch to clasp it in place. "So you want me to meet up with your fleet? You'll want as many mages with you as you can get, I'd bet."

Surprisingly, however, Luke shook his head. "No, like I said before you interrupted me, we've dealt with the Empire's fleet already. It's turned back for the most part. The Mage Council of Fiore let loose with some new weapon they've created, or just figured out how to work again. Damn King of Fiore is being tight lipped about which. In any event, it wiped out half the fleet with a single blast. My navy and Minstrel's are fully up to stopping most of the remaining fleet if they try to reform, especially since we have two Wizard Saints working with us."

"But one of the leakers has some kind of mage on it, and neither of the Wizard Saints was close enough for us to divert them to attack his ship. We don't know what kind of magic he's using, but a full squadron of my galleons was torn apart when they tried to close with it. The ships' crews were simply torn apart; we have no idea how. But whatever magic he used isn't up to taking out ships at extreme range, so a schooner has been able to follow along. It's heading for the Minstrel mainland, hence why I asked if you had arrived in Buckler yet."

"I have. Show me a map and tell me as much as you can," Ranma ordered brusquely. The ship following the leaker had been updating its position every hour, so Luke was able to tell Ranma where the two ships were pretty precisely. They were straight south of Buckler, moving towards the mainland of Minstrel rather than the closer Buckler, presumably because that would give the mage aboard and whoever else was with him more area to hide in, if that was what he wanted to do.

"Okay, I'll need you to keep directing me to them once I'm out on the open ocean," Ranma said after a second's perusal, ignoring a gasp from one side of the room. He couldn't ignore the fact that Jenny had come out of her room dressed in a very flimsy looking negligee, blushing and looking away despite his best attempts not to.

Jenny's wavy, blonde hair was now loose down her back instead of tied in a ponytail, her two short bangs still framing her face. Her lipstick was also gone, but Jenny's light blue eyes stared out from that beautiful, expressive face over a physique that was slim, but with a decent-sized bust and hips for their age. A body, moreover, that was barely covered by some kind of camisole that showed off bare legs and a decent portion of her décolletage. It didn't actually show any more of her body than her outfit from when they met earlier that day, but for some reason it seemed far more personal and inviting.

Thankfully, Luke wasn't looking at him, his image having turned away for a second. "I can do that. Ranger Oceana, Ranma… We need that ship stopped. That mage took out an entire squadron of galleons and his ship didn't even slow down. We can't let a mage like that get lose and mingle with the general populace. The amount of damage he could do before we could send a mage strong enough to take him out, it doesn't bear thinking about."

"I know. I'll stop him," Ranma said, standing up. "Let me write up a message to Wendy, and I'll call you once I'm out on the open water." With that Ranma tapped the brooch, looking over at Jenny. "You heard?"

"I, I did. You're a Ranger? I thought those were a myth!" Jenny said, moving over toward Ranma, staring in awe at the brooch on his pectoral. "That's amazing!"

Ranma gulped, looking away. Jenny might or might not have been doing it on purpose, but she had just given him a look straight down her negligee's top. Her breasts, a bare cup size, if that, smaller than Ranma's female body, tried to grab his attention, but Ranma refused to let them, even though he saw her light pink nipples in there winking at him. "Guh, um, yeah. But um, you, you can't tell anyone, okay? Half of a Ranger's ability to do what we do is because we are unknowns, not like the Wizard Saints. So please, please don't tell anyone!"

"I won't. It's just, um, wow." Jenny shook her head, smirking up into Ranma's handsome face. "I thought you had the whole kindly yet mysterious mage thing going for you before this, but now, this just takes it to a whole other level." Then she became serious, stepping back and looking towards the doorway where Wendy still slept in Jenny's old room. "I'll tell Wendy where you've gone, but don't expect me to look after her if you don't come back! I might like kids, but I'm too young to want to look after one full time! So you better come back, got it, mister?"

"Heh! Yes, ma'am," Ranma replied with a grin. Then, feeling greatly daring and remembering the flirting they'd been doing, he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. The kiss lasted for a few seconds as Jenny made no move to back away. It was perhaps the sweetest thing Ranma had ever felt, way better than his very limited experience with kisses before this. Jenny's lips were soft, so very soft, and they tasted something like cherry, only not quite. Nor was Jenny a passive participant, kissing Ranma back, their lips moving against one another in the oldest dance in the universe. They kept the kiss light, their mouths closed, but that didn't matter.

Eventually Ranma moved back, smiling lightly at Jenny, noticing her blush as he felt his own blood rushing both to his face and other areas, his heart pounding. "For luck."

"Hmmm…" Jenny whispered, stepping back, one hand rising to touch her lips. "For luck," she repeated, then shook herself, trying to dispel her blush with little success as she sent a smirk Ranma's way. "Well, if you play your cards right, there just might be more of that if you come back in one piece."

Ranma smirked right back at her, then raced to the door and away. About an hour later he was well out to sea, Buckler receding in the distance behind him. As it did, Ranma cut his thumb open, smearing his blood into the green lacrima of his brooch. "Okay, I'm out to sea. Direct me."

For a few hours Ranma raced on over the ocean following Luke's directions, turning south and west more often than any other direction. Soon he spotted the schooner trailing his target, passing it by like the small, fast little craft was standing still as the sun crested the horizon. A few of the crewmen cheered as he did, and Ranma waved in their direction, but otherwise ignored them, staring ahead of him.

Soon after that Ranma came close enough to see the Alvarez ship over the horizon. He then sped up, clenching and unclenching his hands as he prepared for action.

On the ship Ranma was closing with, a very nervous, almost scared crewman was high up in the crow's nest. Like the rest of the ship's crew, he was dealing with a series of fears: First, even days after the event, the memory of the Fiorans' new superweapon was seared into his brain: the flash of light from on high, the flare of power, the explosion, the sight of half of the fleet disappearing in an instant. Second was the more normal fear of the mages which dominated the Empire. One of which, indeed, one of the most terrifying, was currently aboard his ship.

A mage, furthermore, that was just as dedicated to their current mission as he was furious at the recent disaster the fleet had run into. He had killed both the captain and the first mate in the past few days when they questioned him, and the rest of the crew was gloomily certain he intended to kill them or otherwise cover the evidence if they were somehow able to break contact with the schooner that was dogging their steps. But that seemed an impossibility to him.

Alas, his problems were about to become a lot worse. The man blinked, then frowned as he stared toward the schooner that had been following them at a distance, then shouted desperately down at the rest of the crew and the mage down on the deck. "Mage incoming! He's, he's walking on the fucking water!"

The mage scowled at that, moving to the back of the ship and pulling at his gloves. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man in his late twenties with extremely short black hair and a prominent forehead marked by a small skull tattoo. He had no eyebrows and currently had dark circles around his wild eyes and stubble. He wore a white turtleneck and black pants at present.

"Where? There he is…" he muttered, staring through a spy glass as the approaching mage came towards them over the water. "Neat trick that, walking on water. Still, I'll show him not to underestimate me the instant he comes within range of my magic. I… What is he doing now?"

Ranma didn't know anything about the mage he had been sent to stop from getting ashore, but he knew his own strengths and that he had one major advantage the other mage couldn't: this was the ocean. And as a water Dragon Slayer, there was precious little that could fight Ranma on an even playing field here. He also knew something else: in a real fight, playing fair was for chumps. So as he closed with the ship, instead of standing out like a sore thumb by continuing to race over the water, Ranma canceled his Water Walk technique, dropping into the water.

Quickly pulling a pocket of air over her head, the redhead dove down at a diagonal, swimming strongly and using her magic to propel her through the water as quickly as possible. She dove deeply enough that the water obscured her form entirely from view on the surface, then, still from that far away, launched an attack straight up at the ship's keel.

"Soryu no Kussaku Tsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!" Ranma whispered, not shouting the technique, since that would have taken more of her precious air. The attack lashed upwards like a mix between a water spout and incredibly condensed vortex. It hit and shattered the ship's keel, blasting through it and up through the next two decks.

One moment the crew and the mage aboard the ship were tense, all of them searching for the mage sent against them. The next there was a thunderous sound of shattering timber, screams of the wounded, and a shout from below. "The keel! He's shattered the keel! We're taking on… water! My God boys the ships sinking!"

As the crew began to race around to try and slow their ship's inevitable demise, the mage scowled, staring down into the water. "Damn it, he's a water mage! Then this is his environment… I'm going to have to play the long game here. Don't you dare underestimate this man from Alvarez, boy!"

The first lieutenant of the ship raced up to him, his face desperate. "Lord Jacob, sir, what can we do?! With the keel broken, there's no way we could ever stop the water from pouring in, and we're too far from shore to survive in our rowboats." As he spoke the young man's face firmed as if he had come to his own conclusion of what to do, something his next words confirmed. "Lord Jacob, unless you can offer an alternative, I'm afraid we'll have to surrender to the Ishgarans. There's no other way to protect thhHEEE!"

The young officer's voice broke off as a dagger seemed to just appear, thrusting through his throat and out the other side. "Surrender? I think you forget your purpose here…"

The nearby crewmembers stopped and stared as their officer fell to the deck, gasping. "Listen up, all of you pawns," the now named Jacob said softly, staring around at them all. "There will be no surrender, no prisoners taken, one way or another. You fight or you die; those are your choices."

Another attack from below broke this tableau, and not in the direction Jacob had hoped. The attack finished the job of shattering the ship's keel entirely in half, and the ship began to break apart, sinking quickly. In a choice between Jacob's wrath and the ocean, these men, all professional sailors, knew their chances were better with the ocean. As one they turned and bolted for the ship's few lifeboats, pushing them over the side and jumping in.

The sight of this enraged Jacob. "If there is one thing I cannot stand among the young, it is rudeness. If there is one thing I cannot stand among soldiers, it is cowardice!" Jacob bellowed then disappeared to all mortal senses. An instant later the men near him began to die to pinpoint accurate attacks. Slashed throat, shattered spines, stabbed kidneys or lungs: every time he struck he killed, though the length of time it took his victims to die varied wildly. And not a one of them even saw him attacking them.

About fourteen of the ship's crew got away however, leaving Jacob, still invisible, alone on the ship as it sank. But his berserk rage had been a feint at least in part, since he had used this opportunity to empty one of the lifeboats of sailors. Hopping form the sinking ship as the back of it went down, he landed so lightly on the empty lifeboat that there wasn't even a ripple from his touching down. The lifeboat still moved this way and that in the wake of the ship's sinking, but no one could have told Jacob was there any longer.

Below the ship, Ranma had moved far enough away to let the wreckage of the ship sink to the bottom of the ocean, one hand raised in front of her face as she prayed for the souls of the sailors who had gone down with it. _You lot might have been ordered to invade Ishgar, but I bet it wasn't anything personal for you lot, just as this wasn't for me. Hopefully, in the next lifetime you'll have a better chance at a peaceful life._

Thinking her job pretty much done, Ranma began to move back towards the surface. As she did, however, she felt the water around her begin to move, then more and more of it, as if the water was being sucked into a vacuum cleaner. _What the heck!_

Ranma quickly backpedaled as the water around the wreck and about a mile straight down just disappeared, complete with anything and everything that had been in it. She was barely able to get out of the range of whatever odd attack was going on. Despite that, Ranma then pushed out of the water around the now empty zone, leaping forward through the air and upwards using the bits and pieces to quickly race to the surface, breaking out above the sea level just as the waters below her began to crash into the vacated space behind her.

An instant later Ranma's instincts screamed at her, and she dodged something unseen, the sound of it causing a ripping noise through the air as it passed through where his neck had been a second before. "What the hell?!" Ranma growled.

Standing on the water once more, Ranma looked around, but didn't see anyone near enough to have launched that attack. The only people she saw were survivors of the ship, rowing for all they were worth away from the place the ship had gone down. It was a sign of their desperation that they had moved far enough away to actually be able to ride out the surge of water as the ocean tried to fill in the void left by the attack, whatever it had been.

 _So that means whoever is attacking me is either hiding among them and sniping from long range, or is close and invisible. But they'd have to be using either that empty lifeboat or the bits and pieces of flotsam to stand, unless the attacker is a water mage too. But no, that wasn't a water attack just now._ These thoughts zoomed through Ranma's mind at a speed that would make light seem slow in comparison, and a decision was reached in the next second. Ranma disappeared under the Umi-Sen-Ken and moved away from her former position, her eyes scanning the lifeboat for any sign someone was there. Realizing it was the most obvious place for someone invisible to be Ranma also launched a few low powered Water attacks that way.

But Jacob had already moved away his position on the lifeboat and was now balancing on an oar among the jetsam of the explosion. Having watched his opponent disappear, Jacob knew he wasn't alone in using invisibility. _Still, that hardly matters since my own magic extends to seeing invisible things. I can't quite see the bitch herself, but I can see an outline of her at least and that's enough. However I will need to get closer to finish her, though. Can't give away that trump card without getting the best return I can for it. Even so, that changing form thing is weird even for Ishgarian mages…_

Jacob had seen the moment Ranma had changed form when he dove into the water through the spy glass but being a thoroughgoing professional he couldn't care less about the reasons behind it. Shaking that thought off, Jacob began to jump from one bit of debris to the other as he moved to intercept Ranma.

What followed was a game of cat and mouse, though of course Ranma would never have put it like that. Both invisible mages stalked one another, with only one actually able to see the other. But unlike Ranma, who moved freely, Jacob couldn't walk on water and had to make his way by the debris all around him. A powerful mage he might be, but Jacob still couldn't breathe under water. He had also never tried to use his invisibility while submerged.

He launched several of his daggers at Ranma, and even tried to use his spatial magic Transportation to catch her. But every time Ranma would simply drop into the ocean and shoot away, putting so much water between them that Jacob couldn't reach the redhead with the maneuver, his separate space filling up with water.

Despite this Jacob was eventually able to close the distance because Ranma was still firing blind. He finally maneuvered around Ranma, leaping from one large piece of debris behind the redhead and attacking instantly, leaping forward with his knife outstretched.

Danger senses shrieking at her Ranma turned just in time to avoid being stabbed through the guts. Instead, the knife, both invisible and sharpened by Jacob's Assassination Magic, skittered across her ribs, opening up a long gash there despite Ranma's durability. That worried Ranma immensely, but she could feel her healing ability already kicking in thanks to her ki reserves.

In reply Ranma blindly lashed out first with a Soryu no Tsume. Then, as the wide angle attack slapped into Jacob, followed up with a punch to the man's jaw. She grunted as it felt like she had just punched concrete, but Ranma persevered, bringing up her other hand to grab the unseen man's shoulder, using the fact water was still dripping off his invisible form to find it.

Jacob grunted under the blow, but returned it, his fist smashing into the redhead's face as his other hand pulled out another dagger. Disdaining the overhead thrust that was so loved by artists and story-tellers he thrust upwards for the redhead's kidney.

But Jacob was still visible thanks to the water dripping off him, and Ranma blocked the blow, her forearm catching Jacob's right behind the wrist. That same hand then flashed up. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma shouted, her arm disappearing with a speed that left the original version of this technique in the dust by a wide margin.

Jacob gasped in agony as he felt, not one, but hundreds of punches land on his chest and stomach in less than an eye blink. Even so, he tried to turn and move so that the blows didn't land all in one place. That was why only one rib cracked under the assault rather than his entire stomach caving in under the blow. Wrenching to the side, he tried to break the redhead's grip, but Ranma didn't let him. "Fine, you little brat! I'll just pound you into the dirt!"

What followed was a slugfest, a duel of machine guns at point blank range. Unwilling to let Jacob go and not knowing if he could move around as well as she could, Ranma didn't let go, continuing to grab at Jacob's shoulder. Occasionally she would let lose a kick, splashing some of the water up to soak Jacob more, just to be able to see him thanks to the water. But for the most part Ranma was content to rely more on her martial arts skills than she had in her more recent fights: blocking and attacking, moving around that one point of contact with an ease that made her opponent look slow. That wasn't to say she didn't take hits. The man from Alvarez was good, very good, and insanely durable, far more than any opponent Ranma had fought in this world or his old one.

For Jacob, it was a very frustrating fight. He tried to use guns: but his attacker dodged the bullets almost as soon as she saw the flash of the muzzle which Jacob couldn't hide. The redhead still got hit, but not often and the bullets didn't do enough damage. Every time he tried to use a knife, Ranma would either see it coming and block it or dodge just enough to avoid a critical injury. And he couldn't bring his hands together in order to activate his Spatial magic and capture Ranma in his teleportation space. This forced Jacob to rely on his fists and feet, which was not his preferred style. And Jacob's durability was being pushed to the breaking point by his opponent's speed technique. He could feel his bones break as the fight continued, but pushed through the pain with the ease of his mental conditioning as the Emperor's Assassin.

Eventually, however it was Ranma's durability that began to flag. She knew it, too, feeling her ki flagging from healing all her wounds, and feeling the un-healed wounds piling up. _Fuck! So much for trying to play this like Ryoga!_

Between one moment and the next Ranma decided to change the dynamics of the fight once more. _If I can't break through his endurance with just my fists, then it's time to bring magic back into play!_

Soryu no Hoko!" Ranma roared, blasting a full-powered Water Dragon's Roar straight into his enemy.

Jacob saw it coming in just enough time to try to move with the attack, which wrenched his body out of Ranma's grip and away over the ocean. It hurt like blazes too, the high-powered water attack acting like a battering ram made of thousands of knives cutting into his skin. But even that he could have endured. Indeed, Jacob almost threw off the attacks, smashing his hands together and sending the water that formed the attack into his teleportation zone. But Ranma had already ducked under the waves once more, avoiding the magical attack.

The next instant, however, Jacob ran into the real problem with Ranma's attack: it had carried him over the water well away from any of the floating debris he had been using. With a roar of shock and despair, Jacob plunged into the ocean. He tried to swim for the surface, only to find his legs grabbed from below.

Staring down, he didn't see Ranma as he had feared, but a shark. Attracted to the bloody bodies of the crew Jacob had, in large part, caused, the entire area was teeming with sharks of all kinds. This one was a true monster of the deep, larger than Jacob was tall, and its maw had grabbed at Jacob's entire thigh. His durability was up to this attack, but other sharks had quickly closed, having arrived too late to get to the smorgasbord already laid on for them.

This and the fact that he hadn't thought to breathe in doomed Jacob. He tried to fight off the sharks, indeed, he killed many of them, but their blood brought more swimming toward him. They slowed him down, and by the time he could free himself of them he was too deep to reach the surface before Ranma could intercept him.

Ranma hit him like a shark, too, smashing into the now visible man, his escrima sticks out and adding both weight and striking power to his hits. Jacob desperately tried to fight Ranma and the sharks off, tried to get close enough to partake of the redhead's own bubble of air. But Ranma grimly kept the man from doing so.

As Jacob gasped and thrashed blindly, desperately for the surface, Ranma finally leaned in, letting the man stick his nose and mouth into her air bubble. "Surrender, or else I'll GURK!" Ranma cut off and pushed the man down and away from her as she felt the man try to stab her in the stomach. Despite Jacob still having a lot of strength for a drowning man, the blade didn't penetrate much as Ranma had moved the instant she saw the man's shoulder shift minutely in a manner that couldn't be attributed to the water or the sharks. It hurt like blazes, and, given her other wounds, it might well leave another scar to add to Ranma's collection, but it had told her something else: Jacob would sooner die than surrender.

Pulling well back from Jacob, Ranma created a Soryu No Kussaku Tsume aimed to the smallest diameter she could create and aimed it right into Jacob's wide, now desperate mouth. This way she bypassed most of the man's durability and put him out of his misery. The attack drilled into Jacob's mouth and then up into his brain and out the other side of his head, leaving him headless.

Staring at the body and absentmindedly noting that the sharks weren't bothering her, Ranma stared at the man's body. She didn't pray for his soul, not after he had spat at Ranma's attempt to save him, but she stayed there until the sharks had completely obscured the other mage's body from view, then kicked up towards the surface. She had a report to give.

It took Ranma a full day to get back to Buckler after the fight, having left the remaining sailors from Alvarez in the custody of the schooner's crew. They would be treated well, even allowed eventually to settle in Caelum, Luke told the now male Ranma. So long as they told his people everything they could about Alvarez and the reasons behind its enmity with Ishgar. Luke confided to Ranma that he figured the grunts wouldn't know anything, but it was better than nothing.

Ranma couldn't care less about that. He was just tired, sore, and wanted a break. His Dragon Slayer magic allowed him to completely fill his reserves, but his body was still damn sore, and worse, Ranma knew he had really made a bit of a fool of himself after his initial success in that battle. He castigated himself for fighting like he had, for treating it like a fight after it had been just him and the other mage, like he would have in fight with a rival in his old world. Meeting his opponent blow for blow when he didn't need to had been stupid in the extreme. But it was done now, and Ranma just wanted to put aside what he had done for a while.

Arriving on Buckler, he was immediately met by Wendy, who had been checking the port every few hours for him. "Oni-chan!"

Ranma, grateful for the fact he'd had a shower and time to change his clothing, grabbed Wendy out of the air from where she had just leaped at him from the highest building in the area. He smiled as he twirled her around, then pulled her into a hug, lifting her to his chest with one arm. "I take it ya missed me, then?"

"Mmhhmmm…" Wendy rumbled contentedly, nosing into his neck.

"Heh, she's been coming here to look for you every day for a while, Ranma." Ranma turned to see Jenny walking up to him, dressed in a similar but different colored bikini from the one she had been wearing when he left. She walked up to Ranma, looking at him critically, then linked her arm with his free arm, pulling him and, perforce, Wendy along. "Come on. I had an early shift today, and I think you look like you need a rest. I'll even do the cooking this time."

The two of them did not talk about Ranma's job, his face and his sober eyes told Jenny this was a topic to not have in front of Wendy. And after Wendy, having been pampered quite a bit by Ranma and even having had a story read to her, was put to bed, Jenny learned she was right. Wendy might have seen death, even war, before, but she hadn't seen anything quite as bad as the battle Ranma had been a part of. The Alvarez mage's death was particularly gruesome.

Jenny hadn't seen war. She hadn't seen combat at all beyond cleaning up some drunks and one pirate attack she'd been involved in stopping a few years back. Despite her desire to become a guild mage and having lived on her own for several years, Jenny still had a somewhat naive view of the world.

The story was beyond horrifying to her, and she looked at Ranma, no, Ranger Oceana, in a new and not altogether positive light. She moved away from where she had been sitting next to Ranma on her sofa, turning away slightly and hugging herself. "I, I don't… That's horrible! I…"

"I warned you it would be," Ranma said, pulling out his pipe and lighting some of the Dragon's Breath. To others the smell was merely nice, to Ranma and presumably other Dragon Slayers, it both smelled extremely nice and was calming.

"If it makes you feel any better, until the mage attacked me after my first attack on the ship, I was going to try and take them all prisoner after that. Figured I did enough damage at that point. But that damn mage, he fought and he was so freaking strong! If he could have hit me with that mass teleport thing or was able to fight as well on water as he could on land, he could have beaten me and gotten clean away," Ranma continued.

He scowled then. "And according to the prisoners we did take, the man had begun to kill the crew of the ship when they started to abandon ship. He had also killed the officers before that, to force the ship on to Ishgar rather than let them retreat to Alvarez after the initial battle."

"But you still killed him. And your initial attack certainly killed some of them." Jenny looked away. "I, I know it was war, but… But I don't know how I feel about that. About how it seems to have been so easy for you."

"Easy?" Ranma retorted, trying not to get angry at Jenny's tone, which was a mix of shock and censure. "I suppose killing them was easy in terms of my actually doing it. How I feel about it? That's never easy. I've killed before: cultists, bandits, rapists. Killing them was hard, but it had to be done, and I don't regret that. All of them were right where they wanted to be, doing what they chose to do. I've never before killed people who were simply doing their damn jobs. That I'll remember. And it will haunt me."

"But you still did it," Jenny said softly. "I… I need to think about this, Ranma. I'm sorry." With that Jenny stood up, hesitated, and leaned down, giving Ranma a kiss on the cheek. Before Ranma could do anything she had swiftly moved toward the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

Breathing in some of the tobacco-like Dragon's Breath, Ranma shook his head with a sigh. "Well, fuck."

Over the next two days Ranma tried to put what had happened behind him, enjoying a few days of just having fun, not even training for a change. Instead, he and Wendy continued to have fun around the park, exploring all of it and taking part in all of the activities they offered that Wendy thought looked interesting.

Jenny still took time whenever she could from her job to be around them and still let the two of them stay at her apartment. At one point Ranma did meet her friend with the magic pen. He drew up several dozen designs as Ranma described what he could remember of different mecha, then drew Wendy a self-portrait riding a little white dragon which Wendy loved and forced Ranma to put in his Requip space.

Yet Jenny still kept her distance from Ranma. She was friendly and kind, but there was no more flirting. No more touches, no more looks. That hurt Ranma, but he could understand it. People who had never seen war would always respond like this to those like him, who could handle such things, even if they never liked it.

And Ranma had to admit he did like it. Not the killing, and he hoped that he never would like that aspect. But the thrill, the adrenaline, pitting himself against strong opponents, pushing himself to his utmost. That Ranma did like. He liked that a lot.

Eventually Ranma began to get tired of the park and decided it was time to leave. Wendy wanted to stay longer, but knew that many of the things she enjoyed, Ranma didn't, or, like now, got tired of.

As they were leaving, Jenny stood nearby, watching them silently. Ranma turned to her, a small, somewhat sad smile on his face. "Um, guess it's time to go."

"Guess so," Jenny replied. Thenm to Ranma's surprise, stepped close and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't a very deep kiss, but it was a lingering one, and Jenny hugged him tightly at the same time, infusing a sense of warmth into Ranma to offset how cold she had been to him over the past few days. Ranma returned the kiss his own arms around her, but made no move to deepen the kiss, knowing this wasn't the time for it, especially with Wendy looking on in confusion and growing disgust. "Ewww!"

Jenny eventually stepped back, looking up at Rama through her long eyelashes. "If you're ever in Fiore and stop by the city where Blue Pegasus has their guild hall, look me up, okay? We, we might pick this up again, hmm?"

Nodding, Ranma smiled lopsidedly at Jenny, his tongue flicking out and licking his lips unconsciously. "Heh. I'll, I'll, um, be sure to." With that Jenny stepped back, and Ranma stepped to Wendy's side, letting her scramble up him to perch on his head. A second later Ranma hopped off the wharf, triggering his Dragon Slayer magic. Ranma stood there on the water looking back at Jenny, who looked at him. Then, with a final smile, Ranma turned away, moving out to sea as Jenny turned away.

Yet while Ranma and Wendy had been having fun, the rest of the world reacted to what occurred in this brief, but bloody attempt at invasion…

 **OOOOOOO**

"I am angry, Ultear," the old man said calmly, though it was the calm of a forest around a volcano about to erupt. "I am very angry! You have been at your task for going on two years, and you had no knowledge of this weapon!?"

"I hesitate to correct you, master, but I did know and reported that some of the Magic Council were working closely with a few historians on something, something they were keeping secret even from the rest of the Council," Ultear replied. The young woman had continued her journey to becoming a truly gorgeous woman, her curves growing to the level that even now, at barely seventeen, she was the envy of grown women: her face without blemish, her dark black hair lustrous, and her lips inviting, despite the purple lipstick. "And as I have yet to be elevated to the Council, it should not come as a shock that they have successfully kept such hidden from me or your little toy."

The woman's calm manner served to actually make the old man's calm manner become reality, and he slowly nodded. "Yes, that's true. Thank you for reminding me that your task was indeed a long term one, Ultear, and I am sorry I jumped down your throat. But this…this Etherion?" When he said the word like it was a question. The girl on the other end of the communication nodded. "This Etherion is worrying. I think we need to change some of your orders, Ultear, and I will do so for my pawn as well…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Nor was the leader of Grimoire Heart the only one who was rethinking things at this point. Other kings and queens had sat up and taken notice of this display of power, and so too had the leaders of the other two most powerful Dark Guilds.

Mard Geer scowled, looking at the memory of the use of this so-called new magical weapon. Unlike the humans, he knew what it was, a thing from the wars thousands of years ago which had decimated the world. How the Fiorans had been able to figure out how to use Etherion was something else, but it was clear the game had changed. _I will have to stop trying to push forward with my attempts to wipe out humanity by the creation of new demons, curse them! And I need more information on this weapon. And if the other nations of the humans will try to recreate other weapons to match it._

With that in mind, Mard gathered his fellow demons and gave them new marching orders: conquer Dark Guilds and force them to serve Tartarus. "We will use their resources to search for more information on Zeref's presence, this Alvarez place, Etherion, and other weapons of that nature." This caused much consternation among his followers, but Mard Geer crushed their concerns with ruthless dispatch, forcing them to obey him through power, just as he had brought them together in the first place.

 **OOOOOOO**

Laxus and Carla had just returned to the guild hall from smashing yet another Dark Guild. This time the guild, the Rainbow Darkness, had been a real Dark Guild, one that had never been a legal guild at all, simply a bunch of nasty assholes who had been brought together by an even nastier asshole who took the mantle of Guild Master and gave them a name. They had been involved in drug dealing and blackmail for years throughout Fiore, but once their headquarters had been found the Magic Council had been quick to allow a mission to take them out. Laxus had just been lucky enough to grab the mission before any of the other S-class mages from other guilds could.

Now Laxus was busy listening to a new song on his headphones and drinking some good ale and reading news that the mage councils of Fiore and Seven might be joining together into a single group. But Carla's attention was elsewhere. She was standing on the balcony nearby, watching Mira and her two siblings talking about a mission that Mira had just taken from the S-class board on the second floor.

"So, we'll meet up in an hour at the train station, okay?" Mira said, smiling at her siblings, her voice audible to Carla thanks to her better than human hearing. Mira had mellowed slightly over the years since Carla had met her, and then slightly more since she and Erza had somehow buried the hatchet during her S-class exam, but she was still the Devil-girl of Fairy Tail often enough that the kind smile she was showing her siblings right now was rare indeed.

"Hai, Nee-chan! I am so ready for this! A real man must become stronger to protect his family!" Elfman bellowed. Of the three siblings, Elfman had changed the most over the years. He had a new scar on his face, had grown several feet in height, and had added so much to his shoulders that he looked almost as wide as Laxus was. His clothing, too, had changed. He now wore a single piece, dark blue jacket. The back of it had the words 'Aim to be the greatest' on it, with 'the greatest' being far larger than the rest.

Lisanna giggled. Of the three siblings, she had changed the least as she grew up. She was still the same gentle, kind-hearted girl that was a favorite with most of the guild. Even Laxus, who rarely had time for either of the younger Strauss's since they just weren't strong enough to interest him, liked her well enough, and Carla liked her the most out of the rest of the guild. Carla even liked her more than she liked Laxus, though given their often prickly relationship, that wasn't saying much. She normally worked around the guild hall as a barmaid unless she was out on jobs with Elfman or Natsu.

Elfman, on the other hand, was simply annoying these days ever since he had hit puberty, or at least Carla thought of it like that. As someone who identified as a proper lady, Elfman's whole 'man' bit was beyond irritating to Carla. She had taken to trying to convince Laxus that some shock therapy would cure Elfman of it, very loudly, every time Elfman called Carla a 'man.'

"Yep. I'll meet you both at the station. I'm already packed so all I need to do is find Natsu and Happy and tell them I'll be away for a bit," Lisanna said.

"Ugh, you and your beau are so cute it's enough to give me cavities, Lisanna. Still, that's fine. I'll give the job to Master Makarov, then head home to grab us some supplies." With that Mirajane dismissed her siblings and moved over toward Makarov.

Carla watched this for a while, unseen by the Strauss siblings or anyone else, since she was up on the second floor balcony. _Of course if that irritating tomcat were around that wouldn't be the case, but thankfully, he and his equally asinine companion are off fishing. I swear to the First Magic, the next time he tries to flirt with me by giving me fish I'm going to slap him with it!_

As the Strauss siblings left, Carla noticed that Erza too was gone, out on a mission of her own. This left Laxus, and perforce Carla, alone on the S-class floor. But that too barely registered to the white-furred cat. No, it was the sight of the trio of Strauss siblings taking on an S-class mission together that was occupying her mind.

Like Happy, Carla's magic was the ability to conjure up wings and fly, but unlike Happy, Carla had a secondary magic. It was one that she barely understood and couldn't control: the power of precognition. Often times her images were small and useless, other times it was just confusing. But sometimes she got a vision of the future that she could actually understand. She had used it occasionally to help her and Laxus while on missions, and at one point had helped to put them in a position to help prevent a plague of locusts from causing a local famine. She had never told anyone about it, and only Laxus had figured out that she had such a power.

Now she saw a series of images: Lisanna's pain filled face, Mira's tear-streaked expression, a redheaded girl facing a massive shadow, rain, and the image of a young girl. This young girl had blue hair and a small, spare frame along with a cute face, and it wasn't the first time Carla had seen her. She had seen that girl's face numerous times when she first started to have visions, though it had faded over time.

Shaking her head to dispel the images, she rushed over to Laxus. Whispering into his ear, she told him about the mission. Nodding, Laxus stood up and flash teleported down to stand next to his grandfather. "You sure that's a good idea Old Man?"

"What do you mean brat?" Makarov replied before draining his mug of beer and cocking an eyebrow at his grandson.

"I mean letting Mira take her two siblings out on an S-level mission with her. I don't think it's a good idea," Laxus said, hoping to block off the image from occurring in the easiest way possible. Mira was touchy at the best of times. If she learned he was trying to interfere with her taking jobs, especially with her siblings, there'd be hell to pay. Mira couldn't take Laxus in a fight, of course, but she could make his life miserable in a lot of little ways.

"Bah. You need to trust your fellow guild members more, Laxus. Mira's an S-class mage, and she'll keep the other two safe. You can't always protect your kids; sometimes you need to let them protect one another," Makarov retorted.

Laxus eyes narrowed. He trusted Mira, and, more, he respected her power, just as he respected Erza's. Yet he also trusted Carla's visions. Whether they could prevent them was a different matter. So he pressed on. "But there's a difference between letting the kids prove themselves and trusting them in the deep end, Gramps. I trust Mira to handle herself on S-class jobs, but to protect herself and her siblings? Elfman's an okay fighter, but Lisanna's not, and…"

"Brat, that's enough! I let Mira choose that job since it's an easy one, a barely S-class monster hunt. The Take Over mages can handle it easy, and maybe Elfman will be able to get over whatever obstacle's blocking him from doing a full body Take Over," Makarov cut Laxus off. "If you think they can't, why don't you do something about it?"

Laxus scowled, but nodded at that, realizing that his grandfather was challenging him here. "Fine, maybe I will." With that he marched off, intent on following the Strauss siblings at a distance, just in case. On his shoulder, Carla glared back at Makarov for a moment, getting a wink for her trouble, which caused her eyes to widen before she turned to look in the direction they were going.

Neither Laxus nor Carla saw Makarov breathe a sigh of relief behind him. "That wasn't very nice, master," Cana said, shaking her head at the old man's manipulation, having watched all this and seen the wink too.

"Bah. If he hadn't volunteered for it, you think he'd have followed my orders to trail them? You need to know how to motivate people, Cana-chan," Makarov said. He took the guild's copy of the mission that the Strauss siblings had decided to take, scowling at it before pushing it into his pocket. "I'll be leaving soon. You're in charge while I'm away Macao."

Macao, a middle-aged man who was going through a rough patch in his marriage at the moment, scowled but nodded as he looked around the guild. It looked as if he and Wakaba were the most senior members, and, of the two of them, he was also the only one sober at the moment. An issue Makarov solved by smacking Wakaba away from the bar with his Titan hand. "As for you, you drunk, help him out. Until I get back, no more drinking for either of you!"

Scowling, the diminutive Guild Master hopped off his stool and made for the door. "I'm going to go talk to the Magic Council. Laxus is right: there's something off about this mission, and I want to know what. I could swear I saw the same mission twenty years ago!"

Cana frowned at that, following him with her eyes until he was gone. Then she hopped over the bar and grabbed the first bottle of beer she could. "Oy!" Macao shouted.

"Heh. He said you and Wakaba over there can't drink. Never said nothing about me~~!" Cana, the newest addition to the guild's 'Lush Club' said, before downing the bottle and putting Master Makarov's words out of her mind.

 **OOOOOOO**

Caelum had been somewhat boring in terms of things to do beyond training, but Ranma and Wendy had both learned a lot from talking to and observing other water and air mages there. They had even developed a few dual attacks in the few months they stayed there, moving from island to island. But soon it was time to move on, and both Dragon Slayers were eager to explore Fiore, having heard a lot about Fiore as they traveled.

Ranma and Wendy soon arrived in Fiore at a small port called Cambletown, apparently named for a sailor who had found the tiny cove that made for a decent, if small, port. Ranma had heard that the place was famous for its fried fish, a small local type of freshwater fish which looked like piranha but tasted great.

The two Dragon Slayers bought several of them on sticks and began to walk around the town, happily munching on their meals as they walked. "Mm, so, do you know where we should go from here, Oni-chan?" Wendy asked.

"Nope," Ranma said cheerfully. "We'll need to find some maps or find someone to give us directions to Magnolia. Pity this place doesn't have a train station." As Wendy wrinkled her nose and went to speak, Ranma ruffled her hair, halting her words. "We could then just follow the tracks however long it took us to get to Magnolia."

Ranma paused as he noticed a sign nearby at a coach's hall. "'Beware of the beast?' I wonder what that is?" With Wendy following him, Ranma moved to ask a man working in the field next to several dozen heavy oxen. "Excuse me, but what's this about a beast?"

"The Beast, lad. You need to capitalize it. It's not a problem here, but further inland in the next district over. For all that, though, it's been bad for business here. If you want to know more, you'd have to head inland to that district. I wouldn't recommend it, though, since the last few teams of drovers who left haven't returned yet," the man replied, shaking his head sadly.

The two Dragon Slayers looked at one another, then Ranma shrugged, turning back to the other man. "Tell me, does this town have a library?"

"Hah! You're joking, aren't you? Don't even know anyone but the mayor who has more than two books to rub together. Leastwise, not ones they'd share with anyone. Hell, not even the taxman…"

"Right, got it," Ranma said, sighing. Even here in Fiore most peasants didn't own books. Most everyone Ranma had talked to in this world knew how to read, but that was a far cry from doing it for pleasure and thus having books.

He looked down at Wendy who stuffed the last of her fish into her mouth, chewing quickly then nodding up at him. With that the two Dragon Slayers left the town. After leaving the last building behind, they began to run, picking up speed as they went. About an hour later Wendy flagged, but she used her magic to hop into the air, flying on for another two hours before dropping down onto Ranma's shoulders. He didn't even slow down, simply reaching up with a hand to pat her head as he picked up further speed. "Should I use Vernier, Oni-chan?"

"Nah, we're not in that much of a hurry, and we have no idea how far we have to go. Better conserve your energy, Wendy-chan," Ranma replied.

Despite that rather negative assumption, Ranma was able to cover the distance between Cambletown and the next town within a day, with Wendy running with Ranma twice more before resting on his back for the rest of the journey. The two Dragon Slayers walked into town that very evening, and Ranma quickly found a inn for them. While Wendy was having a bath, Ranma went downstairs and found the innkeeper, asking him the same question he had asked the coachman back in the first town.

"The Beast? Aye, he's a problem around here. About three stories tall, with purple fur, green scales, horns, and claws, and all." The man said it with a bit of humor in his tone, but it was obvious he was trying to keep his own spirits up. "The town's lost a lot of people to it over the past few weeks. The mayor, he did the right thing by sending in a request for it to be killed, but it took a while for the Mages to figure out how to rate the damn thing."

"Hmm… That's not good. You hear that anyone has taken up the job?"

"Not yet, but I hear that it's been sent to the best guilds out there: Phantom, Fairy, Pegasus, Scale, even a few more," the innkeeper said, shortening the names as if the guilds themselves were living people and were famous to boot.

"Huh. Okay, that's interesting." _And means I might not have to deal with it. That's good, though I still want to know more about it._ "And you say it was this town's mayor who sent it out?"

"Yep," the innkeeper said, then frowned. "Funny thing, though. Could swear me grampie told me tales about the same kind of Beast."

That caused Ranma's eyes to narrow, but he left the discussion where it was, returning to the room. He found Wendy was asleep as he entered, but she opened her eyes, holding her hands out in silent plea for a hug. Ranma quickly swept her up in his arms, nuzzling into her hair for a moment. The two of them stayed that way before Ranma carried Wendy over to the room's small table, setting her into one chair as he took the other.

While pulling out some food he'd bought from his Requip space, Ranma explained what he was going to be doing. "So, we might stay here for a while so I can look into this. I'll hit up the library—it's a small one, apparently, but there is one here—tonight. Then, first thing tomorrow, I'll try to talk to this mayor. What do you want to do?"

"Hmmm… I'll stay here and read, I think, Oni-chan, unless you want my help?" Wendy asked. While she was a good fighter, she really never went out of her way to go looking for fights.

"No, that's fine. I'll leave some money tomorrow morning for you to use if you want to go out and buy things. I trust you remember the rules I've taught you about going around on your own?"

"Hai!" Wendy giggled. "Always be polite to people unless they're rude to me. Don't talk to strangers unless you are trying to buy something. Trust your sense of smell and stay away from anything that smells bad. Don't let anyone grab me, and if someone tries, kick them where it hurts."

"You got it!" Ranma replied, clapping slowly before leaning over the table to kiss Wendy on the forehead. "That's a good girl." Wendy giggled happily at that, and the two siblings ate their dinner.

After they finished, Ranma pulled out all the toys and books he had in his Requip space for Wendy before leaving the room and heading to the library. The library here was a single one story building, and not a large one. But it was still a library, full of books. Local history books were rare, but they were telling.

A few of them had short blurbs about 'the Beast' appearing, then being beaten or killed, and each time the Beast was slightly different in appearance, which might have been why no one had connected it. _Or no one around here realizes they could all be the same beast, or demon, resurrecting itself from its real body or cage or whatever the hell those things are._

It also apparently took a while, and the time between appearances was random—if there was a pattern there, Ranma couldn't see it—which might have been another reason why no one connected the dots. The last time had been over seventy years ago, so there was no one alive here who had been alive during the Beast's last permutation.

Sighing at that, Ranma moved toward the mayor's office. Much like the library, this was a small building, but it was a very busy one, with several people working on various ledgers in a row before the mayor's office. When he was informed that Ranma was a mage, the man still made time to speak for him, though he clammed up with Ranma admitted he wasn't part of a guild. "If you're not part of an official guild, why are you here?"

Surprised by the way the mayor had changed his tune at that, Ranma shrugged. "I wanted to learn more about the Beast. Does it have a common hunting ground? Where has it attacked the most? How wide is the area where it's attacks have been reported? How many attacks haven't been reported, but are thought to have occurred?" Given his remit as the official King's Conclave Demon Hunter, Ranma took his job seriously.

The mayor blinked, then narrowed his eyes. "Why do you want to know?"

"I've killed creatures like this Beast before. I want to know about this one so I can hunt it in the same way," Ranma replied easily. _After all, that's pretty much the truth, isn't it? Though I had to do precious little actual hunting against the other demons I've killed._

"We've already paid the Mage Council and received word that an S-class mage has been dispatched from a fully accredited guild." The mayor said, waving Ranma off. "I thank you for your interest, but your services are not wanted or required here, Wanderer."

Ranma blinked. "Wait, what?"

But the mayor had already turned away and Ranma noticed the other workers in the open office were also giving him looks. Not as if he was diseased, but as if he wasn't trusted, a look he had last seen in Midi. _What the heck? Are guilds that important here? Even in Seven I never received that kind of reaction._

Returning to the inn where he had left Wendy, he asked the innkeeper about it, and the man shrugged. "That attitude's coming from two points: one, wandering mages just aren't as trusted by law abidin' citizens as guild mages are. Guild mages have to obey rules, follow through on requests, and, if they don't, can be punished via the law; wandering mages can't. And most wandering mages are either too weak to matter or are criminals here in Fiore. I'm from Caelum myself, so I know that ain't always the case, but most Fiorans don't realize that."

As Ranma nodded at that, the man went on. "And for another, what happens here in Fiore is there's bit of back and forth for getting your jobs approved. Ya write off to the MC, er that's Mage Council, what's going on, they give you a figure, there's haggling, then you send in the agreed upon amount, which is held by the MC until the mages who take the job arrive and take care of whatever it is. You can go around that if you've got a guild in yer town or city, but that's the normal way of doing it."

"Huh. Doesn't seem very efficient."

"Since when do the words government and efficient ever go hand in hand, mate?" the man replied with a laugh.

Ranma laughed too even as he thought. _The mayor obviously is worried I'll beat the Beast and then demand money, money they've already paid to the MC. And they also just as obviously don't trust mages unless they're part of an accredited guild. Well, whatever, that just means I'll have to do this the hard way._

Returning to their room, Ranma explained to Wendy what was going on and then began to explore the town with her. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much to do here, since this was a small town, off the beaten path for the most part. The town didn't even have any shops that sold maps except for just the area surrounding it, rather than the district in general.

Still, Ranma bought one of them, and then that evening after putting Wendy to bed, snuck into the mayor's office. He found a few dozen papers which gave him some direction as to where the attacks had been occurring as well as the times of those attacks. There were others which spoke of disappearances, farms that had been emptied of people, and loggers or even just hunters who hadn't returned, so Ranma had a general idea of where the Beast had first appeared.

He also learned that the mayor of this town actually wasn't the only one who had reported the Beast. He and four others, including one from a larger town called Yellowstone, had pooled their money to pay for an S-class request. _So the Beast actually isn't just from around here. That means I'll have a wider area to search for it, damn it._

The next day Ranma decided the two Dragon Slayers could move on to Yellowstone. There he ran into the same sort of disdain from the mayor as he had in the first, but he got a larger, more detailed map and, when he once more practiced his stealth skills, found that the mayor here actually had a map showing where the attacks had been reported, including the ones Ranma had learned about in the last town.

There were also far more people and more things to do in this town, so Ranma had no qualms about leaving Wendy there for a day. Once more he explained to her what he would be doing, as the skies overhead began to darken, promising rain. Wendy, however, was adamant that she wanted to go around and explore for a bit. "Hmmm… Okay, Wendy. In that case I'll leave my Song Silk robe with you. That'll keep you dry. Don't want the healer to get sick, do we?"

"Mm!" Wendy replied, hugging Ranma around the waist. "Don't worry, Oni-chan, I'll be here all ready to heal you again." Then she pulled back, waving an admonishing finger in front of her. "But if you come back really hurt again, Oni-chan, I'll be giving you a stern talking to. And I'll tie you to the bed so you'll have to listen!"

"Oh, really? You and what army!?" Ranma replied, reaching forward with both hands to start tickling Wendy unmercifully despite her best attempts to run away.

Soon after that Ranma left the town, running out into the fields beyond and then beyond that into the hills to the west. There he began to look around for any sign of the Beast. He soon began to find plenty, along with signs of recent fighting: smashed trees, deep furrows of the ground, crushed rocks, and other things, as he moved deeper into the small mountain range.

At that point rain began to fall, and Ranma, mindful of wanting to conserve his magic power, let it hit, drawing some into her mouth after she changed. The redhead then began to move deeper into the mountains, no longer following the trail of combat, but away, circling around it. _If the demon is but a product of something like that totem I destroyed in Desierto, it would lead the mages away from its prison or real body or gah! Okay let's just call it the demon's real body from now on; it's easier that way. Besides, since that asshole Plague-whatever had been able to escape at any time, I doubt prison was ever really applicable._

About ten minutes after she began to circle around the fighting, Ranma stopped, sniffing the air. _That's a smell I haven't smelt in years… Now there could be other assholes out there that smell of electrical current and dragon scales, but…_

Moving in the direction where the smell was strongest despite the rain, he found his quarry standing in the shadows of a tree overlooking the fight. Ranma looked in that direction and saw three mages who had to be related, given their hair color, squaring off against the Beast, who looked like a demon for certain. _Yep, called that one._

Turning away from that, Ranma leaped up next to Laxus, who had turned, the wind having just changed direction enough to carry Ranma's scent to him despite the rain. "Yo, Sparky. Long time no see."

"Ranma!" Laxus reached out, grabbing Ranma's forearm in a warrior's clasp. "I'd give you a manly hug right now, but that would be kind of awkward," he went on, shaking his head and waving a hand at Ranma's current form.

"Yeah. But we can catch up later. Listen, that Beast they're fighting down there…" Ranma quickly explained why she was there and hunting the demon. She didn't tell Laxus she was a Ranger, only that she had been hired to hunt down rumors of demons, not saying who hired her just yet. Despite it having been years since they had seen one another, she did trust Laxus, but it would take too long to explain.

Laxus listened intently, wondering how the hell Carla had figured out something was going on here before shaking his head. "You're right, we can catch up later. I've got a shit ton of questions I'd love to ask you, but right now I think we need to concentrate on this. So you think we need to smash this totem thing before we can really kill the demon? That we're just dealing with the body?"

"That's right," Ranma replied. "The problem is that I figure it could reconstitute its body immediately if it wanted to. It's certainly killed enough people since it showed up this time. I…" She broke off as one of the mages below, the leader, if Ranma was any judge, landed a powerful blow on the demon in return for taking one herself. There was a sickening crack heard over the sound of the rain as the mage's arm broke, but the Beast's chest was shattered in turn, hurling it backwards.

Ranma whistled in appreciation. "That was damn brave of that girl, protecting that guy there. Her arms got to be busted in several places though."

"That's Mirajane, and, fuck it, Carla was right. Protecting her siblings on an S-class mission is too much. Still, she seems to have… What the?" Laxus cut himself off, staring at Ranma's face where small black whorls had appeared around her eyes. "Ranma, where did the tattoos come from?"

Making no indication that she had heard the other Dragon Slayer's words, Ranma continued to stare down at the battlefield below. The second girl, who had been transformed into some kind of harpy creature, had shifted back to what Ranma supposed was her normal form and run over to the one Laxus had called Mirajane. The other Fairy Tail mage, the young man down there who had arms that looked like a minotaur's, had made his way over to the dying demon and laid his hand on it. The man's arm had gone back to normal, as he did.

But that wasn't all Ranma was seeing. Her odd, newfound power of spotting and understanding demonic energy she had gained from killing Plagutarno allowed her to see more than that. She hadn't been able to figure out anything about that before this no matter how hard she tried, but it was coming in handy now. She saw the spirit, the essence of the demon, leave its physical body and divide. Half of it entered the man, while the other half rose unseen into the air where she lost it. "Did you see that!?"

"See what?" Laxus asked, worried by the tone in his old rival's voice. "It's just Elfman trying to Take Over the… Oh no, don't tell me. Did that thing's soul just take him over instead?"

"Yes, damn it! And worse, it somehow divided too. The other half is gone now." Looking at Laxus, she asked, "Do you think you can search around for its main body and kill it? If it's divided, I have to believe the main body is strong enough to revive itself for some reason. I have no idea why, but…"

"Mirajane," Laxus said quickly, nodding down at the girl. "Her Take Over form is Satan Soul, so maybe there's some kind of connection there. If you can help my guild mates here, I'll search around for the main body…" In the distance a roar bellowed just as Elfman finished transforming into an exact replica of the beast he and his siblings had just been fighting. "Not that it's going to be difficult."

"Find the main totem thing!" Ranma shouted as she leaped down. "If you don't it can reform itself again later!"

Mirajane had thought it was over. Sure, her arm was broken badly, and she felt weaker than a kitten after the near to an hour running fight against the Beast. Whoever had labeled it S-class had not been kidding. But the fight had appeared over, a final Soul Extinction having caved in the Beast's chest, shattering ribs and perforating its insides.

That had been before she heard Lisanna's shout. "Elfman no!" The youngest Strauss had been hurrying to her older sister's help, only to turn back as Elfman didn't follow, instead moving toward the Beast's corpse.

Behind Lisanna's shoulder Mirajane saw Elfman touch the demon and pushed herself to her feat. "No, Elfman! It's too strong for you!"

But it was too late. Elfman had touched the demon's side and had entered the Take Over trance. An instant later, Elfman's body swelled, and the Beast stood there. It was around two stories tall, immensely broad in the shoulders, with a mix of fur and scales. Its fists were slightly larger than its body size would suggest, and its arms were almost apelike. It had horns coming from its head and a large beard, with deep-set red eyes devoid of any intelligence or hint of Elfman's personality.

"Elfman!" both sisters yelled as one, and a second later Lisanna put herself between Mira and their overcome brother. He raised a fist, bellowing a roar as Mira tried vainly to pull together enough magical power through her pain to resume her Take Over form.

Lisanna didn't even try to fight, simply standing there, holding her arms out wide. "Elfman, it's me, Lisanna. Come on, you can do this. Beat it back…"

The Beast made no sign it had heard her, simply bringing its fist around in a blow that would have crushed Lisanna had it landed. "Lisanna, run!" Mira shrieked, fear for her sibling nearly stopping her heart.

Then a red streak impacted the side of the Beast's head, hurling it to the side and away. The streak resolved itself into a short, buxom redhead. Mira's first thought was "Erza!?" Never before had she been happy to see her rival. But then she looked closer and noticed this girl wasn't wearing any armor, instead being dressed in loose silk shirt and pants, with soft slippers on her feet, of all things.

"Ain't Erza, whoever that is," Ranma said, looking behind her for a second before turning to the Beast once more. It had moved with her blow and now leaped, first to one side, then away, launching a beam attack from its mouth. "Soryu no Shahei Kyutai (Water Dragon's Shielding Globe)!"

As her wall of water fought against the Beast's beam, Ranma looked back at the two girls. Both of them had started at the 'Water Dragon' part of his attack, but Ranma set that aside. "Listen, I ain't ever tried to fight a Take Over mage before." _And tried to keep them alive, anyway,_ she mentally added. "So, if I knock that thing out, will it force your brother back to his normal body?"

"Y, yes," Lisanna said, slumping to her knees in relief. "If you can do that without hurting him…"

"Heh, never said that, miss. Just asked about the knocking out thing," Ranma said, leaping forward. The Beast roared, clapping its hands in front of it, causing a shockwave to flash out through the air, but Ranma dodged it by pushing water out through her legs to jump up and over the attack, only to eat a beam attack from the Beast's mouth. Lisanna and Mira shouted in shock, but Ranma survived the attack, even though it hurled her away and broke some bones, the beam acting more as a kinetic force than a heat beam like those Plagutarno had used. She also, somehow, was able to push herself just out of the beams straight path somehow.

The beam still hurled her away to crash through some trees before she hammered into a boulder, which cracked under the impact. The demon roared triumphantly, launching itself after her, but Ranma once more gathered a geyser of water under her feet and shot forward, gut checking the Beast with both her escrima clubs held up above her head like the battering ram on the prow of a ship. The Beast cried out in agony as its own weight met Ranma's momentum, nearly causing it to cave in around the hit for a moment before it was sent flying backwards.

Mira winced, shaking her head in something like admiration as the redhead started to wale on the Beast. As fast and as agile as the Beast was, and it really was despite its size, something that had caught Mira by surprise several times, the Erza-lookalike sans armor was jumping around it even faster than Lisanna had been able to in her Take Over rabbit form. Still, the Beast's sheer mass and its healing power seemed to take Ranma by surprise, its moves quickly becoming more certain and quick despite its wounds from the gut check.

Its dexterity also took Ranma by surprise. One minute and the next Ranma had been driving tye beast back then the beast had used one hand to flip itself over an attack. A second later it kicked out at Ranma before launching into a series of punches far faster than anything its size should have been able to move.

Pushing herself to her feet, Mira growled, then began to gather her magical energy. A second later she was once more in her Satan Soul form, too weak to use her Sitri form. "Come on, Lisanna, we have to help her! That's our brother, and that means it's our mess to clean up!"

"R, right!" Lisanna said, quickly changing into her giant rabbit form in order to close with the fight before changing into her harpy form as they reached it.

Ranma might have warned the two off, but this demon's durability and, moreover, its speed was giving her fits. There was also something wonky going on with her combat instincts. It was as if they were trying to tell her two slightly different things at once, throwing off her concentration and coordination. _Damn it, I thought whatever changed in my magic core after I killed Plagutarno was small and barely noticeable! Guess it took facing another demon to really activate it, though!_

"Darkness Stream!" A beam of purple and black magic slammed into the demon's side, disrupting its attack on Ranma.

A second later Ranma saw Mirajane flying over the Beast, her own form also rather demonic, with a long reptilian tail, wide leathery wings, and claws on her hands and feet. "It tries to adapt. Mix up your magic if you can, or it will develop an immunity to your magic attacks. And don't get hit by that orange beam it shoots out form between its horns that acts like a massive electric shock!"

"Got it, thanks!" Ranma supplied, summoning up a water Dragon's Titan fist from midair right beside Lisanna and smashing it down into the demon, pinning it for a second before launching other attacks forward. Holding back from using her more dangerous techniques so as to not permanently harm Elfman was also holding her back. "Speaking of shocking, I wonder what the hell Laxus is up to?"

"Wait, Laxus? What do you mean!?" Mira shouted in reply, swooping down and grabbing onto the Beast's back. "Evil Spark!" Her own electric attack flashed from her clenching claws into the demon's hide, causing it to squeal in agony. Despite that it still threw her off, lashing out with its own attack at the same time, shooting out tendrils of darkness that flashed out from its form to smash all three mages away. "Okay, that was new…"

Ranma grunted, a portion of her instincts having attempted to tell her about the new attack while her other instincts had urged her to close in and finish the demon off. _I seriously need to figure out what the hell is happening there!_ That was for later, though. An instant later Ranma leaped forward, bearing Lisanna to the ground as the Beast lobbed another new attack out, a small black ball which exploded where Lisanna had been a minute ago.

Mira replied in kind, a Soul Extinction, smashing the ground right in front of the demon and hurling it off its feet, the Take Over mage unwilling to target the Beast itself with her more dangerous attacks. "See what I mean!? Now, what was that about Laxus!?"

"Is this really the time for that, sis!?" Lisanna yelled, hopping out of Ranma's arms and trying to gather her magical energy to reenter one of her Take Over forms.

Elsewhere, Laxus had streaked through the forest via his lightning teleportation towards the sound of the roar. The Beast there, while just as troublesome as the one Ranma and the two Strauss girls were facing, was facing one large disadvantage: Laxus was under no obligation to hold back as Ranma was being forced to. Laxus teleported this way and that around the beast, having already flash-fried some of its skin off with his other attacks. He had taken a few shots in turn and was looking much the worse for wear, not having Ranma's durability or healing factor, but with his teleportation ability he was even faster than Ranma, and the Beast's physical attacks were a non-factor.

Finally having built up his attack enough, Laxus roared out, "Rairyu no Netto!" From all his previous teleportation spots around the demon lanced out small bolts of lightning, all merging together into a net smashing into and through the Beast's body from numerous directions. So much electricity hit it at that point that its durability failed. The now sparking and smoking demon fell to its knees, and Laxus finished it with a "Rairyu no Hoko!" the Beast could barely look through its smoking eyeballs at the attack before it landed, crisping its flesh from its bones before almost atomizing it.

With that out of the way, Laxus once more began to leap around, peering through the rain all around as he tried to find the totem Ranma had told him would be here. With his teleportation ability he combed through several acres of mountainous forest in a bare few minutes. With that skill he was eventually able to find it.

The totem wasn't quite as Ranma had described. It wasn't an object, like the statuette of Plagutarno, but a massive picture of the Beast on the stone wall of a cave. If not for the light of his lightning teleportation, Laxus would have missed it. The painting was glowing a sickly green and black, its edges pulsing almost like a heart, its eyes a deep red that seem to track Laxus as he moved around it.

And in the center of the painting was a series of runes much like the ones Levy and Freed made use of, only raw, almost evil looking. They too pulsed with something like a heartbeat, and the ones over where the Beast's heart would be looked as if they had been drawn in fresh blood, despite the fact this painting might have been here for centuries.

But to the Lightning Dragon Slayer there was also the scent of the thing and the cave too: blood, lots of blood. Old blood, stale blood, dried blood, fresh blood. The cave reeked of it, like an abattoir gone wrong. And there were bones coating the floor, so many the original stone of the cave was completely obscured, old and new.

The urge to destroy the entire cave was too great to ignore and Laxus threw back his head, the muscles of his neck standing out starkly as he poured about a fourth of his total magical power into the attack. " **Rairyu no Hoko!** "

Back at the fight against the possessed Elfman, Mira fell to her knees. She could feel herself slowly losing consciousness from her wounds and magical exhaustion. Lisanna was crumpled nearby, having been hurled through a tree while Ranma had been busy pulling herself out of a ditch she'd made after taking another blast of the Beast's breath attack.

Mira's eyes widened as the Beast roared, and a white light appeared in the air above Lisanna's position. The light seemed to be some kind of gravity attack, because it picked up Lisanna and began to drag her up toward it. "Lisanna, no!" she shouted, trying to push herself to her feet, but her body wouldn't obey her.

Luckily, Ranma was there. The redhead launched herself forward, howling "Guns Magic: Overload!" The shots took the Beast in its eyes, sending it stumbling back and roaring in pain, though Ranma knew the Beast wasn't permanently damaged: it's durability was too high for that. But it still let Ranma grab Lisanna out of the air where she had nearly reached the light. She then hurled her towards Mira, taking a wild blow from the Beast as she did, which would have possibly killed Lisanna despite Ranma stopping her from entering the light, which had suddenly enlarged to fill the sky above them. Mira idly noted that whatever it was, the light was blocking the rainfall, then her sister's hurled body slammed into her, and the pain of that on top of her wounds and magical exhaustion nearly caused Mira to black out, and she howled in agony.

Ranma grimaced, hearing that, but it had either been that or try and shield Lisanna from the punch of the Beast. Standing up from where the blow had hurled her, she howled. "God freaking damn it, this whole not wanting to hurt you bad thing is for the damn birds!"

With that she lashed out again with two Titan fists, larger than most she conjured, slamming them down onto the Beast, pushing it down and holding it there, her teeth grimaced in effort. Despite the rain falling on her, renewing her magical reserves slowly, the effort of trying to fight her own instincts which were screaming at her about ways to kill the possessed Elfman, was taking a toll on her concentration and ability to actually wield her magic powers.

As she watched, however, the Beast gave out a last, despairing wail and slumped. Its body began to shrink, its features swiftly receding to reveal the form of Elfman, as in the distance Ranma heard a thunderous crash like a small avalanche.

Slowly Ranma allowed her technique to fade, breathing in deeply. Then she looked up as the light failed to fade. Whatever attack the demon had been launching was still there, hovering above them. As she watched, a body appeared from it, falling towards the ground, and the light flicked out.

Racing forward, Ranma lunched herself into the air, catching the body just as Laxus appeared in a flash of lightning. Ranma nodded to him, then looked down at the body she was holding, staring at Lisanna in shock. "How the heck…"

The redhead turned with Laxus to stare at Mira, who was still holding Lisanna's body. It was only then that they realized the two Lissannas wore different clothing. For a moment they were silent, then as Mira, who had also been staring at her sister's body double, began to faint, Ranma said quickly, "Whatever this is, it isn't my fault."

The last thing Mira heard before she blacked out was Laxus bellowing in laughter.

 **OOOOOOO**

Walking through the town, Wendy walked down the near-empty streets, being careful to not stand on the hem of the cloak she was wearing, a tough task, since it was so big it was almost like wearing a tent. The sky had opened up a few minutes after Ranma had left, but since Ranma had also left his cloak with her, the rain didn't bother her at all, the cloak covering her from head to toe. It was even warm too.

She squeaked, however, as the sound of thunder reached her ears. She had never liked that sound. Still, she was soon near to her destination, a small magic store that doubled as a book store. Wendy had spotted it while walking around with Ranma earlier that day.

Stepping inside she found a small, white haired cat standing nearby. Wendy would have probably squealed and bolted over to pat it, if not for the fact it was dressed in a very nice little dress and a was glaring out into the rain like the weather had personally insulted her. "Um, is something wrong?" Wendy asked hesitantly.

Carla turned from glaring out into the rain, irritated by both it and the fact Laxus had left her behind to stare up at the girl who had talked to her. While she knew she was next to useless in a fight, it still bothered Carla when Laxus left her behind every time he went into a combat situation. Her irritation at that and the weather, however, disappeared, and she tried not to stare at the girl from her visions. "Um, ahem, nothing is wrong. Just the weather. I loathe when people compare my species to cats most of the time, but some stereotypes cross over, and one of them is that I don't like rain."

While she didn't understand the word 'stereotypes,' Wendy nodded. "I see. Erm, I'm Wendy. What's your name?"

"Carla," Carla replied, smiling graciously and reaching up to shake the girl's hand.

"Erm, can, can I pet you?" Wendy asked, looking both shy and eager.

Rolling her eyes, Carla nodded. "Since you were polite enough to ask, yes, you may." A second later it was all Carla could do not to purr as Wendy petted her then lifted her up into the air nuzzling into her.

Carla might have objected to that, but then found herself pulled into a warm cloak. "If you want to go somewhere, I can take you like this, okay?" Wendy said brightly.

Still a little shocked about having met the young girl she'd had dreams about in the past, Carla shook her head. "No, I don't have anywhere in particular to go. I was waiting in town for an acquaintance to finish a job in the woods nearby. We didn't intend to stay in town for very long, so we didn't get a room."

"Oh! Then you can come with me. My Oni-chan and I have a room here. He's off on a mission too, so I'm alone there. We could even pick up some food on the way," Wendy said excitedly. The little cat-person was very fluffy and seemed nice, so Wendy was happy to see if she could make a new friend.

"That, that sounds very nice, actually," Carla said then began to ply the young girl with questions about herself, her brother, and anything else. Wendy answered readily and asked her own, mostly about Carla and her magic. Soon enough they were chatting like old friends, ensconced in the room Ranma had rented, playing a board game Ranma had bought on Buckler for the two of them.

For her part, Carla was both horrified and somewhat impressed by what she had heard about Wendy's life so far. She was horrified that the little girl was being dragged all around Ishgar by this reprobate of a brother, but she was also impressed that the girl could do so much with her magic already. She was also horrified by how Wendy sometimes spoke, a hint of a hick accent showing up sometimes, and how she dressed, in jeans and a t-shirt rather than a dress or a blouse and a skirt as any young lady should. It was obvious to Carla that the girl needed a real woman's touch in her life rather than this boy with the odd curse Wendy had mentioned, and Carla wondered how to go about giving that to her.

Later Wendy looked up as the door to her and Ranma's room opened and leaped to her feet excitedly, followed by Carla, moving with the girl toward the door. "Oni-chan, look! This is…" Wendy trailed off as she saw that Ranma wasn't alone. A tall, tough looking blonde was following her, and both of them were carrying other people on their shoulders or in their arms, three of whom were girls and all of whom both looked similar and smelled somewhat the same to Wendy.

For his part Ranma, who had changed back to his male form the moment 'she' had entered the inn, had stopped in the doorway, his eyes wide and fear streaking through her at the sight of the furry devil. There were a few things fighting the assumption that said furry demon was in fact a furry demon. Point one: furry demons didn't walk on their hind quarters. Point two: cat faces didn't look nearly as expressive as this creature's. Point three: while one could dress up a furry demon in clothing, there was a difference between that and one looking so natural in clothing as this one did, as it, this bore repeating, **stood on its hind legs**.

Before Ranma's mind could decide one way or another, further evidence was added. "Laxus, whatever happened to you all? And introduce yourself to a lady, you brute!" the white creature barked out, her tone that of a highborn lady affronted by the manners of the riffraff before her.

That allowed the Ranma OS to slot this new stimuli into an entirely new memory slot, that of the 'snarky furry thing,' rather than 'furry demon.' "Yeah, yeah. Introductions all around: I'm Ranma. Wendy, this is Laxus, you've heard me talk about him. But right now we need your help with these four."

Wendy nodded brusquely, her normal little girl attitude dropping away to be replaced by her nurse's personality, something she had perfected during their time in Minstrel with the Rebel Army. "Right, set them on the beds, two to a bed. Carla-chan, run downstairs and get some more pillows and blankets," she ordered. "We might need to elevate their heads if they've taken head wounds."

The small furry not a cat thing puffed up at being ordered about, torn between shock and something like irritation, but Laxus simply nodded at Wendy, setting Mira and Elfman on one bed while Ranma set the two Lisannas side by side. That sight seemed to cause Carla to break out of her stupor and race for the door as Laxus addressed Wendy. "Nice to meet another Dragon Slayer, even if you're like this one and were actually trained by a dragon rather than having a crystal embedded in you. How did you and Carla meet?"

"We ran into one another walking around town. It began to rain and she was stuck in a small store," Wendy replied absentmindedly as she looked the four siblings over. "This one is the worst injured," she said promptly, her hands hovering over the Lisanna lookalike Ranma had caught. There was a gash right below the hairline there and some blood crusted in her hair. "I think she might have a cracked skull… Back away for a second."

Looking at Ranma, Laxus did as Wendy ordered. "Is she really a decent healer? At her age?"

"Don't let Wendy's age fool you; she's great at healing. A lot of the Sky Dragon Slayer magic she knows is based off healing. Just watch," Ranma replied.

"Tenryu no Ochitsuita Tsubasa, (Sky Dragon's Soothing Wing)," Wendy intoned, sending a surge of her magic through the Lisanna lookalike's open mouth, nose and ears. As that spell began to work its way through her patient's body, Wendy held her other hand above the cut whispering, "Tenryu no Iyashino Iki (Sky Dragon's Healing Pulse)!" With the first spell having identified the injuries, the healing pulse went to work quickly healing the damage, even the damage Wendy couldn't see physically. After only a second, what would have possibly been a life threatening injury was healed to nothing, and Wendy stood back, smiling happily. "Next!"

Carla came back then, having done quite a bit better than requested. She was followed by the innkeeper who had three mattresses, which Ranma and Laxus helped him set up on the floor along with blankets, moving the healed to them after Wendy saw to them.

For her part, the only one who gave Wendy any trouble was Mirajane, who had fractured her arm. She had to asked Ranma to set the bone before healing it as good as new. Even so, not fifteen minutes after they returned, all four of the Strauss siblings were healed and laid out on their respective beds. Of course, Wendy couldn't do anything to help their magical exhaustion.

Having watched her work, Carla shook her head in admiration, though she was still trying to reconcile the shy, shrinking violet of a girl she had seen in her visions with the admittedly still shy, but confident and happy girl she had met today. Setting that mystery to the side for a moment, Carla looked between the two Lisannas. "Is this some kind of odd magical accident? Whatever happened out there, Laxus?"

"A near disaster, just like what you warned us might happen, Carla," Laxus explained, then looked over at Ranma. "You want to tell them or should I?"

"Er, you can tell them, I suppose. But first, what the heck is Carla? I mean, she looks like a furry demon, but she talks like a high class girl and dresses like one too."

"Hhmmf. At least you can recognize class when you hear it, you barbarian. Imagine, taking a young girl like Wendy around the peninsula as you have been!" Carla hissed, causing Ranma to flinch back slightly. "As for what I am, beyond being a lady, of course, is an Exceed. If you wish to know more about my race, I cannot help you. Myself and an oafish blue-furred buffoon of a tomcat are the only two of my race we have ever heard about."

"I found her about…I want to say a year and a half ago. She hatched from a giant egg." Laxus caught Ranma's look of confusion at that and rolled his eyes. "Don't ask. I think she began to speak within a month of hatching, which was way better than the other Exceed she's talking about. His name's Happy, and I'm of the opinion Natsu dropped him on his head a few times in the egg. Where they came from, no one knows."

"Hmmf. Don't act as if we're the only mystery around. After all, there are where you Dragon Slayers came from and this Lisanna look alike," Carla said. "Let us focus on this present issue."

Laxus and Ranma looked at one another, then shrugged. "Yeah, I got nothing. One minute there this light in the sky, which incidentally tries to suck Lisanna A up into itself, then there's Lisanna B falling out of it."

"I wasn't even there for that bit, so don't look at me, Carla." Carla scowled at that and opened her mouth, but Laxus shot her a glare. "Unless you have something constructive to say, I think that mystery has to remain an open book for now until Lisanna B wakes up."

Giggling, Wendy pulled Carla into her arms, hopping up in turn onto the bed next to Ranma and leaning against his side. "Oni-chan's told me a lot about the time you and he were together in Pergrande. Can you tell me more? Carla was telling me about Fairy Tail and some of its members."

"Huh. Well, I suppose we have nothing better to do until these four wake up. But I think your Oni-chan here should go first. I'm just freaking fascinated to learn how you two met," Laxus said, changing what he had been about to say there as Ranma gave him a glare.

His eyes then flicked back to Wendy. "I'm seriously interested in how he rates a nice, kind little girl like you, and all I get saddled with are older teen types who think they know everything! I mean, come on, there's the stripper, the combat freak, my first disciple who's both a rules addict and possibly a masochist, and then there's Mira, whose tongue could curdle milk and who liked to try to hit below the belt whenever I told her I wasn't interested in training her. When I first heard about you traveling with a child I thought maybe you'd know a measure of my suffering, but noooo!" Laxus growled, looking as if he wanted to reach over and hit Ranma.

"But surely Carla is a help?" Wendy asked innocently. She didn't understand some of the words Laxus had used there, but understood that he was complaining about having to take care of troublesome children. Having met more than a few brats and bullies when she and Ranma stayed in one city or another, she understood that.

Laxus and Carla looked at one another, and then Carla gave a regal sniff and looked away while Laxus rolled his eyes. "Let's just say that Carla's and my personalities clash and leave it at that." Laxus hated taking orders, was the very definition of a loner for the most part, and didn't exactly have the greatest caring manner. Carla was obstreperous, arrogant in her opinions and intellect, and was more than willing to insult anyone. She also seemed to want to try and steer Laxus' actions occasionally, and he didn't like that one bit, though he did tend to go along with things at times, just like this one. They might have gotten along when she was younger, but they had not been very close, and that had gotten worse as Carla grew up.

Now Laxus allowed a small smile to appear on her face. "I've never been much of a hugger like you are, girl, so there's that. And like Carla said, there's also a specific nuisance for her at the guild in the form of the other Exceed I mentioned." With that he looked over at Ranma. "So, like I said, you should go first."

"Well then, where to begin? I suppose I should start by saying that the Beast wasn't the first demon I've had a run in with. That honor goes to a big bastard named Deliora I ran into in Iceberg." Ranma began, while Laxus and Carla both listened intently along with Wendy. Ranma had a great gift for story-telling, which he had used on occasion during their travels.

From there, Laxus told Ranma about Fairy Tail and about another Dragon Slayer being there. "But Natsu has no more idea about where his father went than you have of dragons in general. He's also the combat junkie I mentioned earlier. It's like he can't stand not fighting, not flinging himself at the strongest opponent around with no real understanding of the concepts of training or tactics or styles; he plays it by ear all the time." Laxus scowled. "The irritating thing is, it works out a lot of the time, and he's got immense potential, both magically and as a fighter. It's just frustrating he isn't bright enough to really see how to make the most of it."

"Bah, at least Natsu is smart enough to know that the world does not revolve entirely around food. In that he is better than that blasted tomcat," Carla groused.

"True," Laxus groaned. At Wendy and Ranma's quizzical looks, Laxus explained about Happy's infatuation with Carla and his attempts to 'woo' her. Ranma and Wendy both blanched at the mention of how much the fish he had left at their apartment had stunk up the place, shuddering at what it must have been to a Dragon Slayer's sense of smell. Throughout this exchange Carla didn't even try to leave Wendy's lap, instead leaning back against her and looking more at peace than Laxus had ever seen her.

This interlude was interrupted by Ranma's brooch beginning to glow from where it still was pinned to his cloak, which hung in turn at the moment from the back of the door leading into the room. Ranma jumped to his feet and made for it. As he put the cloak on, the image of Queen Rose appeared, pulsing out from the lacrima to stare at him. "Ranma, we have a bit of an emergency, one that you told us several months back that you wished to have us label your particular bailiwick."

Laxus' eyes widened, but he stayed silent, shaking his head sharply as Carla made to ask a question. This looked important; questions could come later.

"A demon? Funny thing, Your Majesty, I just dealt with one such here in Fiore. A real nasty peace of work it was, too," Ranma said, nodding his thanks towards Laxus. "Where's this problem cropped up exactly?"

"Along my border with Stella. A group of demon cultists have found something and are trying to call forth a demon from a book they stole from somewhere. We don't know where, or even if it's real, but if it is…" Rose trailed off, shaking her head.

"Got it. But why can't you nip this in the bud on your own?"

Rose winced. "Ahh. I was hoping you wouldn't ask. But they are operating out of the lands of a noble who has been against my reforms, not" she said, attempting to take on the tone of an old man and actually succeeding to a startling degree. "That I have anything against a powerful government or getting rid of the slave trade, abhorrent practice. But there's something fundamentally wrong about a woman wielding such power. It'll go to her head, don't you know. Bound to in time."

Looking as if she wanted to spit, Rose changed back to her regular tone of voice with a sneer on her face. "So I can't just send in troops without substantive evidence that would hold up in court. The word of my spies would not, and should the existence of my spy ring get out, that too would be damning. No, I rather think this is a time for Ranger Oceana, or rather, the wandering mage Ranma to just wander into trouble once more."

Wendy giggled, coming around the image to stand beside Ranma and curtsying prettily. "And that's something we do so well, Your Majesty."

"Well, more your irresponsible poster child of a brother than you, my dear," Rose said, smiling at the little girl. They had yet to meet in person, but Rose had talked to Ranma and Wendy a few times when they were shadowing San Jiao Shi in Minstrel, and Rose had developed a soft spot for the girl, just as she had for Ranma.

"We'll be there as soon as possible, Your Majesty, though how fast that will be I can't say until we cross into Bosco. I have no idea about how far that is from our current position. I'll contact you then," Ranma said bowing his head formally.

"Manners, from you? Will wonders never cease?" Rose replied dryly, then cut the connection.

For a moment the room was silent, then Ranma turned, rubbing at his pigtail as he looked at Laxus, ignoring Carla for a moment who was also staring wide-eyed at Wendy and Ranma. "So um… yeah. I'm afraid me and Wendy have to go."

Laxus slowly shook his head. "Yeah, I can see that. So, you hadn't mentioned being a damned Ranger before this! By the One Magic, Rangers are rarer than Wizard Saints!"

"And just as mysterious as the Wizard Saints are visible," Ranma replied quickly. "So you can't go and blab about this. I wouldn't be half as effective if it became common knowledge."

Shaking his head, Laxus seemed to be stunned for a moment, then he guffawed. "You know, I used to think the two of us would remain relatively close in terms of power and skill. Even when I heard about your fights against that mage who had enthralled Capricorn I thought that. But now I think you've left me behind! Of course there's only one thing for me to do to rectify that: for me to push to become a Wizard Saint, the youngest Wizard Saint ever! That'll even up the score nicely, don't you think?"

Ranma laughed too, and the two men clasped forearms, thumping one another on the shoulder while Wendy looked on in confusion, and Carla rolled her eyes. _Men!_

A moment later Ranma and Wendy started to repack their gear prior to Ranma stuffing it all into his Requip space. At that point as Ranma was saying goodbye to Laxus and making a promise to make for Magnolia after this job was done (unless something else came up of course), Carla spoke up. "Take, take me with you!" she blurted, sounding both needy and uncertain, more uncertain than Laxus had ever seen her before. "Please, I would truly like to see more of the world, and…"

Carla fell silent, unable to come up with a way to explain her connection to Wendy in such a way that would make sense to Ranma. "And I think Wendy could use a real lady's influence to counterbalance yours," she said instead, rather lamely in her opinion.

However, Ranma didn't spot it, instead staring at the furry-demon-like Exceed in thought. Wendy spoke before he could, picking up Carla and hugging her to her, bringing out the full power of her puppy dog eye attack. Carly unconsciously added to the cuteness factor of the move so much that it went from having the ability to turn brains into mush to actually being cavity inducing. "Please, Ranma? I've always wanted a pet and more friends, and Carla can count as both!"

That caused Carla to look up at Wendy incredulously, spluttering with indignation, but Ranma ignored that, rubbing at Wendy's head thoughtfully as he looked first at Carla, then over to Laxus. Ranma actually wasn't against the idea, though he didn't think much of what he had seen of Carla so far. However that was a secondary consideration to his main idea: that the Exceed could, given her furry demon appearance, help Ranma figure out a way to beat the Neko-ken. And if he mastered the Neko-ken, his combat abilities would sky rocket! "What do you think, Laxus?"

"I think Carla's her own cat woman, and I think she is grasping this chance to escape the guild and Happy stalking her," Laxus replied dryly. "If you decide to take her with you, be warned: she's got a tongue on her that can strip off paint. And is a little too free with those little claws of hers. But it's up to you, Ranma. Can you handle taking care of a pampered Exceed who's never roughed it in her life along with little Wendy here?"

"Well, when you put it like that…"

Wendy and Carla both protested at that, and eventually Ranma caved. "All right, you can come with us, on a trial basis, at least. We'll see how you stand up to the trip to Bosco. For now, let's go!" Ranma said, turning to the door and not even slowing down as Wendy clambered up to her usual perch. "Missions like this are time sensitive."

Startled it took a moment for Carla to realize Ranma had just left her standing there. Only Wendy calling back to her got the Exceed in motion, and she immediately called forth her wings, hovering there in the air to stare at Laxus. He smiled at her and waved her off. "Go on, get out there. You and I both know we weren't exactly the most compatible of friends. I think you'll do fine with Wendy. I'll see you when Ranma finally follows through with his promise to stop by the guild one of these days."

Carla nodded, then, surprising Laxus, flew forward to kiss him on the check before turning to the window. "Be safe, Laxus, and remember: just because dating Evergreen didn't work out, that doesn't mean there aren't other ladies out there for you." Opening the window, Carla flew out into the rain to catch up with the other two Dragon Slayers, leaving Laxus alone with the four Strausses.

 **OOOOOOO**

Mira groaned, stretching slightly as her mind slowly came back online. _Ugh… Magical exhaustion sucks…_ Then the memory of what had been happening as she blacked out came back to her, and she made to get up only to have a heavy hand land on her shoulder, pushing her back down. "Don't," said a familiar and not altogether liked voice. "Your siblings are all safe. Just rest."

"Laxus?" Mira muttered, opening her eyes despite how bleary they were and turning in the direction of the voice. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Feh. Lucky for me I wasn't expecting you to be grateful," Laxus scoffed. "Carla had a feeling that something was wrong about this mission of yours, so she and I came after you. I ran into an old friend of mine and together we killed that demon that you were fighting."

"Wh, you mean the Beast?" Mira asked, her memories a jumble. "It was a demon? That makes sense, and I suppose that's why my brother lost control of its soul."

"That and the fact the soul in this case wasn't the entirety of the demon. Ranma explained it to me, sort of. It turns out that to kill demons like that you have to find their phylactery, the thing that is actually containing their souls. In this case it was an ancient looking painting in a cave way out there. Elfman's attempt to use Take Over split the thing's soul, and the other half reformed. I had to deal with it on my own before I destroyed the painting," Laxus replied.

"You had to fight that thing on your own? Ouch." Mira frowned, then slowly began to smile. "So, your friend's name is Ranma, huh? Is she your girlfriend?"

"GAHH!" Laxus groaned, holding his stomach as if he was sick. "NO! Just, no. There are more reasons than I care to list why that is not only just plain wrong, but disturbing. But yeah, Ranma's my friend. And without him, you might have died yesterday."

 _Or lost one of my siblings, or maybe even both of them,_ Mira thought, the idea of that causing her more pain than the idea of her own passing. She chuckled then, shaking her head. "Y'know, funny thing is, I must have taken a hit in the head near the end of that fight. I could swear I saw two Lisannas at one point. Funny how the head works." At that thought she looked down at her arm. "How'd you heal me, anyway?"

"As for that, Ranma had another girl with her. She healed you and your siblings in about fifteen minutes flat, the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Even Porlyusica would have been slower than that," Laxus said, moving forward and sliding one hand underneath Mira's pillow, lifting it up and sliding in another pillow. "And as for your seeing two Lisannas, you did."

Mira's eyes widened as she stared at the two mattresses laid out along the feet of the two beds in the room. On both of them lay a Lisanna. They were exactly alike, though one had a tiny scar along her hair line, and they were wearing different clothing. "Wh, what the freaking hell!?"

Both Lisannas and Elfman stirred at her shout. Elfman sat up abruptly, staring around, his face horrified until he saw his siblings. Then the fearful guilty look on his face faded into one of shock before his eyes rolled back up into his head and he slumped back onto the bed.

"Mou, Mira-nee, why're you shouting?" one Lisanna muttered, while the other simply whimpered, holding her head before blinking.

A second later the first Lisanna looked up in shock as her own voice reached her from nearby. "Mira-nee, what happened? The last thing I remember is…"

Both Lisanna's sat up as one and stared at one another while nearby Laxus smirked and leaned back, more than happy to let the chaos of this moment carry itself out. To his surprise, however, Lisanna A, the one wearing the clothing he remembered her wearing when the Strausses left the guild, simply frowned in confusion. "Hmm… Some kind of weird mirror magic?"

"Huh, that's actually not a bad guess," Laxus said with a chuckle.

Lisanna B looked at them all, then seemed to stare at Laxus. "La, Laxus? But, but how… You're dead! I saw your body! You… This is…" Then her eyes looked over to Elfman and her eyes widened further. "What's going on!? When did Elfman become so tanned, or so buff!?"

Lisanna A had jumped up to race over to her older sister, intent on checking her out, but seeing Mira moving her arm easily and the growing distress on her own face, Lisanna instead turned in her direction, moving to sit on the same mattress and pulling her body double into a hug. "There, there. I don't know what's going on or where you came from, but we'll get to the bottom of this, okay?"

Gulping in air, Lisanna B slowly backed away from her complete mental breakdown and nodded shakily. "Th, thank you... Just, just answer me one question: are you all still members of Fairy Tail?"

"Hell yes!" Said Laxus and Mira as one. They looked at one another, then laughed and Lisanna B joined in wetly.

It took a while, but eventually the story came out. Lisanna B, who quickly agreed with Lisanna to change her name to Anna, came from an alternate universe of some kind. A world where Magic was scarce, and Fairy Tail was outlawed for their use of it and refusing to follow orders from the King of Edolas, a nation which apparently covered the entire peninsula of Ishgar. How she had gotten here or what that meant, she had no idea.

Eventually Laxus decided that they had to head back to the guild to get Makarov's opinion on things. That and everyone's reactions to a second Lisanna coming back with them would be hilarious. By the look on her face when he said it was time to head home, Mira was thinking the same thing. That and deeper, guilty looking thoughts, much like Elfman who had been noticeably silent since waking up. Still, Laxus was confident they'd get through it eventually.

The trip back to the guild was dominated by Anna and Lisanna chattering away at one another, becoming seemingly the best of friends almost instantly. Mira seemed happy about that, while Elfman looked bemused, and Laxus drowned them all out with his headphones on max. Eventually they were home, and Laxus hurled open the doors. "We're back, you bastards!"

The guild members present all turned and shouted welcome back and other things, only to grind to a halt as they stared at the two Lisannas coming in behind Laxus and Mira. "What the hell!?" was the general consensus at that point. Cana and a few others had been caught mid drink and were now pouring their drinks down their fronts rather than their throats, and Makarov had slumped sideways, his eyes wide and unseeing. Laxus idly noted that Erza was nowhere in sight, probably out on her mission still, since it had been one with an investigation side to it. Gray too was missing.

But the best reaction was from Natsu. He had charged forward, either to attack Laxus or to greet Lisanna, but stumbled to a halt so fast he lost his footing flipping forward head over heels to land at Mira's feet. Happy too had looked shocked, falling backwards off the table he had been standing on, muttering, "two mamas?"

"Ara, Natsu. I like a guy falling for me as much as any gal, but I don't think I'd approve of you two-timing my sister," Mira drawled, standing to one side.

"Natsu!" shouted Anna and Lisanna, moving forward as one to help him up. They looked at one another, then giggled and pulled Natsu up into a three-way hug before moving over to the nearest table and once more chattering away. Natsu just stared, his eyes wide as he turned his head back and forth between them.

"What the hell happened out there, Laxus?" Makarov asked, having recovered from his surprise.

The two S-class mages moved over to him, sitting down next to him. "That, Old Man, is a very long story…"

After leading the two younger mages into his office, Makarov listened intently to the battle from beginning to end, with Mira speaking first, then Laxus. When Laxus described the painting and the feel of it, he shuddered along with the two mages, then grasped his grandson's hand, squeezing it tightly, both for destroying it and for the role he had played in saving several of the guild's other children. Makarov also became more interested in this Ranma person now than ever before. _But I could have sworn that Laxus said Ranma was a guy?_

Shrugging off that mystery Makarov looked over at Lis, who he had asked to join them. "Well, I hate to say it, but I don't know anything about this Edolas place. And I've never heard about someone traveling between universes like that. I will keep my eye out for any information on that, but know, my dear, you are welcome here. For now, I think we should probably keep the idea of you coming from another world secret. I can't imagine that the Magic Council would react calmly to the idea of other worlds, especially one which is losing its magic for some reason. They would be afraid you might try to somehow steal ours or simply invade and would overreact for certain."

"Erm, thank you, sir, and I agree. Like I told my family and Laxus, I have no idea how I wound up here, but I did, and that means someone back home might have found a way to get here too," Anna said, looking uncomfortable.

"What's the matter, my dear?" Makarov asked, seeing that the girl was feeling that way because of him.

"Well, it's just, most of the people I see here I know from the Fairy Tail guild in my own world. But I don't recognize you, sir. And that blue cat… Something's off about him too, though I can't for the life of me remember what."

"Huh," Makarov muttered, frowning at that while also thinking about Carla's absence. He hoped she wouldn't be away for too long, but if she wanted to follow this young girl around, who was he to tell her she couldn't? Happy will be saddened by it however.

Setting that thought aside, "Well, perhaps I too died at some point like Laxus. You say he was guild master when he died?" Anna nodded, not seeing the smirk on Laxus' face at that news or the eye-roll Makarov made before he continued. "Well in that case my dying earlier, possibly before you even joined the guild, makes sense. Are there any other changes you've noticed?"

Anna laughed. "Well, there are a few mages missing I think, including one of my better friends named Juvia. I'll have to look for her, I think. I'd like to get to know her here too. But as for mages being here that weren't part of the guild back home? Um… There is one. Mira-nee mentioned something about an Erza? Well, um… In my world there's an Erza Knightwalker, but she's not part of the guild. In fact…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma growled angrily as he smashed the head of a would-be cultist into the ground, then flipped up and over him. "Now, Wendy!"

"Hai, Oni-chan! Tenryu no HOKO!" Wendy shouted, slamming a full powered breath attack into the group of cultists between him and the book they had been reading from. They all screamed, hurled every which way or just hammered down into the ground.

With the way clear Ranma barely touched the ground before leaping forward once more, grabbing at the book and the large candle stick that the cultists had been praying to. He hurled the candle stick up into the air, and a Water Dragon's Cutting Claw cut the thing in two just as it began to glow ominously. The glow snuffed out followed by a faint scream, and Ranma turned dropping the book and pulling out his pistols from his Requip space. "Guns Magic Rapid Fire!"

"Tenryu no Yokugeki! (Sky Dragon's Wing Attack)!" Wendy shouted from nearby. If the actual demon had manifested, Ranma would have quickly ordered her and Carla to run away. But against merely mortal enemies Ranma wasn't going to try and shield her from fighting.

 _Especially since this lot doesn't even have any mages among them,_ Ranma thought. _I wonder where Carla is._ He didn't see her and wondered if the cat-like Exceed had decided not to take part. She had certainly been horrified at the very idea of letting Wendy fight at all, but while Ranma could easily have dealt with the group of demon worshipers on his own, he might not have been able to get close enough to the demonic candle if he had. This way was much easier.

An instant later it was all over bar the cleanup. This time Ranma hadn't killed any of the cultists, since he had actual authority figures to turn to here in Bosco. "Great job, Wendy. That was a clean sweep, and no demon to fight this time either."

Wendy smiled at that, but the smile soon disappeared, and Ranma sighed. It was coming up onto the anniversary of Grandeeney's disappearance, and Wendy always became sad around this time of year. Ranma would continually try to cheer her up or take her mind off things, but sometimes it just didn't work, and Wendy would have to have a good cry in order to eventually feel better for herself.

As Ranma and Wendy were going around tying the injured up, then healing them, Carla finally showed up. "I still cannot believe you would let Wendy fight like that, you, you barbarian! I knew you were an uncouth, egotistical lout, but that is going entirely too far!"

"Carla, I like to help Oni-chan whenever I can. Besides, this time wasn't nearly as bad as a few other fights I've been in. They never even came close to me," Wendy replied before Ranma could.

"But they could have! A young lady your age should not be so close to danger. You should instead find a nice guild and settle down for a few years. Not be dragged hither and yon by this, this…" Carla stuttered to a halt, one claw pointing up at Ranma as he finished tying up the last of the cultists.

"You've called me a barbarian and uncouth lout already, so this time it should be either 'fool' or 'irresponsible buffoon.' You really need some more insults, y'know, though I appreciate the fact you don't actually curse in front of Wendy," Ranma commented, not looking up from his work until he finished tying up the last cultist. With that done he moved over to where he had dropped the book, pulling it open. Like the one he'd found down in Desierto, there was nothing inside but the word Zeref, written over and over. Growling, he pulled out some matches and set it alight.

Tossing the book away, he pulled out his pipe and tamped some of the Dragon's Breath into it, lighting it up before tossing the match away. The calming smell wafted over him and the area around him prompting Wendy to come over burrowing into Ranma's side and breathing in deeply.

"Grr…" Carla muttered, but followed them as they left the building. Ranma let loose a smoke ring, then handed the pipe down to Wendy, who held it nearby, smelling it with a smile on her face.

Ranma then spent a few minutes calling it in to Queen Rose, holding the two broken bits of the candle holder to show it to her. "I don't have any idea what this demon would have done or even if there was a demon inside it in the first place, but the cultists were very real. None of them match the description you gave me of Baron Fassano, though. Whatever he's up to against you doesn't include backing demon worshipers. You want me to turn them over to him?"

"Hmmm…" Rose said, her image becoming smaller as if she was leaning back. "I think so, yes. I have agents there, and if any of them 'escape' or are released for some reason before they are sent to the mines, well, that will give me another string to hold against him. You're certain they wouldn't be able to try and summon another demon?"

"I didn't say anything about that, but no I don't think so. Thing is, I have no idea how these cultists are figuring out how to try and summon these demons anyway. All the books they've been using just say Zeref's name over and over again. I can't tell you more than that."

"That is enough then. Turn them over to his men. Will you be coming by my capital again?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, Wendy and I are going to head out to sea again and make for Fiore."

"In that case I will say farewell for now, Ranma, and young Wendy too," Rose said with a smile before she cut the connection.

Several hours later Ranma had turned the cultists over to the locals. A little bit after that Ranma was walking through the forests of Bosco once more towards the nearest port, ignoring Carla's mutters as he smoked on his pipe and Wendy nuzzled into the back of Ranma's head. The Dragon's Breath helped Ranma keep calm as Carla lay on the top of his head, the feel of her body up there, the fur against his skin and hair bringing back bad memories.

He looked up, however, as he heard the boom of thunder in the distance and sighed, noticing it was also getting dark quickly. "Time to put up the tent, Wendy. Looks like it's going to rain."

"Kay," Wendy replied, hopping off his back. She still looked sad, since they were in a forest somewhat similar to the one where Grandeeney had left her.

Ranma quickly put up the tent, and the three travelers crawled in, Ranma hesitating just long enough as Carla entered to be caught some in the rain. But thanks to still wearing his Song Silk, Ranma didn't get wet. Pulling the cloak off, he set it aside, then reclaimed his pipe from Wendy once more before sitting down next to her. Carla had already pulled out a book to read to Wendy, the two of them exchanging a glance over the girl's head.

It had been about two weeks since Carla had joined them, and in that time they had not warmed to one another. Ranma was blocked from doing so because Carla, for all that she wasn't a cat, was enough of one to make him very uneasy around her. She was also demanding and very much a complainer when it came to life on the road. Even the tent and their sleeping bags, things that Ranma thought were almost like gifts from the gods, they were so amazing, did not meet her requirements.

For her part, Carla hated the fact Ranma was so uncouth, didn't seem to care about her opinion very often, and was a 'barbarian,' something that she told him practically every other hour. She also seemed to resent that Wendy always looked to him first rather than her when it came to any discussion between them. And she had also said at one point that his smell bothered her, which was odd, but since she couldn't explain why that was Ranma ignored it.

Yet for all that, both cat and man loved and cared for Wendy. And the two of them wanted to keep up her spirits up as she was feeling down at this point. So while Ranma set out Wendy's favorite meal, Carla read to the girl, with Ranma interjecting with noises here and there. Eventually Wendy fell asleep, cuddling Carla like a toy.

Ranma lifted them both up and placed them in the sleeping bags. He then smoked his Dragon's Breath pipe for a time as he began to meditate on his ki. It had been a while since he'd had time to simply mediate, since they had left Desierto, in fact. He was interrupted by a voice pulling him out of his meditation.

"Are, are you all right?" Carla asked.

Ranma looked up, only now noticing that Carla had left the sleeping bag. She stood in front of him, holding out a cup of hot chocolate. "D, don't misunderstand! I still don't like you or approve of the fact that Wendy looks up to you so much. But you looked cold, and we had already made some of this, so it would go to waste otherwise."

Taking the cup, Ranma sipped at it, smiling as the scent of it mixed with the Dragon's Breath. It was an odd combination, but a good one. He refrained from telling Carla he really didn't notice the cold much at all, not even in his past life and certainly not in this one.

The two of them were silent for a time, then Carla asked the question. She had woken up in an effort to hopefully bury the hatchet with Ranma. As long as they were both involved with Wendy, and it certainly looked like Ranma was going to be a permanent fixture in Wendy's life, they would have to learn to get along with one another. "You…you sometimes seem scared of me. I was wondering if you could tell me why."

Ranma paused, thinking about how to answer until he had a plausible story that made no mention of cross-dimensional travel. "I wasn't raised from a baby by Typhon like Grandeeney raised Wendy. I was found by him when I was around nine after running away from my old man. He was an asshole. A really good teacher; it's because of his training I am so good at fighting. But one of the things he tried to teach me was called the Cat Fist…"

After explaining about that, Ranma waited for Carla's reaction, which was horror, of course. "How? That's, that isn't training, it's child abuse!"

"Yep. So I ran away. Trouble is, it might have saved me from further pain, but I'm still terrified of ca, cats. There, I said it," Ranma said, shaking his head. He then looked at Carla. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to help me with that?"

Carla paused, then nodded slowly. "How about a trade? You let me help teach Wendy how to be a proper lady, and teach me as much as you can about how to fight, and I'll help you with that."

"I won't let you try and turn Wendy into a full time girly-girl; she wouldn't go for it. But other than that, you have a deal," Ranma said, holding out his hand. Carla held out her own tiny paw, and they shook hands as the rain outside the tent picked up once more.

End Chapter

* * *

Had a lot of issues thinking of how I wanted to end this chapter, but I decided to end it here. That lets me use the last time skip to cover the neko ken and Ranma's Demon Slayer magic. Just so it's clear, the year is now 782.

About Edolas and Makarov: I am of the opinion that Makarov would not know about Edolas. I very much doubt that Mistgun would explain it to him. Indeed, I doubt very much that Siegrain or whatever his name in Edolas was would tell anyone - he was desperate to work on his own to keep the two worlds separate, despite the fact that if he had more people to help, they might have been able to stop the Anima from activating anywhere long enough to suck in enough Etherano to keep the process going. He might have been forced to when he joined up, but even then, I think that Makarov would have been doing more to help him in closing the anima than in canon if he knew.

Jacob vs Ranma: This Jacob isn't as strong as he was in canon, being more than ten years younger. The battlefield was also against him to a phenomenal degree. Given those two points I think that Ranma defeating him, with difficulty, is believable. I also think it beyond silly to assume that Alvarez wouldn't send a Spriggan or two with the invasion fleet. I also know that Zeref said at one point he stopped the invasion plans just as much as the attack from Etherion, but I think that the loss of a Spriggan would be enough to force him to step in and stop any more actions from the 'failed experiment' who calls himself Zeref's son.

Demons in general: I've decided to make them, and Zeref by extension, darker and more obviously the products/examples of dark magic. Still uncertain if I'll have Zeref or Acknologia be the uber-villain of the piece.

Jenny: I've never used a blonde girl in a pairing before LOL. But seriously, I think she's the kind of person who would follow her emotions and also be very upfront about things. She'd also certainly be a bit of a flirt, In turn, I think at this point Ranma would sometimes like to let his hormones out to play. Jenny would just as certainly react badly to the story of Ranma's battle against Jacob et al. She would also eventually get over it. Whether or not something serious eventually occurs between them is something I will have to see about. However she IS going to be a lot stronger than in canon. I love the idea of having her be Mira's rival in more than just their modeling regardless of what I decide in terms of pairings.


	6. Chapter 6

Here is the next chapter of my normally patty on only story, Making Waves, put out to you in honor of St. Paddy's day! Stay safe if not sober guys and gals LOL.

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Finally Meeting**

 **Y** **ear 784**

Mirajane Strauss sighed happily as she entered the inn, pushing up her hood with one hand while moving to hold open the door for the other two girls with her. Though, given their heavy cloaks at present, the only thing that indicated they were female was their general shape: a bare hint of curves from one and much more pronounced curves on the other, almost as much as in Mira's own case. "Finally, we're dry and inside! Good grief, that rain is incredible."

"God, I know!" her sister said, pulling off her own hood and looking behind them out into the rain, which was coming down in sheets, as the third of the girls entered. The rain was so heavy she couldn't see a single person out on the streets, and she also saw that the rest of the inn's dining hall and even their common room was somewhat crowded from one end to the other. "It's almost enough to make me think that Juvia is in the area and having one of her moods."

"Your Phantom Guild friend isn't that predictable, Anna," Mira said, before turning to the third member of their party as she pulled off her cloak entirely, hanging it up on the nearby wall. This revealed the fact that she was wearing a long, dark purple dress which fell to just below her knees, with white ruffles along the bottom. The blouse accompanying it hugged her upper body, with two lines of buttons up the middle. The look set off her white hair and porcelain skin very well. Seeing her, no one could doubt that she was one of the top models of Fiore and many of the men in the inn began to gawk at her and her companions.

"I'm sorry about this, Bisca. If I'd known we'd run into such horrible weather I would never have asked you to accompany us on this modeling trip. But what with the rumors of that perverted newspaper reporter following models around, I wanted someone with us who could help spot him."

"I volunteered for this Mira remember? I wanted to do some shopping in the area anyway, and it's not like this is the first time I've been caught in the rain," Bisca said, waving that off easily. Like the other two, Bisca was a rare beauty, with green hair straight down to just below her shoulders, deep brown eyes with purple hints set into a gorgeous face, though not quite as good looking as Mira, with a few frown marks around her mouth. She was busty too, which was shown to good effect in her current garb—that of a cowgirl—though she was not as curvy as Mira.

Her lips, painted a dark red color, quirked upwards as she went on. "Besides, it was fun watching the two of you at work: Mirajane, the beautiful yet somehow dangerous seductress, and Anna, the unspoiled girl next-door. It was a perfect double whammy. No wonder Sorcerer's Weekly has always rated you as two of the top three 'girls I'd like to have as a girlfriend' since you started modeling."

Anna laughed. That wasn't her real name, though that was something that only her fellow Fairy Tail members knew about. She was the Lisanna that had somehow been transported to Earthland from Edolas. She had decided to switch her name to avoid confusion after only a few weeks of being in this new realm. Now, after two years, hearing that as her name was commonplace to her.

"As long as they know they can only look and never touch," Anna said, waving her hands down her body. "This is only for Natsu-kun to touch." The younger girl pouted then. "That is, if he ever grows up. I swear, I think he'd rather take part in a brawl than kiss a girl. How sad is that? Then again, Lisanna and I both think that once he does, it'll happen quickly. Until then, at least he likes to hang out with us."

"And that tells me a little too much about my sister's imagination. Ugh," Mira said, shaking her head. "You, Natsu and Lisanna's relationship is something I do not want to hear about, regardless of how far along you are."

"Are you sure?" her sister teased, looping one arm with Mira's. "After all, it's either talking about this or your relationship with Jenny."

As Bisca laughed in the background, Mira rolled her eyes her voice lowering as they moved through the crowd towards the bar where the innkeeper was busy with a few other customers. "Oh God, not that again. Jenny's my rival, not my lover! That was just a damn tabloid picture from a bad angle, that's all!"

"I don't know about that. After all, how often have Fairy Tail and Lamia Scale both accepted missions, and you both just happened to decide to take those missions?" Bisca asked, smirking at Mira as she joined the two of them.

"God, Bisca, not you too?" Mira moaned, pushing the other girl's shoulder. "There's nothing going on between Jenny and me."

 _That's my story, and I'm sticking to it,_ the demoness of Fairy Tail thought, ignoring the memories of one episode between the two of them. At the time, the two top models in Fiore had just dealt with a particularly irritating modeling job at a hotel, the photographers and director all having been perverted assholes.

The manager of the hotel whose promotion they had been doing hadn't been, thankfully. Since the girls had gone through with the job before blowing their tops, he'd had no problem paying for the damages after they had and then putting Jenny and Mira up for the night. It had seemed a sensible idea at the time to take their rivalry to the bar rather than outside at that point, and the two had ended up very, very drunk.

While nothing more than some heavy petting had gone on, both models had sworn not to repeat it. _Although, given the lack of acceptable boys in Fairy Tail, that option might look good in a few years. I might not be willing to go, what was the term that one asshole called it? Rug-muncher? I might not be willing to go down that road full time, but given the lack of alternatives…_

"Are you sure~~?" Anna teased.

"Positive," Mira said, setting that thought aside and ruffling her younger sister's hair with her free hand. She sobered slightly as they moved through the crowd, staring down at the displaced/alternate-dimensional sister that she had gained two years ago. There were times Mira still felt guilty about the Guild's inability to find a way to send her home, to her real siblings. But even Master Makarov had no idea how to even begin trying to create a spell that could send someone across dimensions. _Her siblings must miss her terribly or worse, think her dead. I can't imagine what I'd be like if I thought my siblings had died._

That was a lie, of course. Mira could all too easily think about what she would be like if her siblings had died. They nearly had on that mission two years ago, and it had taken her months to get over the guilt. She had eventually bounced back, surprisingly because of her friendship with Erza. The redhead had refused to let Mira wallow in guilt for something that hadn't actually happened, and it forced Mira to realize that the only way to truly protect her sisters and brother was to get stronger. And in many ways the entire event had forced Mira to grow up somewhat.

 _Not that I'm the only one who made that vow. Natsu did too, though he hasn't been as successful going about it thanks to his whole attention deficit thing,_ she thought with a small amount of fondness for her younger siblings' would-be beau. How Lisanna and Anna had agreed to share Natsu was something she just didn't want to think about, but the fact that they had and seemed to love the oblivious Dragon Slayer straddled the line between sweet and hilariously silly at times.

Finally reaching the bar, Mira smiled brightly at the innkeeper. "We'd like some mulled cider if you have any, please. And a room for three if you think this rain won't let up."

"We've rooms available, miss. Can't tell you about the rain, I'm afraid," the innkeeper said with a smile, hearts appearing in his eyes as he stared at the three beauties on the other side of the bar. He waved his hand at the rest of the room. "All this is just from people around the town getting in out of the rain. In fact…"

He quickly turned, hurling a wooden tankard at a man who had been about to launch into the second refrain of a bawdy song. The mug smacked into the side of the other man's head, sending him to the ground with a thump. "There are children present, Josef!" he shouted, eliciting giggles from all three Fairy Tail mages as well as hoots and hollers from the rest of the room.

The drunkard—Mira assumed that given the fact that the innkeeper knew his name and that none of the rest of the crowd had seemed surprised by the treatment—scowled. He made to stand up, but he was quickly pulled back into his chair by his friends, who pointed out that, yes, there were several children and teens present, all of whom looked soaked to the skin.

The rain had come up very suddenly. One second out it was all clear, then the next there were clouds in the sky and people wondering if it would rain, and a bare moment after that sheets of rain came down. There had been no gradual buildup: the weather had moved from clouds straight to near-typhoon levels of rain.

"You should try to find a seat by one of the fires, miss," a barmaid said from nearby, having moved up behind the three girls. She smiled at them as she handed over a tray full of empty mugs, though her smile was not nearly as sincere as the innkeeper's. Mira could see more than a hint of jealousy in her eyes as she looked at the three beauties. "I'll be right over with your drinks."

Bisca and the others moved in that direction, though the green haired girl paused a second to whisper, "And there better not be anything extra in those mugs. I'll know if there is."

"Do you think she would do that?" Anna asked, looking up at Bisca quizzically. Lisanna/Anna might have filled out pretty well over the last few years, but she hadn't added many inches to her height.

Bisca nodded. "That look in her eyes? That is the look of local pretty girl who doesn't like outside competition, though I also bet she's more a tease than anything else. She'd spit in your meal if she thought you're prettier than her and she could get away with it."

"Agreed, though I suppose you could say we would all have noticed," Mira said. Like Anna, she had worked occasionally as a barmaid at the guild, though she preferred to either take modeling jobs or work S-Class jobs on her own. Watching over the guildhall and the Guild members who congregated there was more Lisanna's thing than hers.

As they sat down, Mira caught Anna looking at her a smile on her face. "What?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Anna said with a laugh. "I just can't get how much you've mellowed over the years. I remember seeing you wearing that gothic outfit when I first showed up; it was enough to give me a near heart attack! There's no comparison to what you were like then and now." The fact that Mira's clothing had changed to be closer to what Anna's 'real' sister in Edolas wore was left unsaid in public like this.

"As much as I hate to say it, Erza was right. Not at the time," Mira added hastily. While she and Erza had mellowed with age, they were still rivals, if not as violent about it any longer. "But now that I'm older and my body's grown to match, I understand her point. Putting it all on display like that, with my body like it is now, would just make people think I was cheap."

"Not that it would hurt her to get out of that armor sometime," Mira finished then sighed, leaning back in her chair and sticking her legs out slightly towards the fire. It wasn't the most ladylike pose, but who cared so long as her legs got warmer? "Ha, but then again, why should she bother? It's not like there's all that many men in the guild worth the effort to impress." She said aloud, giving voice to her earlier thoughts on the subject.

When Anna made to object, Mira held up a finger, pointing at her dramatically. "Oh, please. Weren't you just complaining about how dense Natsu was?"

Anna scowled at that underhanded blow. _How dare Mira-nee use my own words against me!_ "Oh, yeah? Well what about Gray, or Loki, or Freed, or Bickslow? I know Laxus is sort of off limits thanks to how long you spent disliking him, and he has a girlfriend in another guild too, doesn't he?"

"Thank you for not mentioning any of the older guild members. They hit on me enough when I'm acting as a barmaid as it is," Mira replied dryly. "And as far as I know, Laxus might, though last I heard she could be breaking up with him."

Bisca remained silent, taking the tankard of mulled cider from the edgy maid and sipping before she let her leave with a nod directed at both the barmaid and her fellow mages.

Mira nodded back before counting off points on her fingers. "As for the others, let's go through the list. Gray? He's just like Natsu: he doesn't seem to have any idea of what sex is or even that girls should be interesting. All he and Natsu are interested in is fighting one another, getting stronger, and causing property damage. For Gray stripping comes somewhere in there, which is another point, of course."

At her little sister's look of confusion, Mira went on, making her face look as innocent as she could while she spoke in a bland tone of voice. "Why would I want to go out with the boy after seeing all he's got to offer?"

Shuddering at that accurate but oh-so traumatizing point, Anna attempted to rally her arguments while Bisca laughed agreement. "Okay, then what about Loki? He's supposed to be quite the lady's man, after all. Or Bickslow?"

Mira's lips quirked as she realized that Anna had discarded the idea of Freed. He could almost be in the same mold as Natsu and Gray in showing no interest in women, though in his case it wasn't just fighting he was interested in, but reading and perfecting his runes. _That and running after Laxus. Heh, yaoi fantasies galore there._

"Bickslow first. One, he's just as bad as Freed for trying to follow Laxus around. And third, he's just not my type: way too mouthy in a bad way, his looks are sort of against him, and while he's mouthy, he's never actually gone beyond crass comments, not even flirting."

"Loki then!" Anna replied triumphantly, though inwardly she knew she was losing this argument. _But I can tell that Onee-sama has been thinking about this for a while to have prepared arguments like this._

"Hah. If I wanted a one night stand and was willing to watch him hop from my bed straight to another, maybe. From what his girlfriends say he definitely knows what he's doing in the bedroom. He's certainly better looking than the others. But he isn't **real** enough for me. He's all about flirting, no substance or any desire to be in a real relationship. No, I'm afraid I'm probably going to remain single just as long as you technically will, waiting for Natsu to realize that there's more to girls than simply being friends with boobies," Mira finished, becoming deliberately crude at the end.

Bisca chuckled at that, but Anna scowled, deciding to turn away from the smug smirk on her sister's face for easier prey. "Oh, don't sit there all silent like that when you've got Alzack!"

Taking a sip from the mulled cider, Bisca let its warmth fill her while she worked to force a flush from her face. "Well, that would be nice if either of us could say more than a few romantic words to one another before blushing and going to pieces." She sighed, holding her mug in her lap for a second. "And lately it's just him doing the going to pieces thing. I was ready last week for him to ask me out, and what does he do: stumble, stutter, and then work up the courage to ask me to join him on a job!"

"Well, that's…romantic, right?" Mira tried, sharing a glance with her sister. All joking aside, Mira had only dated occasionally over the years, and none of her dates had gone farther than she and Jenny had in one drunken evening, nor had any of those relationships lasted longer than a few weeks. And while Lisanna and Anna had been 'dating' Natsu for years, with him that was more simply being really close friends than anything truly romantic. So Mira was sort of shooting in the dark and was honest enough to admit that to herself.

"No, not really. It was a bandit hunting trip up in the highlands, and it was boring beyond belief. Heck, even the bandits weren't much of an issue. We didn't exchange more than a few words that weren't job or magic related, or guns in general." Bisca sighed. "I want Alzack to at least show some courage, enough to talk about **us** , if you see what I mean. It might seem old-fashioned, but what if we go out on a date and get to the point where we're about to talk seriously, and he runs away at that point? That would hurt even worse that this limbo we're in. I like Alzack, I know I do, but there's a difference between liking someone and being in a relationship with him."

Realizing that this conversation was becoming just a little depressing, the three of them fell silent, watching the crowd around them and enjoying the warmth of their drinks and the fireplace. They looked up with several of the others in the room as the door to the inn banged open again. In stumbled a very short individual, covered from head to toe in a large cloak.

She stumbled, falling flat on her face, the hood flipping up as she squealed a little, shaking her head and sitting upright. "Stupid rain!" the little girl muttered, getting to her feet and moving towards the innkeeper, the cloak trailing behind her. As the trio of mages watched, she hopped up onto a bar stool and talked to the innkeeper, though now her words were drowned out by the noise of the crowd.

"Oh, she's so cute!" Anna squealed in a low tone. The next instant she swiftly got up, moving towards the child through the crowd, most of which had gone back to its own business.

"Good grief, when is she going to grow up beyond loving cute things?" Mira said with a laugh.

"Oh, like you're in any better," Bisca said, cocking her head to one side as she looked at the girl. From here they couldn't make out much of her features, but she had blue hair tied into two long ponytails and a very cute looking face.

"It takes one to know one," Mira shot back, pushing the other girl lightly in the shoulder.

Bisca chuckled, and the two of them stood up as Anna ushered the younger girl over to them. "Everyone, this is Wendy."

"Hello," Wendy said, smiling brightly, as she pulled off the large cloak she had been wearing, which was her Oni-chan's, of course. The young Dragon Slayer thought she recognized two of the girls as being two girls she'd healed a few years ago, but Wendy's long term memory for faces wasn't all that good. Their bodies had also changed quite a bit since then.

 _And mine hasn't,_ she thought, pouting a little and looking down at herself. At twelve years old, Wendy was about a foot taller than she had been when she had first met her Oni-chan. She was also stronger, tougher, and all-around looked like a very energetic, outdoorsy sort of twelve-year-old girl. What she didn't have was anything resembling a chest.

Wendy stared with beady eyes at the three older girls for a moment before shaking it off quickly. "Miss Anna has told me her name and that you're all from Fairy Tail, right? I've heard a lot about you and your guild, but what are you doing around here? Or are we really that near Magnolia, I think it's called?"

"You're about twelve day's travel by horseback or a day's travel by train from there, Wendy," Mira replied, patting the girl on her head. She noticed then that the girl's hair was actually dry, though her face was wet. Her clothing, which was a very well made blouse and dress combo that was bright yellow and blue, was also dry.

 _That is one really good cloak_ , Mira thought, then looked closer at the dress and blouse. _And an equally good combo there. What is that material? It looks like she's not even feeling the cold, not really._

"That looks cute," Mira said aloud, reaching out to tug lightly at the sleeve of Wendy's outfit.

Wendy smiled in reply. "You like it?" she asked, looking a little shy. "I just changed its color myself last night. I thought the design looked good on me with my hair, but Carla thought it looked a little too plain."

"Carla!" Anna and Mira said as one, looking at Wendy in surprise. Bisca had heard of Carla, of course, as had Anna, who had been a major help in getting Happy over her leaving the guild. But neither had ever met the cat-girl in person.

Mira asked the question they were all thinking. "Do you mean Carla, a little white-furred cat? She says her species isn't a cat species for some reason and she can use Magic to summon up tiny wings?"

Blinking Wendy nodded. "Ah, yes. She's been traveling with me and Oni-chan for the last two years or so? She's become my second best friend and was…" Wendy blinked, looking away. "Um, a major help a few months back…"

Before their conversation could go any further, the door to the inn banged open once more, and two other individuals entered. One of them was markedly short, shorter even than Wendy. Barely coming up to her waist, the tiny figure was dressed in a voluminous cloak which, if you looked closely enough, seemed about the right size for Wendy. The second was a redheaded girl somewhat short, but not too short as to be unusual.

She was not in a cloak. In fact, she wore what looked like jeans which didn't quite fit and a sleeve-less black shirt clinging to her upper body like a second skin. She was somewhat busty, Mira thought, and the shirt definitely put that on display, given how wet it was at present. More than one of the men in the room was staring at the sight, but no one seemed to have the courage to approach her given the scowl on her face.

The redhead was also growling under her breath as she wrung out her hair and glared at her diminutive companion. "Why the heck did **I** have to forgo my cloak, huh? Just because you don't want to get your freaking fur wet like a prissy little puss, then you asked Wendy for hers and then she gave me those big old puppy eyes she can do, and for what!?"

"I am a somewhat catlike creature, you oafish brute, as I am certain you are aware!" said the short figure, pushing back her hood to indeed reveal a face like that of a cat. But it had a less-pronounced snout, a little nose, and was far more expressive and mobile than a cat's. The individual was also standing on her back feet rather than all fours. "Getting our fur wet is quite a bit bigger of a deal than you humans getting your hair wet. You wouldn't want to deal with the smell or my temper when dealing with it!"

"Oh yeah, like your temper is all that good normally!" the redhead groused, gesturing to the innkeeper with one hand and then pointing over to where Wendy had stood up, waving at them through the crowd.

Wendy had already turned the instant the door had opened, waving her hands. The redhead smiled and moved in that direction, standing beside the fire for a second as she grabbed an empty mug from a nearby table. "You mind?" she asked rhetorically. Before the confused individual could ask, she gestured, and a ring of magic appeared around her arms before touching her shirt. There it seemed to pull the water out of her clothing and down her arm where it began to drip into the mug. He nodded at Wendy, then over at the three girls, blinking in surprise. "…Mirajane, right?"

"I am indeed, as Carla would no doubt tell you." Mira said, smiling at the redhead before twitching her eyes over to Carla, who was over by the innkeeper, possibly ordering food. At first Mira had thought the redhead was Erza. She was certainly built like the redheaded knight: tallish with decently broad shoulders and quite a good body from what Mira could see. Now that she was closer, she could see there were a lot of differences too, though their hair was indeedthe same color.

Yet that was a minor consideration as she put two and two together, and Mira pushed herself to her feet, moving over to the redhead. "You would be Ranma, correct? Laxus's friend?"

Ranma barely had a second to nod before Mira had quickly pulled her into a hug, ignoring the crow around them. Ranma blushed, feeling the other girl's breasts pressing against her own and stiffened, uncertain what to do until Mira went on. "I never got the chance to thank you! By the time I woke up you were gone! Where did you go? Why did you have to take off so quickly? Laxus said it was some kind of mission, but wouldn't tell us anything more."

"Yeah, well, that's kind of the nature of my work," Ranma said sheepishly, putting her arms around Mira in turn for a second. It'd been a long time since he he'd had any kind of contact with a sexy girl. _Despite what Carla thinks when she's transformed, she does not count! Damn hormones. Sometimes I wonder if they're worth the aggravation._ Then Ranma would remember that kiss he'd shared with Jenny several years ago and the kisses he'd gotten the last time he'd passed through Appledore, and would admit that they might well be.

"And you didn't have to thank me," Ranma went on aloud as Mira pulled back slightly, moving to her chair once more and gesturing Ranma into another one nearby that had just been vacated. Anna, however, took her turn to hug Ranma for Ranma's part in saving her, then hugged Wendy just as tightly, whispering a fervent thank you into the girl's ear. Lisanna knew that the girl's magic had saved her life when she arrived in Earthland.

While this was going on Ranma pulled the chair over and sat down. Once Anna released her, Wendy scrambled up into Ranma's lap, leaning back against her and sighing contentedly as Ranma pulled her cloak up over her like a blanket.

At a look from the other girls, Ranma shrugged her shoulders. "We've been on our feet for a few days trying to track down a Dark Guild. As for thanking me, you don't have to do that. Saving you and your siblings was more incidental then on purpose, I'm afraid. I was more in the area to kill that demon than anything else, and even that was luck, curse it."

"Luck or not, you really helped us out there, and I don't mind telling you that," Mira said, shaking her head. "I bit off more than I could chew on that mission, and I nearly got my siblings killed for it. If not for your arrival, that's what would've happened."

"Maybe, maybe not," Ranma said with a shrug. "Remember, my arrival didn't have anything to do with Laxus being there."

Mira opened her mouth and shut it, realizing that Ranma really didn't want any praise from this. "Um, that's true, I suppose, but it was really Wendy's healing spells that saved the day." With that and a beaming smile towards the now sleepy looking Wendy, Mira went on. "So, formal introductions. My name's Mirajane Strauss, as you no doubt remember. This is Anna. Carla's probably told you a lot about the guild, but…"

"But I'm the Lisanna who appeared in that flash of light," Anna said, holding out her hand to Carla to shake as the young female feline joined them, alighting on the ground after using her magic wings to fly over the crowd. "I chose the name Anna for convenience's sake."

"Charmed, if you are anything like your…twin I suppose?" Carla said. She absently patted Wendy's leg in passing before hopping up onto a chair of her own, using Wendy's cloak to add a bit more height.

This close to the female cat-person, Mira could tell she had changed over the last two or more years since they'd seen one another. She hadn't grown in height, but her choice of clothing had changed. Gone was her normal simple dress, replaced by pants and a shirt. At her side she wore a small pistol in a holster, and she had a tiny scar on one ear. Her eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked at Anna, as if she knew there was more to that story than the other girl was saying, but she didn't comment.

"I like to think so," Anna said with a smile.

Bisca held out her hands to Ranma and Carla in turn. "My name's Bisca Mulan. I wasn't a member of Fairy Tail before Carla left, so I doubt she's mentioned me."

"Meh, we've not talked as often about Fairy Tail as you might think, though I've been exchanging letters with Laxus for the past two years. Then again, he doesn't really mention a lot of the rest of the guild except for the other S-class members and a guy called Freed. Say's 'he's the most disturbingly attentive lackey I never wanted.'" Ranma finished, grinning.

"Hmm… Is that all?" Mira said, pouting, not even bothering to follow up on the Freed angle there for something that could be far juicer. _Or at least give me some answers on an old mystery_. "And here I thought for the longest time he was lying about you not being a girlfriend."

Ranma went still as stone and Wendy's eyes widened from her sleepy state. She quickly hopped off Ranma's lap, moving over to Carla, who also moved back while Ranma's eyes darkened as she stared at Mira. "I am going to show you something, and then you are going to take that back. If you don't, I'm going to hit you." Ranma paused and seemed to think before he went on. "And I don't think I'll stop any time soon."

"Oh?" Mira said, and Anna and Bisca both blanched as they saw her smile becoming almost sinister while a few men who had been checking the famous model out from within the anonymity of the crowd blanched and quickly looked away. "Sounds like fun. Let's see this 'one thing' then, and then we'll see if you can put your money where your mouth is."

"Huh, and now I'm tempted to skip straight to punching you." Ranma sighed theatrically, then picked up the now hot stein of water from where she'd set it down and dumped it over her head.

Mira's eyes widened in shock as she saw the change occur, and Bisca spewed out the drink she had been taking a sip from as Anna's eyes also widened. Gone was the red hair, replaced by black hair. Gone was the bust straining under a shirtless black shirt, replaced by a solid looking chest and wider shoulders. His legs, too, now filled in his pants better the length now matching his legs. "What in the heck?!"

"I know I'm new to this realm, but that isn't normal, is it?" Anna asked Bisca in a whispered aside. But Bisca ignored her, moving forward to look at Ranma as Mira did the same.

"This is my real body. The female body you saw first here and way back then is a curse I picked up when I was young, younger than even Wendy here. It turns me into a woman with the application of cold water. Warm water changes me back, as you just… Um, what are you two doing?"

Bisca and Mira were both patting Ranma's chest at the moment, with Mira going so far as to actually try to squeeze his pecs. She looked up at him with about as innocent an expression as she could manage. "Well, it could be fake somehow. It's um… it's better to make certain of these things…"

Mira trailed off as she felt Ranma's muscles under his shirt. _Damn, those are nice._ Ranma might not have been as bulky as Laxus, but he was actually quite a bit more powerful physically than he looked, and his muscles were the sort of perfection you only saw in someone who spent his life training to fight and actually fighting.

"I, I've never seen a spell like that before," Bisca muttered. "It could have been some kind of illusion magic." _Wow, he's even more ripped than Natsu and Gray! He's built on such a slim frame, but he's got so many muscles… Between him and Alzack…there's just no comparison._

To one side Wendy, who had hopped out of Ranma's lap, stared at what was going on, her face slowly flushing. "I'm feeling uncomfortable, but I don't know why, Carla."

"It's just a means of communication that adults often use which is far too much for a young lady like yourself. Pay it no mind," Carla ordered.

"I assure ya, the curse is one hundred percent real. And if ya don't mind, I've been wet enough times today. I'd rather not get wet again," Ranma said, directing the last sentence toward Anna, who had picked up a cup full of some kind of drink. "Or sticky."

"Really? That's a pity," Mira intoned, with the curve of her lips and her tone giving the words extra meaning.

Ranma stared at her deadpan, thanking Lady Luck for his 'training' with the ladies at Melona's. _I might not have had the 'full course', but at least in terms of flirting I can hold my own._ "Yes, you might say I know more about getting women wet than any man alive."

"HA!" Mira exclaimed, pulling back slightly while Bisca continued to run her hands around Ranma's muscles.

Ranma grabbed her hand and was holding it still, letting their fingers intertwine. Bisca simply blushed, staring into his eyes but not trying to back away. This was the closest she had ever gotten to actually flirting with a man in a while, and though the curse had initially shocked her, she found she liked the contact. It took a cough from Carla to make her break away.

"Still, there's only one way to make me really believe that you just changed genders entirely," Mira went on, smirking at Ranma.

"If you're gonna ask me to strip or something, I decline. We hardly know one another, after all," Ranma quipped.

At that Bisca regained her somewhat scattered senses and moved back to her chair, with Mira doing the same.

None of them noticed the crowd around them which had noticed the sex change and, as one, had backed away from their drinks. Only a shout of, "You bastards, daring to impugn my product! If you think something like that could be caused by anything I sell, you've got rocks in your head," from the innkeeper broke the stasis.

After that the crowd began to calm down, but they still all shifted away from the fireplace where the mages had congregated. Even here in Fiore odd magic like Ranma's was best avoided by the general populace.

"Heh. Okay, I'll agree that's a darn good reason for you and Laxus to not be dating. Unless you swing that way, of course," Mira said. She watched with a smirk as Ranma shuddered, pulling Wendy back into his lap as if to use the little girl like a shield against the very idea.

"You know, Happy was really distraught you left like you did, Carla," Anna said in an effort to change the subject, while internally grinning. _Oh, wait until Lis hears about this! Mira's finally showing real interest in a guy,_ _and not only is it Laxus' old friend, but he's also able to transform into a girl which just happens to be the same girl that saved us against the Beast!_ "Even with my arrival it really hit him hard. You could have written at some point, couldn't you?"

"Hmmf. That supposes we were in any position to send a note. Or that I had any interest in feeding that tomcat's unnatural fixation on me," Carla intoned, rolling her eyes. "Honestly, just because I am the first female of our species he's seen, he latches onto me like a limpet." She held up a paw when Mira made to speak. "You know its true, Mira. He always followed me around, never trying to actually learn about my personality or even my likes and dislikes, just thrusting fish in my face. It was beyond annoying and not at all flattering!"

Mira and Anna looked at one another, trying to think of a counter argument and failing, before turning back to Ranma, who had watched this exchange with amusement. "You said you were hunting down a Dark Guild? You do know that's illegal unless you've got a writ from the Magic Council?" Mira asked

"Not for me," Ranma said with a shrug, while Wendy started to fall asleep again against his chest. "I'm not from Fiore, and my hunt for this guild began down in Bosco under the command of Queen Rose. As for why, there were rumors of the Dark Guild Eisenwald trying to find and unseal a weapon left behind by the dark mage Zeref." Ranma's eyes glimmered darkly, and Mira felt a thrill as she saw something violent and fell there. "Ya might say that dealing with stuff like that, especially demons, is my specialty."

With a sigh, Ranma leaned back, hugging Wendy to him as he explained. "Unfortunately, the guild split up and I decided to follow their leader, thinking he would be the one to unseal it. Then they split up even more, and I lost the actual scent and wound up following the wrong trail. After dealing with seven of their mages, I learned that I'd been wrong all along: it wasn't their leader, a guy named Eri-something, who was going to unseal it at all, but a guy named Kaggie or some such that had split off with an even smaller group right before I initially started trailing them."

"So with that lead dead, we had to backtrack to try to find the other trail. This led us deeper into Fiore, which was fine, since I've been meaning to see Laxus in person again. What wasn't fine was just as we're within range of actually using our senses to try and find the asshole rather than word of mouth we lose it because of this rain."

 _I am the freaking water Dragon Slayer! I should be able to find the damn trail even in this weather. But no, my powers don't work like that, and even_ _ **my**_ _nose gets deadened by this amount of rain._ Ranma groused internally. This had been far and away the most irritating hunt he'd ever been on.

"That's tough," Bisca said with shake of her head. "I know I hate it when I lose a trail."

Ranma looked at her, and the green haired woman smiled. "I'm Fairy Tail's best tracker, though I specialize mostly in hunting people who take to the cities or plains than anything else. I'm also a Gun Mage. You said you're a Water Dragon Slayer, right?"

"Among other things," Ranma said with a laugh. "I never saw the point of just learning one type of magic, though I'll admit that Water Dragon magic is my most defining trait, and I have to say the whole magical compatibility thing came as a huge shock."

"I thought I remembered you shouting out Water Dragon attacks when we fought my possessed brother," Mira said, then reached over, grabbing Ranma's hand and squeezing it. "I know you said I didn't need to thank you, but I'm going to do it again. Thank you for helping us."

Anna nodded once more, reaching over to touch Wendy's shoulder.

Nodding at them, Ranma turned back to Bisca just as Carla's food arrived, and the white-furred cat woke up Wendy to eat something. Wendy, Carla, and Anna moved off to a nearby table that had been vacated by the people leery of getting close to Ranma's curse. Anna wanted to get to know the young girl who had saved her life as well as Carla, who had been so important a friend to many of her own important people in the guild, but whom she had never met.

This left the three somewhat older mages alone. "I can use Guns Magic, Requip, and a few minor magics besides those. But the guns really are the main thing, if you're asking about my combat style. Guns for range, Water Dragon's Slayer magic and martial arts for close in and if something **really** needs to die," Ranma said.

While all three Fairy Tail mages flinched at the word 'die' for some reason, Bisca changed the subject slightly. "So what kind of guns do you use?"

"I own three magic guns: two pistols and a rifle. I had them all custom made, and I'd bet you haven't quite seen guns like them before," Ranma said, interested in talking shop with another Guns Magic user. "Although I had to invent a lot of my magic gun spells from seeing them used by Dark Guild members and one old retired mage down in Minstrel."

"That's sort of the way we all come up with spells. And unfortunately, Guns Magic is one of the ones that's easiest to learn and it can lend itself to banditry," Bisca said, then smirked. "However, I think you're going to have to back up that claim of me never seeing a gun like yours before. Seeing as I know more about them than handguns why don't you pull out your rifle and let me be the judge, huh?"

Mira blinked at the number of innuendos she saw in that statement, but remained silent, watching as Ranma Requipped a long rifle with a sniper scope. When Bisca began to fawn over it, running her hands up and down its barrel, though, she had to say something. "Well Bisca, are you impressed with his…rifle?"

Blushing, Ranma looked away from the two girls, while Bisca just looked back at her friend blandly before upping the ante, pressing the rifle between her breasts in a very suggestive manner, so much so that many of the men in the crowd around them who were still watching had to look away with nosebleeds. "I have to admit I've ever seen one so powerful or dangerous before. The size is impressive too."

The three of them held their positions for a moment then Ranma rallied and replied, "Well, most of my spells for my rifle deal more with penetration than power, but it can do that too."

At that all three of them broke up laughing, causing the other mages to look at them quizzically. "Did we miss a joke, Anna-san?" Wendy asked.

"Just Anna, please, and I think so. But if we did it was probably one that we wouldn't have enjoyed," Anna replied, exchanging a nod with Carla. Then she began to ask the two of them about their various magics, trying to keep their attention on her while the three older mages continued to talk.

"So where are you going to go from here?" Mira asked after getting her giggles under control, a faint, warm smile on her face, which oddly had nothing to do with Ranma being the same 'girl' who had saved her and her siblings from Mira's hubris. It was simply refreshing to speak to a young man who didn't try to hit on her, impress her, or not even notice the fact she was a girl in the first place. Ranma seemed willing to flirt, but wasn't overt about it and wasn't trying to impress her. He also wasn't afraid of her, a major bonus given that Mira knew she often scared those around her once they started getting to know her. Not for nothing was Mira called the 'Demoness of Fairy Tail'.

Mira didn't know if she was attracted to Ranma, not in a serious way, anyway. Yes, he was hot as a guy and sat on the line between cute as a button and drop dead sexy as a girl. But his female form bothered her somewhat, given how much it reminded her of Erza. Mira might have buried the hatchet with her rival somewhat over the last few years, but she and Erza still fought like cats and dogs occasionally. The idea of kissing Erza was a little disturbing to Mira.

Looking over at Bisca, she could see some of the same thoughts going through the sharpshooter's mind. Mira hadn't realized how irritating the state of things between her and Alzack must be from the inside, watching it being too amusing for words. But she understood it now after Bisca's earlier speech on the matter and could tell that, while Bisca wasn't truly interested in Ranma yet either, he certainly had her attention.

"Tough question. I've stopped in at both of the other inns in the town as well as the stage couch and a few farmsteads, giving out descriptions of the mages I'm looking for. This Kaggie guy's got a distinctive haircut, so he should be easy to spot if he's in the area. But unless I get a hint, I might be spinning my wheels for a while. Are there any local guilds? They tend to notice things, especially strangers who look weird passing through their area. Do you know of any?" Ranma asked.

"Hmm… The closest guild would be Quattro Cerberus. They are about…I want to say, a day along the eastern road from here?" Mira said, looking over to Bisca for confirmation.

"Don't ask me. I've never worked with them. The rumors about their antics are bad enough. They aren't bad," Bisca hastened to add, "but they are an all guys guild, and they really overdo it with the drinking and the partying. And this is me saying it!"

Bisca and Mira both laughed at that, knowing exactly how weird it sounded for members of Fairy Tail to complain about another guild partying too hard. It was more the whole 'no girls' thing and the amount of drinking that bothered them.

"Yeah. The worst, or rather, best of the lot, since he's their only S-class mage, is a guy named Bacchus. Bacchus will flirt with anyone in a skirt, which you might have to watch out for," Mira said teasingly.

"Gotcha," Ranma said, having no understanding of how Bisca had been sort of a hypocrite just then. "Still, they might be my best bet. But what brings you three into the area?"

Mira explained that she and Anna had been on a modeling gig nearby, with Bisca there to hunt down a paparazzi pervert, which she had done. Bisca had caught a glimpse of the man while he was trying to use his special magic camera to take pictures of the models through a wall as they changed, then hunted him down when he tried to disappear into the populace of the town they had been in at the time. Bisca had taken him captive, but not before shooting through the camera and destroying both it and the fingers of the pervert's hand.

"Then we hop on a train, come here for some shopping before hopping on another train, and then this rain starts up. It's so bad the train's stopped. A few downed trees along the route, apparently," Mira finished.

"But enough about us," Bisca said, though inwardly she was happy at the look of approval on Ranma's face. "Tell us about you. How did you meet Laxus? We've heard rumors you met in Appledore during the orc invasion, but no real details."

"Hmm… Well, we did meet then on the front lines, as it were. And at first we didn't really like one another, but…" From there Ranma explained how the two Dragon Slayers had met, as well as how they had bonded, first in the desperate fighting to reclaim the Tine of the Trident, then during the months spent in the cold, hunting and being hunted by Orc raiding parties. He ended the tale by talking about the massive fights which had, thanks to Gildarts' arrival, won control of the Trident and the Wall.

Ranma still remembered those fights as some of the hardest he'd ever been in. Not because he had personally been in danger of dying often, though that too had been true occasionally. No, he remembered them as the hardest because they had been fighting for so long, and the outcome would have been horrible for so many people if they had failed. Under such circumstances, men of all backgrounds would bond together or break separately, and the two young men had become firm friends.

From there Mira and Bisca told Ranma about their own closest friends and a bit about the guild in general. At the other table, Anna, Wendy, and Carla continued to talk. Anna was now trying to convince Carla to come back to Fairy Tail, at least to visit. "I think your actually talking to Happy and Lisanna would give them some closure. The way you just took off during that mission was just sort of stinky to my mind. While they've gotten over it at this point, you can tell, sometimes, it still bothers them."

Carla scowled, biting back her first retort. Despite being just as haughty as ever, she had also become somewhat more empathic and slightly less serious during her travels. "I can see us doing so for a short amount of time if we go through with Ranma's plan and stop by Fairy Tail. But I refuse to rejoin the guild. Not only would being around Happy once more be irritating in the extreme, but I need to stay with young Wendy here. She needs some real female influence in her life if she isn't going to become a hooligan like her brother."

Reaching over, Wendy pulled Carla out of her chair and into Wendy's lap, hugging the little cat person. "I love you too, Carla."

Anna smirked at the blush on Carla's face and the way she didn't say anything in reply to that comment. _Yep, she's really mellowed from what Lisanna told me about her._ "Well then, that's easy to solve: you could both join Fairy Tail, or, in your case, rejoin, Carla."

"No thank you, Anna-san," said Wendy. "I would like to spend some time with the guild; I understand you have another Dragon Slayer there like Oni-chan and me? But Oni-chan can't join a guild thanks to his job, and I don't want him to leave me behind." Despite having now spent more of her life with Ranma than she had with Grandeenay, Wendy was still somewhat traumatized by her mother leaving her.

"Well, I tried," Anna said, filing that away. It sounded as if Ranma's job wouldn't allow him to legally join a guild, though that was weird to her. _But, then again, I don't know a lot of Fiore's laws, let alone those of other countries. So I suppose it could make sense somehow._ "Now, why don't you tell me some of the places you've seen, Wendy-chan. I've not been able to travel much. In fact, this is the farthest afield I've been."

Over at the other table the discussion had gone in somewhat the same direction: the three other mages were exchanging stories about missions and training. Ranma was interested in the places to see in Fiore, coming away with a more detailed picture of the country than he had before. He now knew the names of most of the famous guilds, but beyond their names and that Fairy Tail was based in Magnolia had no idea where the guilds were, or anything else about Fiore.

In turn, Mira was in awe of the amount of travel Ranma described. She was uncertain she'd like to travel like that without the comforts and people of home, but it certainly sounded fascinating. All the places he had seen, the number of people, and, more importantly to her, the number of different types of magic, were just amazing.

Coming from Desierto like she had, Bisca had seen a lot more travel than Mira, though most of it had been while on the run or simply when moving on after her petty crimes had been discovered. She also had wanted to get as far away from Desierto as possible thanks to certain issues there with her ex-family. So many of the better places Ranma had seen were just as new to Bisca as they were to Mira. The capitals, in particular, sounded amazing to her, as did some of the sights he had seen.

Bisca also knew a lot more about animals, and she and Ranma had a grand few minutes regaling Mira with how they had met many of the monsters in Gildarts' book, of which she envied Ranma's ownership. More often than not, Ranma would have both girls in stitches, or Bisca would have him and Mira nearly collapsing from laughter. This drew numerous looks and even some laughter from the crowd around them when one tale or other was reenacted in a loud enough voice to carry. None of them noticed that the crowd was thinning out now, the rain having started to let up as it became evening outside.

Eventually, however, they did, and Mira sighed, standing up and looking over at Wendy who seemed to be falling asleep in her chair. "I think the rain's let up. We need to head over to the train station; see if we can get a train to Fiore tonight."

Ranma looked in that direction too and quickly moved over, pulling the younger girl into his arms, where she nodded off against his shoulder almost immediately. "And I need to get this little one to bed for the night. I'll do a final check through the town for my target, but then I think I'd like to get some sleep too."

Nodding in agreement, Carla moved to stand with him. While talking to Anna had been very pleasant, and she hoped that Wendy would look to the girl and her older sibling as examples to try to live up to in the future, Carla was feeling just as tired as her young friend. She didn't have the endurance of either Dragon Slayer, and, though she had been able to rest by catching rides with them a few times, the last few days had worn on her too.

She turned to the other women. "It was nice meeting you, Miss Anna and Miss Bisca. Mira, I'm happy that you have outgrown your…need to dress out, as it were," Carla said diplomatically. Even Carla knew who not to mess with, and Mirajane Strauss was one of those. "But both myself and young Wendy need our beauty sleep, something we haven't gotten of late thanks to this buffoon."

By this point in their relationship Ranma had gotten used to all sorts of names being thrown his way by the haughty cat-girl, so he simply rolled his eyes and smirked. "Yeah, some of us need all the beauty sleep we can get, not like it helps all that much with certain attitudes."

Smiling and shaking Ranma's hand, Mira wrangled a promise from him to look them up if he ever came to Magnolia before leading the way back to the door. As they walked out, cloaks once more shielding them from the bite of the cold wind coming in from the nearby ocean, Mira looked at her companions, a bright light in her eyes. "So, what do you think of those three?"

"Interesting for certain. Carla's a little more understanding and less caustic than I expected. Wendy's a real cute girl, though I could tell she's also a strong mage. She certainly held herself like one, and if she's a Dragon Slayer too, that makes sense," Anna replied. "Ranma's a real character, especially with that whole curse thing. And handsome too~?" she teased, looking at her older sister.

"He is that, though his curse is a bit out there. I'm not going to say more than that after one meeting. I'm not that kind of girl. Though his adventures were just incredible," Mira replied easily, not responding further to her sister's teasing. _Yes, I flirted with the guy. So what? It isn't as if I can practice that kind of thing with anyone in the guild. If they understood what was going on at all, they'd get the wrong idea and think I was serious._

"His stories about fighting demons were especially interesting. When we meet up again, I might ask him more about that and how to find some for myself." As a Takeover mage, Mira could take in the power of those demons she beat, just like Elfman had tried to do with the Beast.

"I thought his stories were fascinating too, and the way he was with Wendy was really cute," Bisca said, a point all three of them agreed on. As fun as it was to meet a guy who could flirt back at you without coming on like a smarmy asshole, it was just as nice to see a man able to take care of a young girl like Ranma had.

"Oho?" Anna and Mira said as one.

"Does this mean Alzack's place in your heart is in danger?" Anna teased.

Mira winced, shaking her head as she remembered what Bisca had said earlier on this point.

When she spoke, Bisca's reply to Anna's tease showed that Mira's understanding was spot on. "It means Alzack better step up his game to keep that place. I'm not saying I'm interested in Ranma either. Like Mira said, one meeting certainly isn't enough for that, but it definitely gave me a taste of what dating is supposed to be like." Bisca replied.

"I'd definitely like to see them again," Mira said. This was something which, again, all three Fairy Tail mages could agree with.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma had to say that he was enjoying this second trip into Fiore far more than he had enjoyed the first one. For one thing, there was an utter lack of demons attempting to kill him or anyone else, though that was subject to change thanks to his current mission. For another, the roads in this area of the most magically advanced kingdom of Ishgar were much better than the ones he had seen previously. The scenery was also nice too, with rolling hills, long fields of grass, farmland, and, further inland, even bigger hills. There were only scattered examples of the forests that Ranma had seen the first time he was in this country.

 _The company last night was also really nice too. Mira was fun and some of her stories were hilarious. Bisca was a great conversationalist, and, from what I saw of her, Anna was really nice too. Laxus never mentioned them except for Mira and Erza in his letters, the ass, but I suppose that makes sense given his general attitude. The weather, now, that could be better,_ Ranma finished irritably, staring up at the cloudy sky.

It had yet to rain today, but Ranma was glumly certain that it probably would at some point. It only remained to be seen whether that would happen before or after his business at Quattro Cerberus was done.

To one side Wendy walked beside him, with Carla perched on her head. Her weight was next to nothing, certainly nothing that Wendy would notice after having been trained by Ranma for so long. Carla was currently discussing points of Fiore that she had seen while she was with Laxus, as well as other places that she had seen when in the company of Lisanna, Natsu, and Happy.

"Are you sure you don't miss that, what do you call him, 'damn fool tomcat?' You certainly mention him often enough," Ranma teased.

"Of course not," Carla answered promptly and much more calmly than Ranma had hoped. "He figures prominently in my stories of Fairy Tail because he always butted his way into whatever I was doing if he could. It has nothing to do with my own personal preferences."

Ranma snorted and thought that was an easy excuse. He had a theory that Carla might be what had been called a tsundere back in his old dimension. Considering Akane and, though he didn't want to admit it, Ranma himself had acted in such a manner a lot before coming here, he thought he could spot such things. And he routinely took any opportunity to get under Carla's skin. The training to get Ranma over the neko-ken had worked, and he considered Carla a buddy, but not a real friend. Their personalities were just too different.

Realizing this, Wendy spoke up quickly. She had become very used to getting between her Oni-chan and her second best friend. (After all, Ranma-nii was both her Oni-chan and her best friend.) "What do you think of Fiore, Oni-chan?"

"Hmmm… I'm still undecided. It's a nice enough country if you're just describing it physically. There aren't nearly as many bandits, there's a lot more people than most other countries we've been in, and I like what I've seen of them. But some of the things I've heard about the magic council here are beyond stupid," Ranma said.

 _Actually, that is putting it mildly,_ Ranma thought, shaking his head as he remembered what the king of Seven had told him. He had apparently been against the idea of Seven and Fiore's magic councils joining together, and his concerns had proved valid. The magic council of Fiore and Seven was moribund, egotistical, and run by individuals whose understanding of bureaucracy was quite high, with their understanding of morality in inverse proportion to this.

Ranma would never put it like that himself, but that was almost word for word whatMeredrain had said. "And their own king refuses to do anything about it! He just gives them free reign!" Meredrain had raged. "As if he couldn't be bothered to rule his own nation!"

Ranma knew that was going a little too far. As far as he could tell, the Kingdom of Fiore was being run very well on the nonmagical side of things. It had a lot of steam trains as well as magical ones. Perhaps not as many as in Seven or Stella with its short ranged haulers, but they certainly serviced as much of the country as in Seven. Their roads were good and their people seemed to have enough money to get by. There was even a free press, with far more magazines and newspapers than Ranma had seen anywhere but in Pergrande the last time he was there. Their economy looked good from what he could tell, and there weren't nearly as many bandits as he'd run into elsewhere, as he'd said. Although Ranma was uncertain if that last was because the king kept the peace, or whether the various Magic Guilds did.

But that was the crux of the matter: as nice a country as it seemed, Fiore had the greatest number of guilds anywhere. Some of them were small, acting much like guilds did in Seven, Stella, or Joya. Others, however, were far larger and stronger, almost independent of the Council in many ways, and were famous, the face of magic to the rest of the country, even all of Ishgar. And the way some of them acted sometimes left a lot to be desired.

Because of that, Fiore produced more Dark Guilds than any two other countries combined. This was especially true during the past two years, and it was a real problem because the Dark Guilds were continuing to become more organized throughout Ishgar. That was something no one wanted to see, but Ranma had been hearing mutterings of something called the Balam Alliance for a little over six months from both his own wanderings and the various intelligence sources he could access thanks to his Ranger status.

The Balam Alliance was composed of the three most powerful Dark Guilds, each of which had agreed to not act against one another, and each of which had dozens of smaller guilds working for them. The three names at the top included one name that Ranma had run into previously: Grimoire Heart. Ranma was uncertain how he'd rate their power levels, but they had to be pretty damn high.

 _But they are operating across the entirety of Ishgar rather than just in Fiore,_ Ranma reminded himself. _Don't blame Fiore's Magic Council for that particular issue, cesspit of stupidity though it might be. Heh. Damn, but Meredrain has a way with words._

A second later the trio crested a small rise in the land, only to stop and stare at the building set to one side of the road in the distance. Cocking his head to one side, Ranma mused aloud. "Okay, I'll admit that wasn't what I had thought their guild hall would look like."

In the distance was a single story building, or at least it looked like a single story building. There were four large statues on its roof, and if they were hollow, Ranma had no way to tell from here. They were of large dogs with three heads each, each statue looking like a different breed of dog, glaring out into the distance in every direction. Other than that, the building was basically a square, a long, wide square, with numerous windows and doorways. It was also a riot of colors: black, red, dark orange, and brown predominantly, with splashes of white scattered throughout. Most of those spots were in the shape of posters, but Ranma couldn't be certain from this far away.

As they continued to move down the road at the easy jog Ranma had taught Wendy to take when they were in a hurry the two Dragon Slayers swiftly became aware of something else: from the building they could hear the sounds of something, some kind of music that reminded him of heavy metal. It was hard to tell what it was just yet.

Wendy blinked and stared at the building, shaking her head. "Even if Anna-san and the others hadn't told us I think I'd be able to tell that there were no girls in this guild. That place looks ugly!"

Ranma waved his hand back and forth. "The statues are pretty well done, but yeah, the colors and the rest of the building are a little shabby."

"That's one word for it," Carla said, scowling. "If the interior matches the exterior, this will not be a pleasant experience for any of us."

Carla's words proved prophetic as the noise being blared out from inside the building grew as they moved towards it, quickly getting to the point where it was an almost physical force to the two Dragon Slayers and Carla by the time they were fifty feet away from the front entrance. Wendy whimpered, holding her hands over her ears. "It's too loud! How can anyone hear themselves think in that!?"

"From what I remember of heavy metal I don't think thinking ever comes into it, Wendy. It's all about bringing out emotions. But this music is more about noise than anything else, I think," Ranma said, finishing rather lamely. _Strange, I liked some heavy metal music before running into this cacophony. Huh, never thought I'd ever use the word cacophony n a sentence, but there you are._

"I, I don't have to go in there with you do I?" Wendy asked, shrinking backwards. Carla too was in pain, but in her case she had pulled her ears down, clamping them in place with her hands, and thus was far more successful in blocking out the noise.

"I don't think you'd be allowed in," Ranma said with a wan chuckle, pointing ahead to one of the signs. There were several little signs along the walking path towards the Guildhall from the road they had been traveling, and one of them said, 'only wild women allowed.' "You're many things but you're not wild Wendy."

"And I'm quite proud of that," Carla said, sniffing haughtily. "Though you certainly never had anything to do with it."

"That would hurt if it wasn't so true," Ranma said with a chuckle, ruffling Wendy's hair affectionately. Carla had changed Wendy a little since joining them. She was much more prone to wearing dresses and was more open about preferring to read or sight-see than to train. But she still put up with the training and was no less likely to turn the other cheek if someone started a fight with her than she had been before. She would never be the sort to go looking for a fight, and Ranma's attempt to teach her how to trash talk had crashed and burned, but she would certainly finish anything someone else started, which was more than enough for Ranma's sense of propriety.

"I think you two should wait out here. I'll nip in, speak to the guild master, and we'll move on."

"An excellent suggestion," Carla enthused, hopping up onto Wendy's head. "Come Wendy, we shall move back a ways and wait by those trees over there. That should be out of the blast radius."

"What, you think this is going to go that bad?" Ranma asked, although he could easily see that happening too. _If that music is that loud out here, then it will be even louder in there, ugh…_

"Let us just say that I know quite a bit about Quattro Cerberus from my time with Laxus. We never ran into them, but he had a lot to say about their guild. They are almost as prone to combat amongst themselves as Fairy Tail. They also all have a dog theme, which I am not enthusiastic about."

"You know you keep on saying that you're different from cats, but you keep on doing things that make me think you really are." With that Ranma hopped away, dodging some Neko-Claws from Carla with ease as he moved towards the door.

He paused halfway there to grab up a gob of dirt and stuff it into his ears. He played with it for a few moments until it blocked out as much sound as possible. Then he pulled out his pipe and lit up some of the Dragon's Breath. The odd weed helped him to center himself, and he kept it clamped within his mouth, breathing in for a second. Then, having girded himself appropriately, he opened the door quickly and moved into the dark, smoky interior.

Wendy laughed, reaching up and pulling Carla off her head to hold her in her arms as she moved back towards the trees. "Let's get a good seat, Carla. If you're right about someone starting something, I'd like to have the best seat in the house."

Inside the guild the noise was even worse than Ranma had feared, his makeshift protection failing quickly as he entered. _Oh my God, I think my ears are going to start bleeding if I stay here for very long!_ he thought, looking around him at the dusky interior inside. It was like any rundown inn he'd ever been in, though there were more bars, multiple doors leading off everywhere, and signs that said 'tequila drinkers here,' 'music enthusiasts here,' and on the ceiling, 'everyone get **wild**!'

The interior wasn't nearly as crowded as he'd feared. There were about a dozen people in sight, with more visible through the various doorways. Half the people he saw were embroiled in a fight of some kind, while the others looked to simply be drinking and listening to the music, which seemed to emanate from somewhere to one side of the room, reverberating throughout the entire building.

Near the door was a man who Ranma first thought was a unconscious drunkard. But as Ranma stepped inside and the door closed behind him, the man opened his eyes, staring up at Ranma and gesturing him deeper inside. "You here to drop off a job?"

"No, I'm looking for information," Ranma shouted to be heard over the booming music. "I'd like to speak to your guild master?"

The man burped loud and long, but Ranma could barely hear it over the noise of the crowd around the fight and the music, which was simply going on and on! It was fraying his nerve so badly Ranma wanted to just back away from this idea entirely, but he couldn't. Ranma needed information, and the only way to get that quickly was to check in with the local guild.

"I'll get him for you. You can wait outside if you ain't wild enough to deal with how we hang!" said the man, standing up and sneering at the mud Ranma had stuffed in his ears. Ranma could see that he was dressed like a punk rocker, complete with a choker, something that Rama saw on several of the others.

"I think you're confusing wild with just stupidly loud," Ranma drawled, cracking his knuckles. Frankly the noise was getting to him so much, he was tempted to just start a fight in order to throw people around in hopes of stopping it.

The man glared at Ranma, gave him the finger, and then walked off deeper into the guildhall. "Follow me, smartass!"

Ranma frowned, but nodded and followed him through the guild. Occasionally they were jostled as they moved through two more, smaller rooms, but the first time that happened, Ranma clamped down on the guys beer stein so nothing could escape and then pushed him hard into several other people. By the time the irate man could turn around, Ranma and his guide were gone, disappearing deeper into the guild.

Eventually they reached a smaller room with yet another bar. There were only two people in the tiny room, though there was also a dedicated barman behind the bar. This barman, amongst all of the others, was the only one wearing a suit, and he looked actually dapper, dressed in a suit more befitting a high end restaurant than the rest of this place.

"Hey, boss," his guide said, and one of the two men turned.

He was the smaller of the two, an older man. Ranma estimated that he was in his fifties or so, with thin shoulders and arms and little muscle mass to him. He too had a collar on, along with sunglasses for some reason, and a witch's hat. But for all that he looked harmless, Ranma could tell via his ki sense that he was the most powerful man in this place.

His ki blazed in Ranma's eyes, and in this dimension magic and ki were (oddly, to Ranma's mind) pretty much the same thing, since everyone here was born with Ethernano within them. While only mages could build up their Ethernano enough to use, and it grew in very odd ways sometimes to that point, the fact remained that the more a person had, the stronger they were.

The other guy sitting there was probably the guild's number two at the very least. He was a tall man, about an inch taller than Ranma's own frame, equally wide in the shoulders, and Ranma could tell that he had trained his body to a high degree. He was drinking from a jug of something, but he looked at Ranma with sober eyes, sizing him up in an instant. This guy was dangerous, Ranma could tell immediately.

"You wanted to see me for something?" Said the older guy. "The name's Goldmine, and I'm the guild master of this **wild** guild!"

When he said the word wild, everyone else in the guild somehow heard it over the music and shouted it back, making Ranma stiffen and shake his head at the addition to the loud background noise. "That's cool," he said, forcing a calm he really didn't feel at the moment. "Anyway, I'm a bounty hunter from out in Bosco," Ranma went on, lying easily, "and I was hired to look into a group of Dark Guild members called Eisenwald. One of their members in particular is of interest to Queen Rose. He apparently has a power that can allow him to somehow break old magical protections. He looks like this…"

With that Ranma pulled a sketch he'd had made throughout this mission of the mage he was trying to trail. On it was a young man of medium height with what Ranma would describe as a pineapple head haircut.

"What's a bounty hunter out of Bosco doing hunting a guild from Fiore? How is that even legal?" Goldmine asked, looking from Ranma to the sketch.

"They crossed our border first," Ranma said, still lying through his teeth. "Beyond that you'd have to take it up with your king, as he gave my queen permission for this mission."

Goldmine smirked, pulling down his glasses to look at Ranma over them for a moment, and Ranma got the feeling that he could see right through him, but gave nothing away. The old guy probably knew he was lying at least in part, but Ranma doubted he could see the truth and, further, doubted he'd care. And if Ranma really did have to admit to being a Ranger, well, the old guy had to have some kind of office around here where they could talk in private, right? _I'm sure as hell not going to spout it out in public like this._

"What you're asking is for us to pass on information to you from our own sources in the area? Gotta tell you, we're too **wild** to keep a list of contacts like that," Goldmine said, and Ranma once again flinched at the wave of sound that came from the rest of the guild at the word wild. Even in this smaller, personal bar the sheer noise of the guild was like a physical force. "Still, do you have a direction he was going? We can point you in the right direction to get ahead of him if so, though he didn't pass the guild on the main road. We'd have spotted him if he had."

Ranma nodded and told them he had heard that the mage had seemingly been traveling east and south before he had lost the trail.

At that Goldmine pulled out a map from behind the bar, slamming it down on the top of the bar. "Okay, we're here," he said, pointing to a big W on the map superimposed on the image of a four headed dog. "There're only a few ways through the area unless he's going cross-country. But even then he'll have to pass through this town or go way out of his way up into the boonies here," he said, tapping a series of rolling hill marks on the map. "It might look like hills on a map, but that's mostly rough broken terrain and is the home of a lot of **wild** animals."

Again there was a blast of sound from rest of the guild, and Ranma growled low in his throat, his patience wearing thin and a dull headache starting up in his head. Still, he kept control of his temper. He wasn't going to be the first one to start something even with the noise eating at his self-control. "All right. So, if he hasn't passed on the main road here, that makes sense," he said aloud. "And I get there by going southeast, right?"

"That's right, but that'll take you through some **wild** terrain too. You have to be on the watch, but I'll admit that probably cutting through there is faster than taking the roads," Goldmine said.

Ranma knew now that the guy was trolling him. _Or he's addicted to the word wild, either or._ But with the end in sight, he simply nodded, thanked Goldmine, and turned, only to feel a large hand smack him on the back.

"Now don't go off that quickly!" said the man that Ranma had pegged as a martial artist. "Surely your mission's not so important you can't take a drink!"

"Actually, it probably is," Ranma said smiling thinly and waving the man off. "Besides, I've got some friends waiting outside."

Ranma was interrupted at that point by a beer stein flying through the hall towards him from the fight that had broken out in the main room. He ducked but didn't see the man behind him grab it out of the air and began to chug it right behind him. He did, however, feel it when the man spat it out, drenching the back of Ranma's head with the sticky and of course cold drink.

"What the hell! Rooster, I thought I told you not to bring that… Homegrown… Swill here…" the man said, stuttering to a halt as did everyone else in sight as they became aware of the fact that Ranma had just changed into a girl.

Goldmine whistled, staring at the redhead. "Now that's an interesting trick, and one that'll make you real popular with certain people, I've no doubt. But which body's your real one?"

"The one you first saw," Ranma said, growling as she wiped at the back of her head.

As he was doing this the man reached over and grabbed one of her breasts, squeezing it. "Holy shit, they're real!"

That was as far as he got before a haymaker slammed into the side of his head and hurled him away. "All right, assholes!" Ranma growled, cracking her knuckles. "You just broke my last nerve!"

"You wanna go, bitch!" said more than one voice, as more of the guild crowded into the small room.

They all attempted to glare at her, But Ranma simply smirked, giving them all the finger. "You're the ones who started this, so don't complain when I kick all your asses!"

At that point the man he'd hit came back with a flying kick, gleefully shouting, "So you really do have a wild side! The name's Bacchus, babe. You'll be screaming it soon enough!"

Ranma ducked under the kick, then headbutted upwards, aiming towards the guy's balls, but Bacchus dodged at the last instant, backing away slightly as more men came forward racing towards Ranma, howling what was obviously the catchphrase of the guild and their battle cry. **"Wild!"**

Ranma, however, simply smacked them all aside, bringing her arm up quickly to block a blow from Bacchus, then jumping back as the man followed up with a round house kick. _Fast and some decent training, a palm strike style,_ Ranma thought, pushing an open palm strike to one side and then tapping it upward before launching a punch of her own, pulling back when she saw Bacchus was about to catch his punch.

That palm that he would've used was glowing white with magical energy, the purpose of which Ranma had no way of knowing. She found out a moment later, however, as the man thrust forward with the same palm. Ranma dodged it, but the blow struck the outer wall of the guildhall. The entire wall from one side of the room to the other exploded outwards form the force of it.

"Hikasho," Ranma said with a nod, dodging still more punches from Bacchus while taking out two more of the guild's mages. They had just run in and tried to tackle her rather than use any magic, which Ranma thought was rather stupid. "But there's a problem with that kind of style."

So saying, Ranma leaped over the next series of strikes and then, just as Bacchus was thinking she was going to go for a shot to the head, flipped underneath a blow, lashing out with a kick that took Bacchus in the thigh. This unbalanced Bacchus just enough that he wasn't able to dodge the follow on blow. "You can't redirect your upper body very well, and its kicks are way too linear."

Bacchus grunted in pain as he once more found himself airborne, this time smashing through an interior wall and into several of his guildmates. _Fuck, this guy can punch! I felt that even through my buzz._ Rolling along the ground he, watched as Ranma dealt with several more of his guildmates, not even being slowed at all. With a grin, he then launched himself back in, closing fast.

Busy with the rest of the guild and leery about Goldmine joining, in Ranma didn't notice Bacchus coming until the other man was on him. A magical palm thrust nearly caught Ranma, but she dodged at the last second, letting the palm catch another one of the guild, hurling him out through the already broken wall. In reply, Ranma flipped around, bringing her leg down in an axe kick.

But Bacchus dodged it at the last second, and this time Ranma couldn't dodge Bacchus's own kick, not even having seen it coming since Bacchus had just completely shifted his style. Now his entire hand back and palm were glowing, along with his feet. The magic infused kick caught Ranma in the side, hurling her through multiple interior walls until she smashed into a large magical device of some kind.

Almost instantly the music warbled to a halt, and Ranma, despite finding herself sitting in glass and metal rubble, smiled widely. The music was gone, and it was like a weight had been removed from Ranma's mind. _There are some real downsides to this whole Dragon Slayer thing, beyond my own ki rejecting some of it._

Shaking that thought out of her mind, she hopped up, grinning at the horde of Quattro Cerberus mages glaring at him. "Nice hit, but if ya think that was the end of this, you've got another think coming."

"Awful cocky there considering I just floored you, babe," Bacchus said before guzzling some more ale.

"Yep," Ranma said, "because now I don't have to deal with that damn music any longer!" With that Ranma shot forward, a blow coming so fast and so swiftly that Bacchus couldn't even think of blocking. Ranma's small fist embedded itself into Bacchus's chest, hurling him backwards.

Continuing, Ranma blocked another blow from a guild member with thick arms and wider shoulders. She then used the momentum of a kick from someone else to leap into the air, kicking out as the other guild members began to join the fight.

From then on the redhead was always moving, never sitting still. She also stayed in the air, which seemed to confound several of the guild members. Bacchus, however, didn't mind it at all, taking to it easily and even leaping into the air occasionally to launch kicks at Ranma. Ranma analyzed Bacchus's new style and discovered that he had mixed Hikasho with Drunken Fist. His kicks were immensely powerful, shattering the ground and anything else he hit, but Ranma's durability was up to blocking or redirecting them.

The real threat came from Bacchus's hands, which he used as cutting or thrusting weapons, and the hits from them hurt like hell. _Its sort of like fighting that guy from Alvarez again, only with more skill and a bit less speed. Thankfully, I've run into both his styles before, if not the magic he's using._

A series of Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken punches hurled several of the doggies away, allowing Ranma to touch down on the ground for just a second as Bacchus launched into a series of wild Drunken Master attacks. Bacchus had just a second to realize what was going to happen before Ranma had leaped up over one of his kicks and a boot caught him in the chin, hurling him up through the ceiling.

Grimacing and moving her shoulder where a chop had landed, Ranma looked over at Goldmine, who grinned at her, holding up his mug. "Don't look at me. I'm just having fun watching this wild fight!"

Rolling her eyes, Ranma launched herself out onto the roof where Bacchus was waiting. The man's endurance wasn't quite up to the madman from Alvarez, but it was still very high. He kicked out just at the right time to catch Ranma as she hopped up, catching Ranma in the back and hurling her into and through the top of one of the large dog statues.

He followed up quickly, only for Ranma to grab his hands, seeming none the worse for wear. Bacchus clenched his body and tried to lower his center of gravity, but still found himself airborne when Ranma lifted up and mule kicked him in the chest, hurling him once more into the air.

Ranma leaped after him, and from then on the battle became extremely one sided. Bacchus, for all his decent durability and ability to adapt, was no match for Ranma in the air. His blows seldom landed at all, and when they did, their momentum became Ranma's plaything. In return Ranma's blows got through Bacchus's defenses more often as the fight continued. Eventually Bacchus began to lose consciousness form the pain.

"You're good, but when you changed to Drunken Master you sacrificed tactics to make yourself as random as possible. That makes you vulnerable to someone who can follow your movements," Ranma said, sounding almost clinical despite the manic grin she was wearing. "Damn good fight despite that, though."

"Heh, every rose has its thorns, I suppose," Bacchus said, grinning at the redhead as she once more flipped up into the air above him, staring up at her through the blood splattering his face. "It's been wild, babe!"

"And don't call me babe!" Ranma roared, bringing her clenching fists down on his back. Bacchus was slammed down toward the guild, smashing into it with all the impetus of a rock thrown by a trebuchet. This and the damage done to it earlier caused more than half the building to collapse in on itself with a rumble.

Standing over the wreckage of the guild, Ranma tossed Bacchus aside and glared at Goldmine, who had watched and simply laughed as all this went down, even following the two outside. Indeed, the old man was now perched on one of the three still intact statues, having watched the last few moments of the fight with interest. "What about you? You want to go too?"

To her surprise, Goldmine just laughed, shaking his head. "Nah, the place was due for renovation, and Bacchus needed his ego burst for him. This'll do him good in the long run. Though I'd like to offer you a place in the guild! You just proved you're the most wild lady akkk!" He dodged the thrown beer mug easily. "All right, you just have shown that you'd fit right in here, okay?"

"Yeah, how about no," Ranma said shaking her head and moving away, growling under her breath as she felt the sticky gunk of the numerous drinks that had hit her during the fight. "I need a damn shower!" Sighing, she pulled out a small flask and heated it as she walked, pouring it over her head to change back.

Behind him Goldmine smirked, shaking his head as he stared down into the hole Bacchus's body had made. "So, that's the guy Makky said has had such an influence over Laxus. Have to say I can see it now, and why Makky was always confused about Ranma's gender too. Even for a mage, that whole body change is something weird to contemplate."

Nearby, Wendy looked at Ranma as he came up to them, shaking his once again wet hair out, happy to have at least started on wiping off the ale. "I take it negotiations broke down," Carla drawled, while Wendy finished chewing the popcorn she had been eating while watching the fight between her Oni-chan and the other strong mage.

"Yeah, ya might say that," Ranma said, looking up at them. "Still, I got the information first. Hop on, Wendy, and you too, Carla. We're going to **run** now."

 **OOOOOOO**

Mirajane sighed as she moved through the guild, slamming down beer bottles here and there while smacking aside any thrown steins with ease whenever they came close, oftentimes returning them directly to their owners. _How do my sisters keep talking me into helping them here? Manning the bar, signing people up for their missions, fine. I like to keep track of everyone just in case they run into trouble. But this whole barmaid thing? That is so much more their scene than mine it's not even funny._

"Ne, Mirajane, would you like to go on a date with me?" said a middle-aged man with dirty blonde hair and a long pipe in his hands.

"Ah, that's no fair!" shouted a much younger man. "Don't date him, Mira; date me!"

"Neither of you have the balls to go out with me anyway! Besides you've got a wife to boot, Wakaba!" Mira said, using a branch of Transformation magic to shift her face for a moment into that of the man's wife.

"AH, no! Please don't do that!" Wakaba shouted back as the man and his ridiculous pompadour retreated rapidly.

Mira growled, shifting back her face back to normal as she moved towards the bar. "As if I'd go out with anyone so old or weak anyway!" she shot back over her shoulder, eliciting much laughter and many groans from the crowd.

She paused for a second with a grin on her face as she watched Natsu and Gray fighting. Thankfully, they were following the now-reinforced 'no magic allowed' rule, which was enforced by all of the S-class mages on hand. That might only be Mira at the moment, but that was more than enough of a threat for these two, given how often she'd beaten them down when they were younger.

 _With as destructive as these two can be, that's a damn good thing. They aren't_ _S-class just yet: Gray doesn't have the endurance or striking power, and Natsu lacks the magical versatility necessary. But they are for sure going to be nominated this year given how much stronger they've gotten over the years. I'm proud of them, heh, though I'd never say it to their faces._

Sitting behind the guild's bar, she leaned back and looked around the guild, noting where Cana was hugging a large beer barrel like a lover, rubbing her cheek against it, which was disturbing now that Mirajane thought about it. Nab, the useless putz, was still over by the guild's message board, searching for the perfect job as he had been since joining up a few months back. There was her brother, berating Vijeeter about something, the mime mage taking it docilely, an acknowledgment of guilt perhaps.

Here and there were others sticking out from the crowd, though in here that wasn't saying much. Every Fairy Tail mage could stick out from the crowd. _And I wouldn't have it any other way,_ she thought, her gaze shifting over to her two sisters.

Anna and Lisanna were laughing and joking with one another and the crowd as they moved around their duties, the dual darling bargirls of the guild. As she watched they linked arms, spinning in place wildly so fast they became a blur during which Lisanna transformed her clothing into the same kind that Anna was wearing.

"There," Anna said shouting at one of the other young men in the guild. "If you want to date me, pick who is who here!" she said putting her arm around the other girl.

Mira laughed while Natsu looked up, growling angrily as he hurled Gray to one side and charged like a bull into the rest of the guild. Natsu might not know what dating was or why girls should be interesting to him, but he still didn't like the idea of anyone sniffing around either of the Strauss twins.

 _As if he's got anything to worry about. They always do this trick, and none of them have guessed right or can even tell them apart at all unless Anna's posing for a magazine or Lisanna's using her magic._ Anna, of course, had no magic of her own, but she was slightly more certain of her body and looks than Lisanna and had been the one to start modeling, even dragging Mira into it. That wasn't to say Mira regretted it. She loved modeling almost as much as she liked the fights she sometimes got into with Jenny or Erza. But there was no denying that her siblings were both better people persons than Mira.

In one of the back corners Mira could make out their newest member, Lucy, sitting and talking to Levy. The two of them had become fast friends since Lucy had shown up with Natsu, fresh from helping Natsu take out a slaving ring. Apparently Lucy was a writer of some kind, and Levy was helping edit her work, or something like that, anyway.

 _Thank God Erza wasn't around when we heard about that ass Bora. She would've flipped her freaking lid, a slaving ring operating so close to Magnolia? The damage Natsu did to Crocus would've seemed a baby's temper tantrum in comparison._

Since then Lucy had done two more jobs with Natsu and Lisanna. The girl had impressed both of them apparently. She was tough, had some combat ability on her own, even though her magic didn't loan itself to that, was a wicked whip user, and had not one but four of the most powerful Zodiac keys in existence.

"Hey," said a voice, bringing Mirajane's attention to the bar in front of her as Bisca sat down at the bar.

"How're you doing, Bisca?" Mirajane asked with a smile then which slid away as she saw Bisca glaring over her shoulder towards Alzack. "Oh dear, again?"

"I'm almost tempted to actually tell him about the two of us flirting with Ranma. Maybe thinking that he might have some competition would convince him to man up!" Bisca said, shaking her head. "I mean, it is sweet how he stammers and blushes, and okay, I'll admit I've got the same problem, but we've been dancing around one another for months now! Can't he just ask me out on a date?"

"Couldn't you ask him out on a date?" Mira asked.

"I haven't tried and you know why," Bisca said, sighing. "I wanted him to be the one to say it. Still, if he can't get up the composure to ask me out by this weekend, I'll ask him out Saturday. …I think I can at least get the words out…" she said, sounding a little less certain as she finished, but still just as frustrated.

Mirajane smiled, knowing Bisca had just as many problems speaking to Alzack, her longtime teammate, about the romance between them as he did to her. Mirajane thought it cute, but also found it rather telling that when it came down to it, Bisca hadn't had any problems with flirting with Ranma when they met a few days ago, whatever the real reason behind it.

"By the way, did you tell Laxus and the others we met up with them?" Bisca asked.

"Laxus, yes; the others, no. I think Anna told Lisanna, but neither of them has mentioned anything about having seen Carla to the others. You know how Happy would get. He'd drag Natsu out of here trying to hunt Carla down again at the mere rumor she was nearby. He'd be like Natsu is around even a rumor of where Igneel could be."

"Which doesn't even consider the fact that Ranma and Wendy were both Dragon Slayers," Bisca said with a nod.

The fact that Laxus's longtime friend had been a Dragon Slayer had come out after Ranma had helped Laxus save the Strauss siblings. Natsu had been all set to try and hunt him or her down right then, but Laxus had also explained that Ranma's caretaker had died of old age and had never told him anything about any other dragons. That had depressed Natsu at the time, but had also calmed him down. Still, every now and then for a few weeks afterwards Natsu could be found trying to boil away the ocean as he shouted, "The minute I see this Ranma guy I'm going to challenge him! He's gotta be tough!"

"Yeah, they'd run out of here like a cat on fire, without even knowing where they are, and probably cause a lot of trouble and damage doing it. Why are all the boys in this guild idiots?" Bisca said with a sigh.

"Since that applies to my own brother, I prefer the phrase driven," Mira said with a laugh. "I think the only two I would label as real idiots, besides the old morons who keep on trying to flirt with me, anyway," she said, glaring to one side and sending Macao backing rapidly away from the bar, "are the two from team Shadow Gear."

Ironically, those two were the most normal men in their age group in the guild. But when it came to girls, they had about as much intelligence as they did when it came to combat: that is, none at all. They had been chasing after Levy for more than a few years since they had joined the guild, but Levy just saw them as really good friends and had gone out of her way to show this numerous times.

"I have to wonder, though," Bisca said, looking around conspiratorially and then leaning in, her breasts pressing down into the top of the bar as she did. "I have to wonder if and how Lucy is going to join NAL."

This was the term the other girls had come up with for the odd semi-relationship between Lisanna, Anna, and Natsu. Because, as one of the other girls had put it, "'Not only does it use their initials, but both Anna and Lisanna want Natsu to nail them.'" Whether it was a real relationship or if Natsu just enjoyed hanging out with them, not knowing that 'mommys and daddys' did other things together, was up in the air.

"Given the amount of time Natsu's been spending around her, I wouldn't be surprised. I'd be a little disturbed, but not surprised," Mira drawled.

"Ha! You just don't get it, do you?" Cana said, moving over to sit by them, flopping down into the bar stool and slamming a large mug of beer down as well. "Mira, refuel me!" With that Cana smirked, leaning toward Bisca and whispering, not that she had to given the amount of background noise. "It's all about sexual magnetism."

"You're drunk," Mira said bluntly, but she nevertheless refilled the brown haired girl's stein. "Still, let's hear your latest crackpot theory."

"Okay, work with me here. Laxus is about halfway to being as much a womanizer as Loki, right? Only difference is that he goes out with one girl at a time, and for longer, okay? Yet, with his personality, he has to have something else going for him besides his reputation and magical power since most of the girls he's gone out with weren't fangirls, right?"

The lush didn't wait for her listeners to nod before going on. "So there has to be some other reason for him being able to pull in all of those girls. And it just can't be his personality!"

"You've already mentioned his personality," Mira objected, though she was amused with where this could possibly be going.

"Since it's so bad it bears repeating. But that just leaves either money or pheromones. Now Laxus is rich, but none of his girlfriends have ever been gold diggers either, as far as I know. But pheromones? Well, dragons are supposed to be like animals, right, and animals find mates via scent. So while Natsu's mind might not be smart enough to realize he's a pole to their hole, his body is giving out pheromones to attract mates!"

Cana stopped, honestly feeling the deadpan looks the other two girls were giving her like a physical force. Mira in particular was shaking her head. "Please, I grew up in this guild right next to you Cana. There's no way you're going to shock me with anything you say."

"Heh, one of these days I will shock you, Mira. I promise! Still, that was one theory. My other is that maybe Anna and Lisanna are just not Natsu's type! Maybe he looks for a girl with a bit more boom to her bust! And let's face it, Lucy's got a fantastic bust."

Both Bisca and Mira had to admit that was certainly true, if only because of how much Lucy unconsciously flaunted her breast. Lucy was at least half a size larger than Mira, and Mira knew she had been the bustiest girl in the guild before Lucy had joined. Although given how Erza went around wearing armor all the time, that wasn't as certain as Mira would have liked in relation to her old rival. Bisca and Cana were closer to Mira's size, but still smaller.

"Then again," Cana went on, ignoring the looks the other two women were giving one another. "I'm still not certain if Natsu, Anna, and Lisanna are in a relationship at all. It's more like Anna and Lisanna have staked their claim in him, and him not really quite understanding what's going on. He has hit puberty, right?" she asked, looking over at Mira.

"Why the hell're you looking at me like that?" Mira said, giving the other girl the finger, causing her to laugh.

The three of them looked over as the door to the guild opened, and, to Bisca and Mira's surprise, they saw Wendy standing there. She looked around hesitantly, then ducked, gasping, as a stein of beer slammed into the door above her head. She glared angrily around, then huffed and moved inside, flouncing towards the bar before brightening as she saw who was sitting there.

As she did, she passed the fight going on between Natsu and Gray, and Natsu paused, sniffing the air for a moment, which let Gray get in a punch to his face. This sent Natsu into Elfman, who joined the fight with a roar of, "A real man talks with his fists!"

"That's what you get for not paying attention, flame brain!" Gray laughed. For once he actually had pants on, though how long that happy state of affairs would last was anyone's guess.

Behind Wendy came Carla, who stared around her in disdain. "It seems this bunch of riffraff haven't changed much. What a pity."

Luckily, Happy was nowhere to be seen at the moment, having headed out to go fish that morning after having been on a job with Natsu, Lisanna, and Lucy. He apparently hadn't had any fish while on the job and so had determined to fish the day away.

"Wendy," Mira said, hopping up over the bar like it was a high jump, even her skirt clearing the top of it easily. By the time she landed the blue haired girl had reached the bar and was smiling up at Mira and Bisca. Anna had also spotted Wendy and Carla by this time, and she and Lisanna moved through the crowd to greet her.

Slowly, said crowd began to realize that something new was happening, and the fights here and there and the discussions began to die down as they recognized Carla. There wasn't much uproar about her arrival, though, given that Carla had only really been close with Lisanna, Happy, and, more distantly, Laxus, Evergreen, and Natsu.

"How are you doing, Wendy?" asked Mira, going down to one knee and shaking her hand. "And where is that Oni-chan of yours?"

Chicken Wendy smiled, pointing back over her shoulder towards the door. "Ranma-nii's out buying supplies, though hopefully we won't need to use them just yet. We're actually here to ask a question of a Ms. Erza Scarlet."

"Really?" Mira asked, frowning. "What about? I'm afraid Erza's not here yet. But she should be back any day now from her last job if it's important. It was a simple monster extermination gig, nothing big for her."

"And do you want anything to drink?" Lisanna asked, smiling brightly down at the little girl. _She is just sooo cute! Anna was right about that. You just want to cuddle with her!_

Nodding at that, Wendy gestured for Carla to reply while she looked around, visibly restraining herself from doing something. What that was, Mira couldn't tell, but by the smug smile on Carla's face it must have been something the little prim pussy had been working on with Wendy for a while.

"We found the trail of the group of dark mages that we were trying to find, only to lose them again in a town about a day and a half south of here. They split up again, you see, and the one we were most interested in went off on his own. We weren't able to distinguish his scent from the crowd, and no one was able to tell us in what direction he went, so we…pretty much lost the trail again. However, the barman at the bar they were all staying at said that they had been talking about some kind of plan and had been overheard by a redhead. I recognized his description of Erza right away, of course." Carla explained.

"So we came here hoping to meet her," Wendy finished, smiling. "I've also heard stories about Erza-san, and about you, Ms. Mira, from the writings that Uncle Laxus sends Oni-chan."

" **Uncle** Laxus?" Cana said, sputtering a little, as did more than a few of the other nearby listeners. It was true that Laxus had mellowed since he was younger, but he still believed that strength was more important than anything else and was never going to be exactly soft or approachable.

"Well, he is a friend of Oni-chan's," Wendy said with a shrug, not seeing the reason for their astonishment.

She recoiled a second later as Natsu thrust his face close to hers, sniffing hard and ignoring Anna and Lisanna's shouts of shock. "You've got an interesting scent. It's almost like mAGGH!"

"Tenryu no Tekken (Sky Dragon's Fist)!" That was as far as he got before Wendy's little fist caught him right in the stomach with all the power of her Dragon Slayer magic behind it, hurling him backwards to crash through several, thankfully empty, tables. "No sniffing a lady!" Wendy shouted angrily as the rest of the Guild looked on in shock at one of their strongest members being floored by a little girl. "It's rude."

"HEHEHE!" Mira cackled, then reached down and gently picked the girl up, standing her on the bar behind her. Wendy immediately seemed to like it, calming down for some reason while Carla pawed her face with one hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Wendy Marvell the Sky Dragon Slayer, the little girl who saved Anna's life and helped me and my other siblings get over our injuries from facing the Beast!"

For a moment there was still silence, then a roar or approval from the gathered mages, even Lucy and the others who had joined the guild since that incident joining in. They were all drowned out by Elman's bellow of, "What a man!"

"Ano, er, I'm a girl, though," Wendy muttered, blushing hotly, looking down at her feet, and kicking the bar stool while Carla floated beside her.

Being closest, Lucy came quickly, holding her hand out to the little girl. "I'm Lucy, a new girl here, how do you do? So you use healing magic?"

"Healing magic, enchantments, and Sky Dragon Slayer magic mostly," Wendy said with a smile, shaking the girl's hands and trying not to feel envious of her bust line. _Remember what Carla said. I'm only twelve; I'll grow in the future._

Loki came over a second later came over, bowing grandly to the young lady. "If it's true that you saved one of the jewels of the Guild, then we owe you a tremendous debt. Our lives would be far darker without Anna and Lisanna in it, isn't that right, guys?" he said, moving up towards them only to stop and stare at Lucy and then from her down to her belt, where numerous keys rested. He backed away rapidly. "Wait! Lucy, you're a celestial mage!"

"Yes," Lucy said, turning away from Wendy to look at him with the best deadpan look Wendy had ever seen. "That's not exactly a secret, you know."

"I'm afraid I have to cut our relationship short, my dear!" he shouted, turning away and moving towards the door.

"What relationship?" Lucy asked, still deadpan, causing Wendy to giggle.

"He's new too, isn't he?" Carla mused.

"He joined about half a year after you left," Lisanna supplied, looking down at her old friend fondly and reaching down to rub her head. "And how have you been?"

"I have been doing as well as could be expected. I'll admit that travel doesn't really suit me, but Ranma at least understands that when a lady travels she must travel in some style. And though I hate to admit it, he does look after Wendy about as well as a male could be expected, though, saying that, he is only a part-time male," Carla said with a wicked chuckle. "I think it's his female side that allows him to look after her at all."

"I got lost there," Lisanna said, exchanging a confused glanced with Lucy.

"You'd have to see it to believe it," Carla said with a shake of her head. Surprising everyone else, Bisca and Mira both nodded agreement.

Elfman at that point barged in, grasping Wendy in a crushing hug. Or what most assumed was a crushing hug. Wendy simply took it, gasping only once. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

What actually irritated her was Elfman bellowing in her ear, though the words he spoke negated that. "Thank you for saving my sister!"

"Erm, it's all right. I um, I was only there because my oni-chan was, and it was him who really saved you all, him and Uncle Laxus," Wendy said, not even wheezing under Elfman's bear hug, something Mira and Cana both noticed. She was instead staring around and then up at the top of his head. "But could I ask for a favor?"

"Of course!" Elfman bellowed back. "If it is within my manly power I will grant it!"

"Can I perch on your head?" Wendy asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Eh?" Elfman blinked, as did everyone else.

Believing that to be close enough to consent, Wendy wriggled up out of Elfman's grip, then flipped herself up further to land feet first on top of his head, sighing happily as she perched there, looking around at the interior of the guild. "Mmmhm, high places are best places."

At that point Natsu burst out from the wreckage of the two tables he had hit after Wendy punched him, hurling them away as he marched forward, pointing at her excitedly. "You, girl, fight me!"

It had not been a good few moments for Natsu, and it wasn't going to get any better, because just as he was making that declaration the doors to the Guild Hall opened once more, and Ranma entered. "Ohohohoh," he said, cracking his knuckles. "Is someone trying to pick a fight with my little sister?"

"Fine, then! I'll fight you first!" Natsu shouted, turning and facing him while most of the rest of the guild winced thinking the new guy was going to receive a beatdown. Mira, on the other hand, simply cackled, knowing precisely what was going to happen as Bisca muttered short prayer for Natsu's soul.

Ranma cocked his head thoughtfully, then shook it. "Nah. Come to think of it, you don't look worth my time." With that he turned away, his eyes brightening as he noted Mira, Bisca, and Anna. "Hey, girls," he said, waving at them and moving in that direction. "Wendy, I…"

At that point Natsu had had enough of being ignored and raced forward. "Karyu no Tekken (Fire Dragon's Fist)" he shouted, but Ranma simply sidestepped Natsu, then hammered his elbow backwards into Natsu so fast that it looked as if he had gone from one position to another via teleportation rather than actually moving. Natsu once more found himself in the air and flying backwards, smashing into and through the door.

But there was no corresponding thump to indicate his landing, and Ranma turned quizzically to look through the doorway. A few seconds later Erza Scarlett strode over the rubble of the door, having grabbed Natsu out from the air with one hand. She was holding him upside down for the moment. "Natsu," she growled. "What have I told you about starting fights with magic and the Guild!"

"Not to," Natsu whimpered. "Please don't hurt me!"

"No excuses!" Before he could finish, Erza had hurled him back through the doors to crash once more into the back of the Guild Hall. She then stalked forward, glaring around her. Behind her, through the trashed doorway, could be seen a massive horn, which had been gilded with gold and other things on a large cart.

"Now then! During my travels, I, of course, kept abreast of what my guild members were doing. And while the master may have forgiven you, I will not have you sullying the name of Fairy Tail. Vijeeter…"

"Damn," Ranma muttered, nodding his head towards the redhead as she launched into a full diatribe. "She really does look sort of like my female form, doesn't she?" he said as an aside to Mira and Bisca while Erza laid down the law. "And why the heck is she acting like some kind of hall monitor?"

"Other than being a few inches taller she does indeed, but she might be a little bit bustier than you. It's hard to tell under that armor of hers, though," Mira said clinically, ignoring the last question for now. While she didn't like Erza's uptight attitude, she had to admit that a lot of the people in the guild needed it.

Ranma shrugged. "Not like it's anything I'm interested in."

"Oh, so you're not…interested?" Mira said, sliding up to him and lightly pressing into his side.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Ranma said, pushing back against the girl.

Elsewhere, Anna and Lisanna exchanged a glance and a smirk. "See what I mean?" Anna whispered to her twin.

"I know! OMG, a guy who isn't scared of her, is strong in magic, and isn't a smarmy ass? And one she's interested in too? This could be really interesting," Lisanna replied with a giggle.

Not liking how close his dear older sister was getting to this newcomer, Elfman decided to step in then, though he didn't do so violently, as Cana, who was also watching, had expected. He simply pulled Ranma into a hug, trying his hardest to squeeze the life out of him but finding it impossible. "I can't thank you enough for helping to stop me when I had become the Beast! While it would have been manlier to control the demon within, I could never have lived with myself if my manly search for power had cost me my sisters! Now, meeting you, the only manly thing to do is pay you back however I can!"

"Heh. It's all right, big guy." Ranma said. Then, looking at Elfman's serious expression, he realized that Elfman truly did feel the need to pay him back somehow. "But if you feel that way, I could use your help on a job I'm doing right now."

Elfman stepped back, nodding seriously. "Name it!"

Finishing her diatribe against the rest of the Guild, Erza turned, looking at Rama thoughtfully, her eyes narrowing as if she was trying to remember something. "I'm sorry," she said slowly, interrupting Ranma and Elfman's discussion. "You look familiar, but you're not a member of the Guild. Might I ask what you're doing here?"

"Looking for you, actually, Erza Scarlet," Ranma said with a smirk. "And I think we have run into each other a time or two. My name's Ranma."

Erza's eyes widened, then she marched forward and held out her hand. "Then I have to thank you," she said softly. "Your attempt to rescue us from those slavers didn't work, but it was the bravest thing I'd ever seen, and it helped me build up enough bravery to make a break for it on my own later."

At the same time she said that she was also fighting back a blush. She remembered seeing Ranma in Bosco and the compliment he had paid her. And she might have, kind of, developed a bit of a long distance crush on Ranma, given that and what Laxus had told her about him over the years.

"Then it at least served something. I wish I could've done more," Ranma said, equally softly. "I always wish I could do more in moments like that."

Wendy nodded firmly behind him. "We find a lot of those groups, slavers and kidnappers, and whenever we do we smash them good!" Though not a combative person, there were things that bothered Wendy quite a lot, and slavery was one of them, right up there with invading her personal space with intent to sniff. So if it meant taking out a slaving band, she'd willingly throw herself into any fight.

"Then you do good work," Erza said, smiling happily up at her and holding a hand towards the younger girl as a way to fight off her blush still more. "But I don't think we've been introduced."

"This is my little sister, Wendy," Ranma said, reaching up to touch Wendy's waist while she still stood on Elfman's head, having balanced there throughout the large man's bear hug to Ranma. _I suppose I should be lucky that she hasn't tried to climb up onto that second-story area or flown up to one of the chandeliers_ , Ranma thought.

"But actually, I'm not here jst to shoot the breeze. I'd love to, and, after my mission's done, I'll definitely come straight back here to do that. I'd like to hear about your magic style and meet up with Laxus again. And maybe even speak to another Dragon Slayer when he's not being an idiot. But right now, we have a bit of a mission."

"A mission that brings you to see me?" Erza asked, nonplussed. She was also wincing, considering that Natsu had truly brought his current predicament, being unconscious in a corner, upon himself.

"Yep," Ranma said. "Tell me, do you ever hear anyone talking about Eisenwald or the names Kagayama or Erigor recently?"

Erza became serious. "I have, though I have to ask why are you interested in them?"

"They were over in Bosco earlier this year; wrecked a few towns searching for some information apparently. Because of that, the Queen asked me to hunt them down. But I lost the trail several times," Ranma said, shaking his head. "It took me too long to get to where they were the first time Queen Rose was informed of them, and then whenever I gained on them they split up or did something else to throw me off the damn trail."

"I see. And you got my description from the bartender where I overheard them?" Erza asked after Ranma finished explaining. "That makes sense, and yes, I did hear them talk about their plans. I believe that they might be targeting the Guild Masters; I don't know how, exactly. They mentioned unsealing a weapon, and a lullaby, for some reason, but what those mean in conjunction, I have no idea."

Ranma was about to explain, when Lucy interjected, her eyes wide. "Lullaby! That's an ancient weapon, some kind of spell that will activate and put everyone to sleep until they die. I read about that in a book years ago about, about Zeref…"

"Exactly," Ranma said with a nod. "The life force that thing will drain will probably feed itself, allowing it to transform into a demon."

There were gasps all around, while Mira simply nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense and explains why you're so focused on this mission. You did say that demons were your specialty. What are you, some kind of Queen's Royal Demon Slayer?"

"Something like that, Mira," Ranma said, touching a portion of his cloak and winking at her.

At this blatant invitation, Mira's eyes turned demonic as she activated a bit of her take over power, which allowed her to use the eyes she would have had if she had fully called upon the Satan's Soul. This allowed her to peer through the tiny illusion that was hiding a piece of Ranma's cloak. There, acting as a broach, Mira saw an image of a leaf shaped device of intricate work and gasped.

Erza, too, surreptitiously took a look as well with her magic eye, which allowed her to see through illusions. Her eyes widened, and the two of them exchanged glances as Ranma had turned away, answering a question from someone else about the Lullaby.

"So, what do you say, big guy," Ranma said, looking up at Elfman. "You in?"

"I don't know," Erza said as the reverberations of Elfman's reply reached them from the far corners. "Do you really think that the three of us alone will be enough? I had intended to ask for both Gray and Natsu's help on this myself."

At that everyone looked to where Natsu lay and Gray stood. It was also at that point that the fact that Gray had stripped again registered on more than one person, and the Fairy girls all groaned, turning away as the men rolled their eyes.

But what sealed Gray's fate was the fact he had just stripped in front of Wendy, of all people. "Kyaaa!" Wendy screamed, turning away and holding her hands over her eyes.

"I see you haven't beaten that dirty habit of yours, Gray! And in front of a young girl no less!" Carla shouted also turning away.

 **Kapow!** Between one second and the next Ranma had crossed the intervening distance between him and Gray, and a punch had slammed into Gray's chest hard enough to hurl him backwards to slam into the same wall Natsu was stuck in. He quickly joined his rival in the land of the unconscious, Ranma's bellow of, "Don't you dare show such shit to my little sister!" ringing in his ears.

"Three of us?" Ranma asked then, looking at Erza quizzically and seemingly ignoring what he had just done to the stripping pervert.

"Of course I will not allow you to take on this mission alone. And you surely aren't thinking of taking young Wendy on such a mission."

While a portion of Ranma bristled at the whole 'not allow' thing, he simply nodded. "You're right about the no Wendy thing. She's been growing like a weed lately, and the only thing we have that auto-sizes to fit is her Song Silk outfit, so she needs an entirely new wardrobe. I was going to ask Mira or one of the others to take her on a shopping trip, on my tab."

Wendy nodded at that. They had talked about this, and since her panties were actually getting uncomfortably tight these days, she had gone along with it. It would also allow her to spend time around other mages, and girls at that, which she hadn't been able to do for several years.

"Oooh, you tread dangerously, Ranma," Mira teased. "Giving a few girls permission to use your credit to shop."

"Heh, it would be if the magical card I'd give you wouldn't keep track of all the purchases. I know Wendy's sizes, so I'll know when the things you buy won't be going to her," Ranma replied to Mira's implication, a smirk on his face. "Besides, from what I'm seeing it's not like any of you ladies need a wardrobe change. You're perfect as you are."

"Smooth, real smooth," Mira said, fighting back a blush, while more than one of the other girls there did the same, including Erza, who wondered if he meant her too given the armor she wore continuously. "Where'd you learn to trot out lines like that, and can we send some of the pigs in this guild there?"

"Heh, um, you probably could if you could send them to Appledore. As for the line, meh. It'd only be a line if it wasn't true," Ranma said before turning back to Erza. "But yeah, I think we'll be strong enough."

"What would your official mage rank be?" Erza asked seriously, also setting aside the strange rush of blood to her head she'd just felt. "I've heard a lot about your abilities and your doings, but nothing official."

"Darlin'," Rama said with a laugh, causing Erza to blush full force now and Mira to smirk, "I am beyond S-class, easily. Speaking of, how strong is Laxus?" he asked, looking around.

"He is not called the unofficial Wizard Saint these days without reason," Erza replied dryly.

"Well, I'm at least as strong as he is. Besides, this is an official mission from the Queen of Bosco, so really, you can either come with me, or you can eat my dust. What's it going to be?" Ranma asked, smirking as he knew what the answer would be.

 **End Chapter**


	7. Chapter 7

Ranma is Rumiko's, and Natsu et al belong to someone else who can draw.

Happy Mother's Day! While I doubt many of you are mothers, this is still one of the two Making Waves chapters I'm going to post today, since I unfortunately missed Easter. My bad all, but that whole week was a nightmare in RL and I honestly only remembered I'd put out a chapter of this work for international holidays this past week.

A note on the girls' chest sizes: _Justlovereadin_ ' sent me the list of three of the Fairy Tail Girls. Those are the only three whose sizes are 'official' and, shockingly enough given fanon, Lucy's chest **isn't** the largest in the guild, which I, and a lot of other writers have assumed. Juvia has at least an inch on her, while Lucy's tied with Erza. I'm going to keep the fact that she is larger than Mira, Bisca and Cana, if only barely in Mira's case, for now. For those of you who care going forward I'm going to make Ultear around Mira's size, that is smaller than Lucy and Erza, but the demon girls will be larger, and in Seilah's case a good full size larger at that.

This chapter has been looked over by _Michael_ and _Justlovereadin_ ' my small mistake guru and a Fairy Tail expert respectively, who I admit I should have asked for help sooner than this lol. It has also been looked over by _Hiryo_ , who in turn is an expert on canon Ranma. Hope that you all thank them for their work, and please enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Two Redheads Walk Into a Train Station…**

"Now hold on," Mira said after Elfman's roar of agreement had died down, her tone both thoughtful and commanding, the voice of an S-class mage. It contrasted very oddly with her current skirt and blouse combo and the somewhat cutesy way her finger was tapping against her chin. "I think you should take at least two more people. Not because you three couldn't handle it, though I'd love to see Erza get in over her head for once. I'd be the first to say she can handle herself; she's my rival, after all. My bro's somewhat strong as well, and you've definitely got the bonafides."

Indeed, Mira was wondering how the hell someone a little older than her had become a Ranger at all. Hell, a part of her had always thought they were myths. Still, that didn't change facts. "But we don't know how large Eisenwald is."

"Between seventy to eighty mages. Not a one of them really S-class level, though Eribor or Erigirl, or whatever his name is, he's supposed to be kind of tough," Ranma said with a shrug. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Exactly. And what do cockroaches do when someone tries to step on them? They run for cover, split up. So unless you've got magic which allows you to be in two places at once, you'll need more people to hunt them all down." Mira looked over at Cana, whose cards could summon body doubles, beasts, and other things, but the drunk didn't notice.

Then her gaze turned to Lucy, who met her eyes and gulped, but nodded. "I'd recommend Lucy here. She can summon up Celestial Spirits, giving you four people for the price of one."

"I think we should also bring Gray along. His magic is uniquely suited for capturing opponents," Erza interjected.

"Grrr, you want to bring along the stripper?" Ranma growled, glaring over to where the woozy boy had slowly been getting to his feet, woken up by Elfman's shout after Ranma had laid him out with a single punch for flashing Wendy. "On the other hand, it gets him away from Wendy."

"And from me," Carla growled in turn. "I would react just as violently as you did should he strip in front of Wendy again." A cruel glint entered her eyes. "Or get him arrested for corrupting her. There is a bad name for those who strip in front of young girls, Gray."

"Guh. Damn it, Carla you know it's not like that! I just can't help it; it's part of my training!" Gray protested.

"So you say," Carla shot back, while Ranma turned to Erza mouthing the word, 'training,' to which the redhead replied with a slight nod, causing Ranma to shake his head. "However, I thought humans were above acting solely by their instincts. Then again, looking at you and Natsu, perhaps I was wrong about your being human at all. You could be a throwback. A stripper monkey instead of a howler monkey, perhaps?"

"Meh, six out of ten. I like the insult, and the wordplay was good, but you spent too long setting it up," Ranma said, holding up a card with a six on it while Wendy did the same with a giggle, though her card showed a nine.

"Hmmpf. Just because you have the attention span of a flea doesn't mean that my insults should cater to said span," Carla shot back.

This earned her a thoughtful hum, and the number changed to a seven, which caused her to nod in satisfaction. To one side the nearby mages Fairy Tail watched this in confused amusement. Carla really had mellowed, it seemed, able to joke around like that without getting all huffy or simply calling the individual she was arguing an idiot and walking away in a huff.

"Well, if you two want to come along, I won't say no, but let's get going now," Ranma said, nodding his head at Carla before ruffling Wendy's hair and handing her a magic card.

This was a kind of magical device with a tiny, artificially created lacrima embedded in it. It linked the card to a similar lacrima connected to the desired bank account and was actually rather old magi-tech. The two siblings held it together for a moment, and then there was a faint flash, which showed that Wendy had been given access to the card.

"Okay, Wendy, I have to go now, okay? Be good for Mira and the others. No climbing up buildings or anything."

Wendy's eyes went a little rounder than normal as her lips trembled. "I don't like being left behind, Ranma-nii. Do I really have to? We could go shopping for clothing any time, after all."

"Yes, but this way you get a real woman's perspective beyond that of Carla's. And I know you don't like fighting, even if you can handle yourself. You know this might end up with another Demon hunt," Ranma said, then sighed as Wendy's eyes started to water. "Tell you what, imouto: if you're good while I'm gone, when I come back we'll go out to that restaurant you like. Or, or you can pick out a piece of jewelry on your shopping trip, and I'll add that in to your new clothing."

"Okay!" Wendy said cheerily, the hints of water in her eyes disappearing instantly. "Have fun, Ranma-nii, and I'll see you when you get back." She hugged him, then raced over to Carla, who was shaking her head at the girl's antics, picking Carla up and moving over to where Lisanna and Anna had moved behind the bar to take off their aprons in preparation for leaving the guild.

"…That little girl has you wrapped around her finger," Erza said, her lips forming a smirk as Mira cackled at the look Ranma's face was currently sporting.

"*Sigh*, yeah. Heh, never tell Carla I said this, but I'm grateful sometimes she was around so I didn't spoil her rotten with clothes and things. I know being on the road is a hard life even with all the magical goodies to make it easier, and I've never let her let up on training either beyond a certain point, so I tend to give her whatever she wants otherwise. It's a rare time that I don't."

"You're sweet, but I think you all should head out if you want to find the trail of this Eisenwald before it gets cold."

"Right!" Ranma said, shaking his head and turning his mind to more important matters. "Erza, where are we going?"

"Two towns over. I overheard the Eisenwald mages say where they were supposed to meet up again. We will head there and intercept them as they arrive," Erza said. "Let's be off!"

The group of five, even Gray, left quickly after that. Bare moments later Natsu, who had not been woken up from the stupor caused by Erza's attack, stood up and looked around. "What the…? What did I miss?"

 **OOOOOOO**

"So, all Dragon Slayers do have trouble with transportation," Erza mused, her lips twitching as she looked at the groaning, green-skinned form of Ranma on the train bench across from her. "Laxus said that was the case, but I always secretly thought that was just his trying to cover for his own weakness."

"Noooo, its all of us; wish to God I knew why," Ranma groaned, clenching his lips around his pipe as he raised a shaky hand to the bowl, lighting the pipe up and breathing in slowly. The smoke did its work, and his stomach slowly calmed down. "Wendy's got this spell she can use on us on occasion, but we can't use it a lot since our bodies build up an immunity to it. This helps; a little, anyway."

"You do know smoking is bad for you, yes?" Erza said, shaking her head as she looked at the boy. "And that certainly doesn't smell like normal tobacco either."

"It's called Dragon's Breath. It's a kind of herb from down in Desierto. It helps calm dragons down, or Dragon Slayers in this case, and can make it easier to get in touch with our instincts if we're meditating," Ranma said, his voice more of a controlled groan but understandable. "Found out recently that it can help with our upset stomachs too, though not much."

"Hmm… Well, if it's medicinal I won't say anything," Erza said, sniffing at the smoke. It didn't smell of anything to her senses, but she'd spent enough time around Natsu to know just how incredible draconic-imbued senses were. "Do you think it would help Natsu?"

"Sure, though I don't have much of it anymore. I'll have to take a trip to the nearest Bank of Ishgar to pick up more. I've got a deal with a trader down in Desierto, who then ships it to the bank that gets it to me." This actually had nothing to do with how much Ranma could hold at any given time, since with ki space and Requip space that was practically infinite. No, it had to with availability of the herb down in Desierto.

"Thank you. He will probably pay very well for anything that can help him deal with his motion sickness. Though I wouldn't tell him that Wendy has a spell that can negate it. He might try to abduct her," Erza replied with a laugh.

Ranma and the others laughed too, though of course Gray added an insult sent Flame-brain's way, with Elfman's manly agreement accompanying him. Thankfully a glare from Ranma kept Elfman from bellowing at the top of his lungs as was his wont. After a second, however, Lucy asked, "So, um, what kind of magic can everyone do? I'm sorry, but I'm so new to Fairy Tail, and this is going to be my first big mission, so…"

"You don't have to worry, Lucy. I've heard of your first few missions already. They say you defeated an army of Vulcans and a massive, magically enhanced gorilla maid?" Erza's smile then faded, her real eye going dark. "And helped Natsu smash a kidnapping ring?" At that even Ranma looked a little more awake, trying to look at the blonde who sat on Erza's left side. Somehow, in some kind of social judo Ranma would never understand, the two girls had taken one bench to themselves, forcing the three boys to share the other, despite one of said boys being so wide he took up half the bench on his own.

"Hah, um, no," Lucy said sheepishly. "There was no army of Vulcans. Macao did darn well clearing most of them out before we got there. The um, gorilla maid was actually a Celestial Spirit. The slaving ring, though, that at least was all me." She then growled, thumping a fist down on the bench. "Right up until Natsu showed up and destroyed the ship I had just captured, and then half the waterfront!"

She then sighed. "Then again, if he hadn't broken the Charm spell on me, I suppose I would have been just another abducted girl, so it sort of evens out. I just wish my plan to infiltrate the group had worked better."

Looking around at the others, she smiled. "Well, anyway, I guess I'll start. I'm a Celestial Key user. I have four Gold Keys to my name, and I can summon three of their spirits at once if need be. Um, I wouldn't like to use Aquarius around allies, though. She tends to…not react very well to being called without prior notice. Even after years under Master Capricorn's teachings I can't get her to always simply attack my enemies instead of just drowning everyone in the vicinity."

"Interesting, and a very versatile magic from what I know about Celestial Spirits," Erza approved, while Gray and Elfman nodded.

"Capricorn, huh? That's a name I haven't heard in a while. That'd make you Lucy Heartfilia, right? Sorry, hadn't heard your last name before," Ranma said, not looking at anyone as he closed his eyes, trying to enter a half-meditative state with the help of the smoke. "Good to know he reached you."

"Oh!" Lucy gasped, one hand flying up to her mouth as she stared at Ranma in shock. "Um… Master Makarov said someone had passed Capricorn's key on to me, but he never said who, and I never thought to ask Master Capricorn himself about it. Thank you so much! I, I can't even begin to explain how much help Master Capricorn has been over the years. I would not be nearly the mage I am now without his teachings."

"Meh, it's cool. Not like I could use the key anyway," Ranma said, waving that off. "What about the rest of you? I've got an idea of what Erza can do, and you, Elfman, but not Gray. Something to do with stripping?"

"No, damn it!" Gray growled, while the other Fairy Tail mages laughed. "I'm an Ice Make mage." With that Gray held up a hand, tapping his fist into his palm, causing a small magical circle to appear. Pulling the fist back up, Gray revealed a statue of a flower. "I can make anything I want to out of ice, so long as I can imagine it in the first place."

"Pretty," Lucy said, staring first at the ice flower, then smirking at Gray. "Oh, is that why you and Natsu don't get along? Fire and ice? That's so cute."

"No, I just hate the flame-for-brains," Gray huffed, swiftly looking away from Erza's glare, a sweat drop appearing on the side of his head. She was still under the impression that he and Natsu were friends just because they had learned not to fight in front of her. "Erm, anyway, I just got into the habit of stripping when I was with my old teacher. It was supposed to get us in touch with the cold of ice in order to help us control it better."

"Huh. Well, that's interesting and all, but if you ever strip in front of my little sister again I'll cut off that which makes you a male, m'kay?" Ranma said, smiling a predator's smile as he glared at Gray. The fact that he still looked like he was going to be sick somehow did not take away from the weight of his threat.

"That's soooo not a manly threat," Elfman muttered as Gray nodded his head rapidly.

"Yeah," Ranma drawled, looking over at him. "That would sort of be the point."

Closing his eyes after that, it took a minute for Ranma to realize that everyone was staring back at him. He only realized this when he cracked an eye open as a train employee came by taking tickets. "What?"

"Your magic," Erza prodded, her lips twitching in amusement at his reaction.

"Like I said in your guildhall, I'm a Water Dragon Slayer. I can pretty much do most of the attacks you've probably seen from that kid Natsu, only with water instead of fire, and probably a whole lot more. I have other magic tricks in my bag, but none that I'm going to share right now."

"So you're like Juvia, then?" Gray asked.

"Who?"

"Juvia is a friend of Anna's who's in another guild. She is slightly bizarre some of the time, but far too nice for Phantom Lord, really," Erza said with a huff. "I like the girl, and I know Anna's invited her to switch, but she has never indicated that she wants to despite the…" She frowned, cutting herself off.

This was no place to air the long list of grievances she had against the other guild for some of their rumored activities. _Besides, that's all it is: rumors. If there was any real truth behind them, then the Magic Council would have addressed them, even if Jose is a Wizard Saint. I can't air our supposed rivalry here, and really shouldn't even give it any lip service at all, lest the rest of the guild get the idea that they can do the same._ "Never mind."

"Is it normal to have a friend in another guild like that?" Ranma asked quizzically. "Before this I'd sort of gotten the impression there was a lot of rivalry between the guilds in Fiore."

"There is, but this is Fairy Tail," Erza said. "Nothing we do is normal." The other Fairy Tail mages joined in with that last sentence, Lucy just slightly behind the others.

As the laughter died down from that, Erza took her turn to explain her magical powers without prompting. I am primarily a Requip mage," she said, thumping one hand against her armor clad chest. "I can change weapons and armor in under a second. I prefer to be a close range combatant, but many of my magical swords and armor come with long-range attacks. I can also control my weapons to a certain degree via telekinesis, which you will see once we join battle, and can use them in close range and long-range combat. I have tried Guns Magic, but for the most part my abilities with telekinesis and thrown weapons make them superfluous at best, horribly underpowered at worst. I do keep a few on hand occasionally for long term missions or times when I have reason to believe I may face magical exhaustion using my normal methods. This should not be one of those times."

"And Elfman uses Take Over, right?" Ranma asked.

"Right," Elfman answered with a nod. "I haven't been able to use Take Over: Demon's Soul like my sister, but I have several dozen souls under my manly command, much like Lisanna. Though most of my monsters were chosen because of their combat ability. I specialize in using half transformations, transforming my legs to that of one monster and arms to that of another."

Nodding back, Ranma then paused, his head halfway through the nod as his skin turned even greener. The others waited with bated breath, worried that he was about to puke, but he regained control, leaning back upright slowly as he took another long drag from his pipe. Searching for something to concentrate on other than his stomach and the continued movement of the train under him, Ranma looked over at Erza again. "So, what's life been like for you?"

"After our first abortive meeting, or after you told me you liked my hair?" Erza asked dryly. Ranma smirked, waving his hand at her, and she chuckled. "Well, I joined Fairy Tail, as you can no doubt tell, and I believe that my master mentioned taking me under his wing a time or two?"

Ranma waved his hand again, unwilling to try to move his head again. Before Erza could reply, however, Elfman cut in. "Erza isn't just strong! She's known as the strongest woman in Fiore, stronger even than the female guild masters or even the two female councilmembers! She is the manliest of men!"

"Not going to comment on the whole manly thing, and I would take that last one with a grain of salt," Ranma said, shaking his head at Elfman's exuberance. "In my experience magic councils are never made up of the strongest mages, they're made up of the most politically minded. In other words, they're almost always bureaucratic shits out for their own personal gain rather than doing their jobs."

"The Magic Council is a respected body that is part of the government of Fiore. You should give them respect," Erza said. To Ranma's surprise the others were also looking a little nervous and serious at the same time.

"I've met a lot of mages in my time, and I've met several kings and queens," Ranma said. "I've seen how magic is policed in other countries, and I've seen how it is here. There's a reason I was allowed to follow this mission through when Eisenwald crossed back in from Bosco, after all. If the Magic Council had not simply handed down a dictate instead of actually waiting until they were in a position to arrest the entire guild, we wouldn't be dealing with this Lullaby issue at all. Face it, guys, there's a lot to admire about Fiore, but at the same time you all produce more Dark Guilds than any other two countries combined."

"We produce more mages, that's all," Erza replied with a shrug. "You can't expect us to have three or four times as many mages as any other country, and not produce a larger number of bad apples than other countries too."

"No, but it should be assumed that your Magic Council would act in such a way as to be showing a modicum of intelligence," Ranma said bitingly. "Besides, this isn't just me saying it. I've talked to mages in positions of authority elsewhere, and they all say the Magic Council of Fiore is too big for their britches: arrogant, shortsighted, bureaucrats."

 _The fact that this ain't the first problem I've personally come across in the past few years that originated in Fiore is also an issue._ Ranma and Wendy had dealt with two other Dark Guilds that had escaped into Caelum last year, and then, a bare few months before Queen Rose asked for his help in stopping Eisenwald, there had been a major scandal of fake lacrima crystals being sold on the open market, made in Fiore and Seven under the auspices of the combined council.

Those crystals exploded if they were used more than a few times, and there had been actual deaths. Ranma had witnessed one such, and he and Wendy had tracked the distributors down, arresting them. Those distributors had been fully accredited by the Council for their goods, yet no one could figure out how those crystals had been allowed past the Council's quality control teams. Or how the injuries and everything else hadn't made it to the kings' ears or the newspapers. Ranma knew it was a cover-up, but hadn't been able to trace it back all the way.

"Let's talk about something else," Lucy cut in brightly, to which Gray and Elfman nodded.

For her part Erza looked fit to argue further, though from her face she was conflicted. After all, Fairy Tail didn't have a very good reputation with the Magic Council. The Council hated how destructive many of the guild members were, how powerful many of the guild members were, and how irreverent they were towards the law.

In return, a large majority of the guild really couldn't care less about the Magic Council at all. Natsu and many others felt they were useless paper pushers, with nothing better to do than to get in the way. Loke and Elfman both had specific issues with council members. Elfman had actually punched out a councilmember not too long ago after the man had insulted him due his lack of formal education. And last but not least, Loke had slept with a councilman's daughter.

Not that he was the first one to do so with that particular lady, Erza thought in amusement having heard rumors about that woman. Her own thoughts on the Magic Council were much kinder than that of her fellows: while she didn't particularly like many of them, and in fact was incredibly leery of one in particular, she willingly obeyed the Magic Council's edicts because that was the law and Erza believed in following the law like Natsu believed that attacking those stronger than him made him in turn stronger.

"How about we have a question and answer session?" Lucy went on, bringing Erza's thoughts back to the world around her. "That'll let us get to know you."

Shrugging slightly, Ranma agreed. He did want to stay around here for a while, after all. He wanted to get back in touch with Laxus, wanted to research some of the local magic and the history of Fiore, and, frankly, the idea of talking to a Wizard Saint—Makarov—was a fascinating one. _And this doesn't have anything to do with the fact that every girl in the guild is smoking hot, does it? Is that your story?_ said a part of his mind _._

 _Yep, that's my story. and I'm sticking to it,_ the rest of Ranma's mind replied to the libido _. Although I wouldn't say no if anything did happen in that area._ It had been a few years since he'd kissed Jenny, after all.

The question and answer session went on for a while, with the Fairy Tail mages firing questions at Ranma about places he had seen and about life outside Fiore. The only one of them who had ever been outside Fiore before was Erza, and she had done so only rarely. She had been to Seven, Bosco, and Caelum on missions, though not for very long, and she hadn't seen a lot of the countries. She had even been to Buckler once with some of the other girls on a trip organized by the now-deceased manager of Fairy Tail's girls dormitory, Fairy Hills. But she had never been further than that. All of them were amazed at how much of Ishgar Ranma had seen, most of it having been in the company of Wendy and having to watch over the little girl too.

In turn, the Fiore mages shared more about themselves and the guild with Ranma. Ranma learned that Lucy had joined up a bare month back and had been paired with Natsu for her first few missions, including one she had been on before technically having joined. Gray had joined nearly a decade ago now, while Elfman had joined a few years after that with his sisters.

In terms of the rest of the guild, he learned that Mirajane was indeed an S-class mage, though she didn't take as many jobs as she used to. She preferred to man the bulletin board and only took serious S-class work rather than the normal jobs even the other S-class mages did. He learned that Laxus was respected, but not exactly well-liked within the guild. It wasn't because he was arrogant; his strength was such that could be overlooked. He was simply very prickly and standoffish and rather disdainful of a lot of the guild. Those he was friendly to were the ones he acknowledged as either being strong or of having the potential to be strong.

For her part Erza continued to try to ask Ranma questions about the hidden Ranger insignia without actually using that term. How had he earned it, where had he done so, and what really were the powers that it gave him? Of course she couldn't just blurt out his secret. Like Mira, Erza knew that Rangers were supposed to keep their identities as secret as possible. So she was forced to use circuitous thinking in order to ask her questions, something which Erza was not very good at. This showed physically in her shifting in place, nibbling at her lips, and playing with her hair as she tried to control the urge to just blurt out what she wanted to ask.

Yet, despite the fact it was fun watching Erza squirm, Ranma refused to answer most of these, considering that they were in public. All he would say was that he had earned the title of 'chief Zeref wrangler' after fighting some Demons, which caused Gray to look at him quickly. "Did you ever fight a Demon in Iceberg?"

"Yeah, that was the first one I fought," Ranma said, looking at him strangely. "Big bastard named Delicious or something? Nearly killed me at the time, but I bet if I ran into him again I could kick his ass!" Ranma smiled, but there was nothing humorous about it. Rather, it was a predatory grin, showing teeth like a shark's. Across from him Lucy blanched as Erza shuddered, the look calling to something deep inside her.

"Yeah, right," Gray growled, angry at this near-stranger making light of the Demon that had wrecked his life twice over, even if Ranma had made Deliora run off all those years ago. "I bet Deliora has gotten stronger too. He certainly was when I…" He stopped, looking away.

Ranma stared at him for a moment before nudging him in the side. "When you…?" he prompted.

"Nothing," Gray muttered. "Nothing you need to worry about."

Of the others there, only Erza knew what Gray had told everyone in Fairy Tail about how he had come to join the guild, but she didn't say anything, feeling it was not her place to do so. Instead the conversation tapered off, with Lucy, Gray, and Elfman talking about something else, while Erza and Ranma started to talk about weapons-craft.

Soon after that they arrived at the first of four different stops the train would have to make on their way to their destination. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, standing up and stretching his arms above his head, unintentionally pulling his shirt out from where it had been tucked in and revealing his stomach at exactly eye height to the people still sitting down.

Erza blushed hotly, staring avidly at the heavily toned muscles of Ranma's six-pack. If there was an inch of fat anywhere on Ranma's body, it wasn't apparent. Even the muscles in his sides, the ulterior and serratus anterior muscles which most never exercised were in perfect definition, visibly shifting as he stretched in place. His muscles weren't the overblown, weight lifter type of Laxus, Elfman, or Gildarts, but they were a step above Natsu or Gray in terms of size. Further, they were the muscles of someone who used them in combat, as shown by several small scars here and there and one large, ugly scar that looked as if it passed entirely through his body.

Even the two boys who had been sitting next to Ranma stared, then vowed to themselves to add a few more reps to their daily exercises. Lucy took one look, flushed, and looked away. She could see that it would be attractive for some, but was a bit too intimidating to her.

Thinking of something else, Lucy stood up abruptly, grinning as she dodged around Ranma to stand in the pathway between the two rows of benches. "I almost forgot! I have a new Celestial Spirit I need to form a contract with, that'll make five!"

"This should be fascinating," Erza said with a smile. "I've never seen Celestial Spirit magic at work."

The others all nodded agreement and Ranma sat down to get out of Lucy's way and she flourished one of several gold keys which hung in a belt pouch. That belt was an intricate thing, with two lacrima mounted in it as well as wires of gold woven through the pouch's outer shell. A medallion with a sign of the zodiac on it marked the latch on the outer flap.

Holding the key in one hand, Lucy thrust the key forward, grinning as she shouted, "Open, Virgo."

There was a shiver of bright light, then what looked like a maid appeared in between the two benches. She was a petite thing, shorter by at least a foot than Lucy who wasn't exactly tall, though only slightly less developed in the chest area, with a petite rear and long, strong legs slightly on show thanks to her maid outfit. As she appeared, the maid was down on one knee, bowing to Lucy with her hand outstretched to the floor palm upward. "You called, master?"

"Virgo?" Lucy asked, her eyes agape. "Wow, you look so much better than you did when you served that asshole Everlue."

"As a Celestial Spirit I can change my appearance to match that which my current master thinks appropriate. Is this form acceptable, master, or do you wish me to go back to my old form?" the woman asked before her body changed into that of a massive, overweight woman with rather ugly, pug-like features.

The boys, two of whom had been trying and failing to not look down the maid's shirt, groaned as this occurred, holding their hands over their eyes. "So not manly!" Elfman moaned.

Erza chuckled as Ranma laughed, moving away and sitting down, putting more Dragon's Breath in his pipe as Lucy waved her hands frantically. "No, no! That's quite all right! You looked amazing in your other form!"

Virgo smiled at that and changed back. She then looked up as Lucy knelt down in front of her, pulling her to her feet. "And I don't ask my spirits to bow like that to me," Lucy said firmly. "Don't do it again, please. You're my partners, not my servants."

The spirit's eyes widened at that, but she also smiled and nodded. "Then, do you wish to form a contract with me, master?"

"And none of that master stuff," Lucy said, rolling her eyes.

"Mistress?" Virgo asked.

"Nope." Lucy held up her arms in an X.

Virgo looked at Lucy from head to toe for a moment, her eyes dwelling on the whip Lucy wore on her belt. A pleased smile flashed on her face for just a second. "Then how about Hime?"

"That works," Lucy said with a nod, while all the others looked at her with deadpan gazes.

"Really?" Ranma groaned.

"Well then, Hime, all I need is your hand and some of your magic to imprint upon," Virgo said.

Without hesitation Lucy held out her hand and shook Virgo's. "Happy to have you as part of the team, Virgo!" she said, beaming happily.

"I am pleased to contract with you as well, Hime. Call me if you have need of my powers."

"Speaking of powers," Erza said, after the others had finished congratulating Lucy on forming a new contract, "Something has bothered me for a while. Laxus has always made you sound like a man, but from Mirajane's description of the incident where Anna appeared, she was saved by a woman. And Laxus has also sometimes slipped and talked about you as if you were a woman too. Why is that? Do you have a sister somewhere?"

"Heh. Well, there's an 'easy' reason for that so long as you're able to actually see it in action, anyway." With that, Ranma reached into his Requip space and pulled out bottle of water. "Seeing is believing, after all, and if I'm going to stay around here for a bit you might as well see my curse in action now."

He glared at the two boys sitting next to him. "But I'll warn you both now: if you ask me for anything perverted or try to grope me, I will break you!"

With that he turned back to Erza, smirking at her. "And as for you, I hope you're ready to say, 'Hi.'" He then poured the water over his head, quickly becoming 'her.' "To your long-lost twin."

Erza took one look at the now redheaded girl, sliding off the bench in shock as she stared at the other redhead. She wasn't nearly as tall as Erza, and her eyes didn't match even Erza's original brown, but beyond that they might well have been sisters. Their faces even had some of the same lines about them, though Ranma's face looked more accustomed to smiling than Erza's.

Beside Erza, Lucy gaped, her eyes going down Ranma's body then back up, a flush to her cheeks. "How the heck does a boy turned girl have a body like that!?"

"Good exercise?" Ranma replied with a shrug.

From there Ranma explained how she had been cursed before becoming a Dragon Slayer, the same story she had told Laxus so long ago and Wendy after him. Gray, Elfman, and Lucy all had trouble getting their heads around a curse like that being water-based and unable to be removed, but Erza took it in stride. She had seen worse, after all.

Gray and Lucy poured cold and hot water over Ranma a few times but then they stopped as the train started moving, and Ranma grabbed her stomach immediately. "Oh God, it's worse in my female form. Why is it worse in my female form!?"

 **OOOOOOO**

While Ranma and his team were on their way, back in Fairy Tail's headquarters a large congregation of girls had decided to help Wendy with her shopping. The three Strauss sisters, Bisca, and Cana joined Carla and Wendy with Mirajane in the lead. "So, Wendy, what exactly do you want to buy first? What kind of clothing do you need right away, I mean?" Mira asked, though she felt she had a good idea going by Wendy's age, something that caused a smirk to appear on her face.

Wendy's voice was a squeak as she blushed, holding Carla up in front of her face to better shield herself as she muttered, "A, ano, feminine things? Some, some pads, panties, and maybe some bras?"

"Pads?" Cana asked intently, looking down at the little girl. "Are we talking about…"

"Yes we are," Carla said in a tone of long-suffering, still being held up in front of her friend's face and not trying to get away. "I had to have that talk with Wendy about that topic a few months back." She paused then went on in a rather begrudging tone. "I will admit that Ranma tried, but even though he was a woman at the time, it just didn't work. He was stuttering so much he was barely comprehensible, let alone educational."

"Wait, what? A 'woman at the time?' What's that mean?" Cana asked, looking at the others.

Setting Carla back down, Wendy explained about Ranma's curse, by which time they had reached the first store Mirajane had been steering them towards. While the other girls spread out and began to argue about what kind of underwear design Wendy would prefer, Mirajane took the little girl through the store into the back, where she gently led her into a changing room. "Okay, Wendy," she said, smiling kindly, "Let's see if you really do need a bra, okay?"

Wendy huffed and looked away with a pout, which told Mira that she already knew the answer, and it wasn't what she wanted it to be. But faced with no chance of escape, she went along with things anyway. Mira watched as Wendy stripped down then pulled out a measuring tape from somewhere, putting it around the girl's chest.

"As I thought!" she said triumphantly. Then, as Wendy seemed to glow, Mira swiftly began to tickle her mercilessly. "You're not quite there yet," she said to Wendy as she tried to wriggle away, squealing after Mira's tickle attack. She knelt down beside Wendy, ruffling her hair affectionately and leaning in to whisper. "Trust me, I was there for a long time too."

As Wendy looked up at her, Mira smiled. "I started to bloom around fourteen or fifteen, so you've got two to three years to go before you start, Wendy. Don't rush it; trust me. I went around, you know, displaying them," she said, patting her chest to show Wendy what she meant, "for the first month, then they just started to get irritating for a while. They'll swiftly be just a part of your body, not a sign of you growing up or anything like that."

"But don't they make men crazy?" Wendy asked, tilting her head curiously. "Carla has said that a lot of times, though I have never seen Ranma-nii act like that."

That's only true for some people, and your brother probably has a willpower of steel," Mirajane replied dryly.

 _Though I might try my hand at getting through it~,_ Mira caroled to herself. _Hot, strong, with a job as a Ranger adding some mystery and good with kids as well as having a damn good sense of humor? Yes, please! Although, there is his curse to think about..._

Mirajane had to suppress a shudder at that and how the redheaded Ranma looked so much like Erza. While several of the guys in the guild might've whispered that their fights were simply unrequited attraction, Mirajane would be the first (if she heard about it first anyway) to say that was absolutely **not** the case.

Yeah, she found girls interesting. She wouldn't have fallen into bed, literally, with Jenny despite the fact they were drunk at the time if she didn't. But that was a far cry from thinking that she was attracted to Erza, who was her only true rival in Fairy Tail. They might have become friends over the past few years, but that didn't mean they were very close, and Mirajane certainly never had any fantasies in that direction, as she had had with Jenny and, at one point, Cana.

 _But Cana's a special case in many ways,_ Mira thought drolly as she stood up, hearing Cana arguing for lace thongs out in the main store with the others. The outgoing lush was the party girl of Fairy Tail for a very good reason, and Mira wondered occasionally if her nickname should have been the 'kissing queen' instead of the 'immortal liver.' Cana had kissed nearly every girl in the Fairy Hills at one point or another while drunk off her ass, and Mira was no exception. Heck, she thought even Erza had fallen victim at one point.

 _Though since Lucy's joined she seems to have concentrated her flirtations on her, thankfully._ The clothing the blonde wore was at sharp odds with her innocent attitude, putting her chest on more display than any of the other girls in the guild did beyond Cana. The fact she was one of the largest in the guild didn't help. _Heck, if only I knew whether or not Erza had an actual freaking chest under that armor of hers I'd say she's the largest, darn it! Thankfully she isn't dumb, I'd hate to lose in that area to a walking cliché._

"However," Mirajane went on, patting the girl on the head. "I think we can do better than boy shorts for you, at least."

With that she exited, leaving Wendy there for a few moments before coming back with a selection of different kinds of panties. "Tell me which ones of these feel comfortable. We'll go for looks after we know what style you like."

The group finished in that store quickly enough, since it only sold underwear and nothing else. Bisca took a moment to head out as the others were paying for Wendy's purchases to grab some ice cream for them all, coming back with cones between each of her fingers, which she handed out quickly before the ice cream could start to melt.

Wendy eagerly munched on her cherry vanilla ice cream, a treat she had rarely seen outside of Fiore. The magic necessary to keep the ice cream cold enough to ship didn't exist in most places in Ishgar. That made it taste even better.

With Lisanna and Anna now in the lead, they walked through the city for a time while eating their ice cream as Bisca and Wendy talked about traveling on the road. Bisca had traveled for quite a ways by herself before eventually coming to Fiore, where she had tried to make a living posing as a Fairy Tail mage in order to scam enough money from local townsfolk to feed her animal friends, of which she had acquired a wide variety.

Bisca had been found doing so by Erza, who had quickly clobbered her, but had not arrested her after discovering the reason why she was trying to get so much money. Bisca had then joined Fairy Tail because she had thought Erza was the coolest person she'd ever met, on top of being the strongest.

The others had heard this story before, but began to ask questions when Wendy began to tell them about her travels with Ranma. She didn't say anything about Ranma's job as a Ranger or about the Demons they had fought. But she did mention bandits, Vulcans, and the fact that the Queen of Bosco almost adored Ranma for his part in crushing the slave trade in her country. "Almost single-handed too, but I don't know much about that, since it happened before Ranma-nii found me. But I like Queen Rose," Wendy said with a smile. "She's nice, and Prince James is…is, um… He's nice too." She blushed a little, looking away.

"Do I detect someone has their first little crush?" Cana asked, patting Wendy on the head with a wicked smirk on her face. "And with a real Prince, too?"

Wendy blushed hotly, looking away, while the older girls laughed.

Mira then asked, "Hmm, I wonder what Ranma would do if he heard about this?" Seeing Wendy wave her arms around frantically and beg was hilarious, causing Mira, Cana, and Bisca to all burst out laughing, while Lisanna, Carla and Anna tried to calm the girl down. "Don't worry, Wendy-chan. Mira-nee wouldn't do anything like that. She's all bark and little bite about that kind of thing," Lisanna said, kneeling down next to the frantic Wendy and pulling her into a gentle hug.

Lisanna and her twin had barely calmed Wendy down when their conversation was interrupted by a squeal that was almost, but not quite, high enough to no longer register on human ears. "Carlaaaaaaaa!"

From one of the side streets leading back towards the Guild Hall, Natsu and Happy appeared through the thin crowd of townsfolk. The instant he caught sight of her, Happy launched himself forward from the top of Natsu's head. Small wings appeared from his back, propelling him forward like a small, fluffy cruise missile.

"Hah! I told you I'd find them, little buddy," Natsu laughed happily, patting his nose. "The nose knows!"

"Oh no!" Carla muttered just as Happy barreled into her, taking her to the ground before she could dodge. He was bawling his head off as he hit her, sniffling and sobbing, his arms latching around her like a vise. "Carla, Carla, you're back! Don't leave again!"

"Oh, yuck!" Carla groaned, trying to twist away. "He's getting slobber on me! And Happy still doesn't wear any clothes!? Why has no one told Happy he's naked, for goodness sake! Have some heart, you cruel people!"

Wendy and the others watched this slobbery reunion, shaking their heads and laughing. But Wendy turned as Natsu tried to grab her by the shoulder, turning quickly and thumping a punch into his chin as she backed away rapidly, her nose in the air and her hands on her hips as she did her best Carla impression, as Ranma-nii called it whenever she did this. "Hmmpf. Why are you so touchy-feely! I hardly know you!"

Natsu shook his head. That punch had been a normal one, not powered by magic, but it had still rocked his head back. _She's a lot stronger than her size would make you think!_ "That doesn't matter!" he shouted, getting in her face again. "Do you know anything about Igneel?!"

"Who?" Wendy asked, looking confused even as she backed away further.

"My dad, Igneel, the Fire Dragon! Have you ever heard of him? Have you ever seen him?" Natsu roared, getting more and more worked up.

"Natsu, wait!" Anna and Lisanna said as one, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him away from Wendy.

"You're not making any sense! And I think you need to apologize before doing anything else," Anna said sternly.

Under the gaze of the two girls he was closest to in all the Guild Natsu sighed, but calmed down dramatically. "Sorry about that," he muttered, looking away. "I kind of, kind of lose control when I find anything that can be a clue to where Father could be."

"You're forgiven for that, but not for sniffing me before. That's an entirely different thing you have to apologize for," Wendy said sternly, wagging a finger up at him.

Scratching at his pink hair, Natsu again bowed his head. "Sorry about that. But besides Laxus, you're the first Dragon Slayer I've ever met. And he isn't even a real one: he had his lacrima embedded in him, instead of learning from an actual dragon."

"I'll forgive you for that this once," Wendy said. Then she smirked a little, looking over to where Mira was watching this to one side with Cana before looking back. Anna was trying to separate Happy from Carla as the white-furred Exceed was going a little blue. "I don't know why it bothered me so much, but I think it's to do with the fact that you're a boy Dragon-Slayer and I'm a girl Dragon-Slayer. But as long as you don't do that again, I won't tell Ranma-nii my suspicions, okay?"

Natsu nodded his head rapidly at that. Even if he didn't really understand what she just said, the looks on the girls' faces all around him said he better agree or else. "Okay, sure." Then he brightened. "Now that that's over with, what can you tell me? But if you don't know about Igneel, then what happened to your parent?"

Wendy's face nearly crumpled at that. Despite it having been seven years now, she still missed her mother dearly. "Gone," she whimpered, looking away and kicking at the ground. "She left me when I was five."

"What!" Mirajane shouted, with Bisca and Cana's voice echoing behind her as Lisanna and Anna simply looked on in shock. "Your dragon left you when you were only five!"

Wendy nodded sadly. "Grandeeney left me in the woods in Seven. Onii-chan thought about it a lot, and he thinks that she was transported away or had to leave through magical means to get away from some enemy. We found a few clues to another dragon hunting dragons like Mama down, a big, black one named Acnologia. But we've never found any clues as to what really happened to Mama."

"Oh. Er, I'm sorry," Natsu said hesitantly. He really wasn't the best when it came to talk about feelings. "But um, what about Ranma's dragon?"

"Wait. Before you answer that, I want to be clear on this. You were left alone at five?" Bisca asked, with the other girls nodding with her. "Who took care of you!?"

"Ranma found me that same day," Wendy said, smiling happily. "He's taken care of me ever since. Then Carla came around, and life got even better."

"I have to admit," Carla grunted, pushing Happy off her with difficulty with Anna's help. "That, guh, that Ranma did a very decent job for a man, raising Wendy. She's not quite as educated and ladylike as I would like to say, but I suppose in the world we live in, that there have to be allowances for such things. And will you get off me, you crazy tomcat?!"

At that, more than one of the other girls there put another check mark next to Ranma's name. The only two who didn't were the two Strauss twins. Both of them were now busily trying to separate Happy from Carla, who looked to either be choking or debating on whether she could get away with murder. It was a very odd look on her normally calm face.

"Yeah, that's cool and all, and I think the idea of traveling around like that sounds cool, but what about his dragon!?" Natsu asked again. "What about his dad, or was his dragon his mom too? Do they know anything? Did they ever mention Igneel?"

Wendy shook her head. "I don't think so. Ranma said to me that his teacher mentioned my mom, but that was the only other dragon that Typhon-san mentioned by name. And he's not around anymore either."

"Did he go away too?" Mira asked before anyone else could.

"Oh no," Wendy said, shaking her head. "He died a long time before Mama disappeared. Ranma calls him a senile old coot. He said Typhon was a large dragon who lived under the sea, but he was also really old! Ranma-nii said he died while ago."

"Drat," Natsu muttered. "So that's a dead end."

Cana, however, was working something out of your head. "Hey, Natsu," she said slowly. "Do you remember what the date was when your father disappeared?"

"July the seventh, 777," Natsu replied promptly.

Wendy gasped. "That's the same day my mother disappeared!" Wendy said, her eyes wide and startled.

"There has to be some kind of significance to that, doesn't there?" Cana asked looking out at the others.

"I agree," Mirajane said, with Natsu saying the same a second behind her. "However, there's nothing we can do about it now. Unless one of them left behind something at the place they disappeared from?"

"Of course, Ranma never actually finished his training," Wendy went on. "He had to train himself in Dragon Slayer magic. Then he trained me. We've run into a few problems, but it's mostly been a lot of fun. Watch," she said, giggling as she hopped into the air. She then stayed there, hopping in place before moving through a martial arts kata, her hands flicking out this way and that. "See!" She giggled, hopping over to where Mirajane was then, landing beside her. "Fun, right?"

Mira laughed in agreement, saying she totally understood since she could fly herself while Natsu shouted, "Oh, that's so awesome! It really makes me want to fight him now!"

"Natsu, Ranma dealt with you with a single punch before. Why do you think a fight would be any different?" Lisanna asked, shaking her head.

"I'm a lot stronger now!~" he shouted, flexing his muscles and unintentionally drawing a blush from the Strauss twins, while the others simply rolled her eyes at his antics.

Once more feeling a little irritation towards Natsu due to his earlier question about her mother, Wendy sniffed, looking away. "It won't go any differently. You're not even as strong as me, let alone Ranma-nii."

As Natsu's jaw dropped at this brutal assessment Mirajane whistled, ruffling Wendy's hair. "Nice one."

"You think you're stronger than me?! You got lucky early, cold-cocking me like you did." Natsu shouted recovering quickly. "But if you think that, why don't you prove it?! I challenge you right here, right now! Let's go!"

"Oh hell, no!" Mirajane said, stepping briskly in front of Natsu and grinding her knuckles into his head. "Remember what happened the last time someone started a magical fight out in the town? The punishment the entire guild was given? I'm not going through that again! Besides, Wendy hasn't agreed yet."

Wendy sighed, realizing she had sort of put her foot in it this time. "All right," she said slowly. "I'll fight you after our shopping is done."

Natsu had begun to smile as she spoke, but now pouted. "But that'll take hours!" he whined.

"So?" Wendy asked, turning away.

Lisanna and Anna, however, grinned, then Lisanna moved up to Natsu's right side as Anna did the same across from her. "You know, there is a way you can make it go faster?"

"How!?" Natsu shouted, eager to try himself against the other Dragon Slayer. "Tell me!"

"Oh, you'll just have to carry a few things, that's all," the twins said as one, leading him off and pinning his arms against their chests. An odd feeling went through him at that, a feeling he'd been feeling more and more often of late around the two, but which he couldn't quite describe. Regardless, all his desire to move away or even to fight left him at it now.

Lisanna then finished the assault, putting the final nail in Natsu's coffin, cooing her words directly into his ear. "Nothing too strenuous for a big, strong man like you. Don't worry…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Eventually the torture, that is, the train trip, came to an end. Hearing the name of the town where she had overheard the Eisenwald mages say they would meet up, Erza stood up imperiously, gesturing for the others to follow her. That seemed to be the way Erza did everything, though Ranma thought it suited her. She definitely needed to be authoritative given the way the normal Fairy Tail mages seemed to act, and she hadn't tried to give Ranma orders, so she was fine with that.

 _Her reverence for law and order, though, that I could do without._ The unnatural redhead's eyes trailed down to her skirt clad rear and the legs beyond, then up to the swell of her chest underneath the armor. _But damn if she don't wear that red hair of hers better than I ever could. And she's strong too, I can tell. It'll be interesting to see her in action later. Maybe I should challenge her to a spar when we get back?_ Another part of Ranma's mind was wondering what she'd look like without that armor on, and found that image good.

Shaking those thoughts away Ranma stood up moved after the rest of them. Erza looked back at her quizzically, shaking her head as she looked the other redhead up and down. "Aren't you going to change?"

"I'll change when we get off the train, not before," Ranma replied, nodding. "Just need to get some water and heat it up. If the train hadn't started up again after I had changed that first time I could have gathered it out of my clothing, but that takes too much concentration when I'm dealing with my freaking motion sickness."

Nodding at that, Erza turned, following the crowd out of the train. Ranma was about to follow when she paused, sniffing the air as a faint scent stuck in her mind. It was a scent Ranma had caught a few times, always faint, always days or even weeks old, depending on how far behind Ranma was of his quarry and the weather. Despite that, Ranma recognized it as the mage Kaggie or something, the one who had the power to unlock Lullaby from where it had been hidden. _Fuck!_

With that, Ranma turned and leaped back up onto the train even as it began to move once more. This action was caught by the others, but the only one who was in a position to do anything was Lucy. "Everyone, Ranma just jumped back aboard!" she shouted, turning and following Ranma, leaping up after him as the train began to move off, gaining speed.

Erza turned at that, followed by the two boys. They raced back only to be unable to get through the crowd back to the train in time as it pulled out of the station. "What was that about?" Gray asked. "Why'd a Dragon Slayer choose to go back onto a moving vehicle?"

"Only one reason I can think of: he must have spotted our quarry. Which means that this isn't the place they are going to meet. The train itself is coming out of the town!" Erza said, growling. "I should have thought of that!"

Looking around, Erza spotted a nearby station employee directing a group of cargo haulers to stack their goods to one side of the station. "You there!" she bellowed, moving towards the man like a falling avalanche. "Stop that train! It is a magical emergency!"

"Huh?" the man said, but that was the wrong response.

The next instant Erza had reached forward and grabbed the man, pulling him into a headbutt that knocked him clean out. Dropping his limp form, Erza raced on to the next worker. "You, stop that train!"

"Wha…"

That too seemed to be the wrong answer, and a second man joined the first as more workers looked on in growing alarm.

Behind her, Elfman and Gray looked at one another. "Right, you try to stop her; I'll go and grab a magic car."

"Oy!" Gray shouted to Elfman's suddenly retreating back. "Why the hell do I get the hard job?"

"It's not manly to complain!" the only male Strauss said over his shoulder as he raced out of the station.

On the train, Ranma had stopped moving, leaning against the wall of the train between cars. A soft arm went around her, pulling her into one of the cars and setting her down on a bench as she looked up, biting back the urge to throw up as Lucy's face hovered over her. "Ranma, why did you get back on the train?"

"Smelled him, the guy named Kaggie, the one supposed to get Lullaby. He's here."

"You've come close enough to him to get his scent?" Lucy asked in astonishment.

"A Dragon Slayer's sense of smell is better than most dogs," Ranma groaned. "And I was close near the start of this hunt, but decided to follow Eisenwald's leader rather than this guy. Came close again before coming to look up Erza, but lost his scent there in a cattle market."

"Okay, so what's he look like?" Lucy asked, looking around surreptitiously.

"According to the witnesses I've questioned, he's around Gray's height, black hair done in a pineapple sort of look, sharp face with black eyes, really sharp eyebrows, white coat," Ranma recited, still holding her stomach.

Lucy spotted someone matching that description moving through the train to the back and smiled. "Okay, I just spotted him. Come on; just follow my lead."

Putting an arm around Ranma's waist, she started to pull the redhead through the train. The train was somewhat crowded now having taken on more passengers and Ranma's ability to move was sharply curtailed by her stomach issues. Ranma acted more like a slightly mobile practice dummy rather than her normal self, forcing Lucy to nearly drag her a time or two.

Despite that, they eventually traversed through the train to a car further back towards the cargo containers. There, in a slightly less crowded area, their quarry was sitting. The man looked up, his eyes narrowed at their arrival, but the suspicion faded as he looked at the two hot girls and the obvious distress the redhead was in. _Holy hell, are those tits on the blonde real!?_

Lucy barely nodded to him or to the others in the car, helping Ranma into a bench across from the man. "Are you going to be alright?" she asked solicitously, leaning over Ranma and both flashing Ranma some of her cleavage and thrusting her rear back towards their quarry.

"Ugh, just let me lie down until the train stops," Ranma groaned.

Standing up, Lucy nodded to their target, moving to sit across from Ranma. "Sorry about that, but I figure if she does throw up, it's best she do it back here where there aren't many people around."

"No problem." The man said, smiling at the blonde as disarmingly as he could while the rest of the train passengers went back to their own business. "Is your friend sick or something?"

"Motion sickness and something she ate," Lucy replied promptly, crossing her legs as she leaned back, her arms also crossed under her chest. This served to draw the man's attention easily and also hid her palm, where her guild mark was. It had been hidden before this thanks to her putting that hand behind Ranma's body. "I'm Lucy, by the way. This is Ra, er Rachel," she went on, making up a name on the spot.

"Kageyama," the man introduced himself. "So, um, where are you two from?"

"We live in Magnolia, but we're from Custard," Lucy said, naming the town at the farthest edge of the train line they were currently on. "We're heading home 'cause a cousin's getting married." She sighed theatrically. "Must be nice, I've never even gone on a date, for goodness sake."

"Um, really?" Kageyama asked, then smirked, moving over to sit beside the groaning Ranma, not questioning this bit of good fortune. "Well, if you're looking for a boyfriend, babe, I'd volunteer." Lucy forced herself to blush prettily, but something else had grabbed his attention rather than Lucy's attempts at flirting. "But if you live in Magnolia, I bet you've seen some Fairy Flies around, right?"

Lucy nodded at that, gritting her teeth at the insult to her guild, which Kageyama didn't notice.

"Heh, we always hear so much about that guild, how pretty some of the girls are in it. Though I doubt they'd be nearly as pretty as the two of you."

"Oh, so you're a mage?" Lucy asked, still leaving her arms crossed under her chest so as to hide her hand. "That's cool. What guild are you from?"

"Never you mind, sweet cheeks." Kageyama said, his mouth twisted into a sneer. "We're an…up and coming guild that will be making a big splash soon. A big one."

"Sounds exciting…" Lucy said, interjecting a bit of interest and awe in her voice, like a country bumpkin talking to a mage for the first time.

"Yeah. We're going to be big, way bigger than those Fairy Flies, those cowards who kowtow to the Magic Council's rules, could ever be!" Kageyama said, almost shouting the words. Then he shook his head, coming back to the here and now and leaning forward, placing a hand on Lucy's knee. "But enough about me, babe. Let's talk about you…"

He never noticed Ranma's hands slipping silently and quickly into his pocket and away.

But any further attempts to flirt were halted as the train came to an abrupt halt. Lucy frowned and forgot herself, uncrossing her arms and standing up, looking around. "What are we stopping for? We're nowhere near the next stop."

Kageyama's eyes drifted down her body salaciously, but his eyes latched onto Fairy Tail mark. His lusty thoughts were suddenly subsumed by worry and disdain as he growled, reaching for her.

But having seen his face change out of the corner of her eye Lucy turned and socked him a hard punch in the chin, which sent him flying over the bench. "That's for badmouthing Fairy Tail!" she shouted.

Ranma stood up abruptly, her motion sickness disappearing. She took a quick glance out the window and down the open connecting doorways in the train's center before shaking her head. She had seen men coming towards the train and boarding it from a few cars ahead of them. It stood to reason that more were getting on all along its length even if the train was moving once more. Ranma wondered what their real destination was, but put that to the side for now. "Come on, there are too many civilians on the train to fight them here!"

Before Lucy could protest or her motion sickness could rear its head once more, Ranma grabbed Lucy up into her arms. She then hurled themselves toward the train's windows, smashing through back first to protect Lucy from the shattered glass.

Behind them Kageyama shouted as he got to his feet, a flare of magic coming from his arms as shadows began to come alive, forming fists and reaching for them. "Fucking Flies! You won't get away with this!"

As they hit the ground Lucy gave out a gasp, but Ranma rolled quickly and jumped to her feet before racing along that side of the train for a few minutes, then breaking off over the hills after she had made certain that the entire train had gotten a good look at her. "Quick thinking there, Lucy! Damn well done!"

"Maybe, but we still lost him again. Unless you can run fast enough to keep a speeding train in sight?" Lucy asked.

"Don't worry about that, Lucy. Heh, things have changed now." With that Ranma broke off over the hills, certain that the entire train had gotten a good look at her.

"What are we doing?" Lucy asked as the train picked up speed, rapidly disappearing out of sight from where they had hidden, following Ranma back over the hill to watch it do so.

Before Ranma could reply, they heard a honk in the distance, then a voice shouting, "Lucy! Ranma!"

A moment later a small magic car pulled to a shuddering halt, and the three Fairy Tail mages inside piled out. "Ranma, I apologize that I couldn't stop the train in time to get back to you! You may hit me for my failure!" Erza shouted, coming to a halt in front of the other redhead.

One eyebrow rising in surprise, Ranma shrugged. "Well, if you insist…" With that, Ranma grabbed Erza by the shoulders and twisted her around before spanking her hard on her rear. The cute 'EEP' she let loose at that grabbed just as much attention from her guild-mates as the act itself had, but Ranma merely smirked at them, winking at the her fellow redhead. "What? She asked me to hit her. That can mean many things, y'know."

Blushing hotly at the spanking and the flare of arousal it had sent through her, though she would never have admitted it on pain of death, Erza shook her head. "What happened."

"I'll tell you as we move," Ranma said, turning and racing off at a speed that caused the others to blink. They all turned to Lucy as Elfman asked the question on all their minds. "What's going on?"

"We met the man Kageyama, who was supposed to have retrieved Lullaby, but the train stopped and Ranma said he saw other people getting on, so we figured it was the rest of their guild," Lucy explained, clambering into the car. "Ranma said there were too many civilians around to get into a fight with them on the train, so we ran, but I don't know what he's, er she's doing now."

Quickly getting the car moving, they swiftly caught up with Ranma, who wasn't running at top speed.

"Ranma, why aren't you following the train!? Even if there are too many civilians around now, we can wait for them to leave the train again," Erza asked.

"Heh, things have changed. We don't have to chase after them anymore. They'll have to come to us once they realize I stole Lullaby off that sucker!" Ranma replied over the sound of their passage.

 **OOOOOOO**

There was much drinking and carousing whenever Guild Masters met up, and this year was no different. No matter what they acted like around the public or the rest of their own guilds, when the Masters got together it was always raucous, as people with a lot of responsibilities and duties let their hair down in a large, drunken mass.

Makarov fit right in despite normally acting like this regardless, laughing and drinking with the best of them. This year, however, the antics of his guild was for once not the most interesting. Instead that honor belonged to Goldmine's, since rumor had it that his guild had been almost flattened in an internal fight.

"I don't know where these fucking rumors start!" Goldmine said, shaking his head irritably even as he grinned widely under his witch's hat. "It wasn't an internal fight at all! My chief rabble-rouser just started a fight with an outsider he shouldn't have, and the rest of the guild, of course, piled on. The only one who walked away was the…guy…who had been attacked first."

"And that doesn't bother you, Goldmine-chan?" asked another Guild Master, the atrociously feminine sounding and dressed male Guild Master of Blue Pegasus. He was a middle-aged man with stubble around his fat chin, overweight in all ways, and yet also dressed up like a ballerina. It was a truly horrifying sight, and Makarov bet that at least half the drinks being currently drunk were because everyone wanted to drown out the pain the sight was doing to their minds.

"Meh, it was good for us," Goldmine said, flipping that thought away with a hand. "Bacchus needed to be brought down a peg, and I'd been meaning to rebuild the hall anyway. This way none of my guild members will argue with the need. But enough about me. I hear you got another cutie for your guild, Makky? How the hell do you attract them?"

"Hah! Yeah, that's Lucy! And she's got big hooters just as I knew she would years ago!" Makarov roared drunkenly.

"Mou, bad Makky. No laying hands on your own guild-members," the apparition in pink said.

"Bah! I'll do what I… Oh, what's this?" Makarov muttered as a small magical messenger bird flew through the wall.

It alighted on the table in front of Makarov, and, after ascertaining that he was indeed the one it had been sent to, a small hologram appeared above its back. Mirajane stood there, a smirk on her gorgeous face.

"Here she is, everybody! The poster girl of Fairy Tail! Ain't she hot!" Makarov bellowed, bringing more attention to the little image.

"Yo, Master. This is Mira. Everything's all right at the guild, though we have a few guests with us now. You might recognize their names: Wendy and Ranma?" Makarov wasn't the only one to twitch at the name Ranma. Goldmine did too, though no one noticed. "Anyway, Ranma took Erza, my bro, Lucy, and Gray out on a job to stomp on a Dark Guild named Eisenwald. Turns out they stole something called Lullaby. Just thought I might as well give you a heads up, seeing how much damage any one of those could do on their own and that they might be in the area of Clover Town. Ya might want to be on the lookout for them. Have fun and don't kill your liver, old man; it's got one foot in the grave already."

"Hmmm… I wonder what would have brought a wandering mage to hunting down a Dark Guild like that?" Makarov mused, before shuddering. The amount of carnage Elfman and Gray alone would cause was horrifying, adding Erza into the equation, that made it a thing of nightmares. Whatever she said or acted like, Erza was just as susceptible to destroying things in the pursuit of her jobs as any other Fairy Tail member. _And then you add this Ranma fellow into the equation… Why do I think this is going to end up poorly for anything nearby?_

 **OOOOOOO**

"H, hey, boss. What are you doing here?" asked Kageyama, looking frightened, far more frightened than he should have been just for meeting up with his guild members earlier than he had expected. But that was the effect Erigor had on people all the time.

"You were taking so long I decided to come and meet with you." The speaker was a thin looking individual, his chest and arms on display along with several tattoos. He had long, silver hair done up on a coif that fell half over his face and wore gloves while wielding a large scythe. His voice was an odd alloy of amusement and chilling concentration. "Is that a problem? You did find the flute, didn't you?" The last words were said in that same tone, but his eyes glimmered, the threat clear. Guildmates though they might be, Erigor would not tolerate failure from anyone.

"Oh yeah, I found it easily enough. The directions we were given by that…" Kageyama looked around, as did the others, before he continued. "That scary Demon babe from Grimoire Heart was freaking spot on! I was even able to take down the spells guarding it. Just like they said, most of the other defenses were keyed to nonhuman access and line of sight, so I bypassed them easily."

He paused there, glaring around him at the currently empty train car, the few other people who had been there having rushed further forward when Eisenwald had boarded the train. "I just ran into a little bit of trouble a bit a few seconds ago, though. There were these two girls, and they were so hot! One of them looked a little sick, but they were so good looking, and…"

"I'm not interested in your romantic fantasies, Kageyama," Erigor interrupted, glaring at him and prodding Kageyama with the scythe that was his trademark, with the blunt end rather than the cutting end, thankfully. "Do you have the flute?"

"Yeah, I've got it. But those two women, they were, um, they were from Fairy Tail," Kageyama stuttered. "Since they were here at all, they, um, they might know what we're planning..."

"You didn't say anything, did you!?" Suddenly the business end of the scythe was lying across the front of Kageyama's throat, and Erigor's tone had lost any hint of good humor. Around him the rest of the guild glared at their guildmate too.

"N, no, boss! I just, I meant, it's weird they were here at all, isn't it?! And…" Kageyama faltered, licking his lips before going on, his voice a barely controlled babble. "I, um, I did kind of badmouth their guild."

"Actually, boss, he might be right," said one of the others hesitantly. He was a larger, fat man with wide lips and a wider face. "I mean, we're nowhere near their guild hall, and remember, the members who were with Kageyama before mentioned a redhead in armor…"

"One of the girls was a redhead, though she wasn't in armor. She was the one feigning sleep…" Kageyama said, his eyes widening as did the others'.

"Show me the flute!" Erigor ordered abruptly, his eyes dangerous.

Kageyama hesitantly put his hand down towards his pocket, then frantically patted himself down, his eyes widening as, instead of the flute, he pulled out a simple stick with a picture wrapped around it. Said picture was of a distorted little human lifting a finger to the viewer. "It's not here! That damn redhead! She must've filched it somehow!"

"A redhead? Like the one that's currently running alongside the train out there on that hill?" asked another one of the guild members.

Dragging Kageyama with him, Erigor quickly pushed through the crowd of guild members and stared out at towards the redhead that had been spotted. He saw her give them all the bird just before running over the nearby hills and away in a different direction from the way the train was going. "That's one of them?" he asked, looking over at Kageyama.

"That's her, boss! The blonde, she flashed her tits at me, and I didn't…"

"And you just thought with your little head rather than your big head," sneered Erigor, the scythe flashing once.

"ARGH!" Kageyama screamed as a razor thin blade of wind magic cut off one of his ears. His hands flew to his ear, holding the bleeding stump, blood dripping down through his fingers as he stared at his boss. All around him the other guild members simply chuckled. A few of them even said Erigor had been merciful. Others looked away, not willing to challenge Erigor, of course, but also not willing to see punishment meted out. "I, I'm sorry, boss."

Erigor, however, now that the punishment had been dealt out, was staring out the window again. "Boss," said one of the others, "will we go after her? Who cares if they are Fairies? Unless they've brought their whole guild, we'll take them out easily."

"No," Erigor said, shaking his head. Now that his initial ire had been sated, he was thinking clearly, with the cold calculation, which coupled with his love of blood, had made him one of the premier assassins in all Ishgar. Because of that, he knew something was wrong.

"That redhead was too quick to show herself after having already stolen the flute. If she had just wanted to get away, she should have just rushed off right away. No, the flies want to drag us into a fight on ground of their own choosing. Instead, we'll force them to come to us. The next town over is, what, forty minutes away?"

"If we stay on the train, boss," said one of the others. "Oshibana."

The train had already started moving again several moments ago, with two of their guild members up in front with the conductor. After all, taking the train had been part of their plan. With it they could head straight to their destination—Clover Town, where the Guild Masters were meeting—faster than they could on foot.

"Good," Erigor said coldly. "In that case we'll take over the train station there. Once there we'll take as many hostages as we can and use the broadcasting system. With it we'll demand that Fairy Tail turn over what they stole from you, or we'll start killing off hostages."

Kageyama nodded as one of the others began to patch up his ear, while Erigor turned away, already forgetting what he had done to his guild mate. He pulled the fat mage over, whispering in his ear as his second in command edged closer. "Once they arrive, here's what we need to do. Getting that flute back is the only priority we've got. Then, when I have it back, we'll…"

 **OOOOOOO**

"That was pure hell," Natsu groaned as he lay out on the ground next to Happy, who was, for once, looking almost as tired. "How the hell do girls shop so much? And for clothing, of all things, and so many varieties too! I mean, who cares what you're wearing as long as it covers the important bits, not like that stripper." At the thought of Gray, Natsu bared his fangs, but then winced, remembering the number of boxes he'd been forced to carry. "And how the heck does clothing weigh so much?"

"I don't know, Natsu," Happy mumbled, starching at the small suit that Carla had forced him into at claw-point. The fact that she had shown that she had a new offensive magic that worked through those claws to carve into wood like it was butter had added to the threat, forcing it through his happiness at her return. "I'm just wondering how you humans put up with it itching all the time."

"Meh. That'll either fade or we can just return it, little guy. It might be interacting with your fur badly for some reason," Natsu replied.

The two of them were currently waiting on the open ground that led up from Magnolia to Fairy Hills. This large building was set on a cliff overlooking a small private portion of the beach, its wide lawn covering about half an acre or so between it and the outskirts of the town. The girls had disappeared inside the building when they returned, dropping off the boys here, since no boys were allowed inside even now that the original manager had passed away.

"Ne, Natsu. Do you, do you think that Carla is going to stay now that she's back?" Happy asked hesitantly. Her leaving had really hurt, and he still didn't know what he was doing wrong. Why didn't she like fish when he presented them to her? What was the point about clothing for them; they had fur! Why didn't she like fish? Why had she left, why didn't she like the guild as much as going around with Wendy if she didn't like to travel at all? And above all, why didn't she like fish?!

And what was wrong with just having fun sometimes? Happy didn't understand any of that. Heck, he didn't even like thinking about it or anything much, really, beyond making fun of other people and being with Natsu and his other friends. But Carla had always been so serious all the time, and so standoffish too.

Mind you, that seemed to have diminished during her time away. She was much more open and less serious, despite still being haughty. She had even patted his head when he put on the suit! Happy couldn't remember a time when she had willingly initiated contact. _She must have missed me just as much as I did her!_ Happy realized with a happy flush. _Or maybe she thought I looked good like this? That might be enough, too!_

The fact that she had patted him like a child didn't occur to him.

Inside the girls were looking rather askance at Wendy, who had just Requipped into her armored chest plate.

Wendy had eschewed a lot of their choices, shaking her head rapidly at each choice sending her hair flying. Anything that Cana had chosen had been vetoed by the other girls quickly, but the three Strauss girls and Bisca had come up with at least a dozen outfits they thought Wendy would look good in. But while Wendy liked dresses, she had rejected any dress that didn't look as if it could be grown into slightly or seemed too flimsy. Wendy had loved some jeans that Bisca had found and a few short dresses from Anna and Mira, but it had been Lisanna's choices of long dresses, specifically ones with the color yellow on them in large or small amounts, which had won the most favor from the little girl.

Mira had been pleased to see that the girl had gone with a lot of her own choices in the underwear department. But she was not nearly as happy seeing what Wendy was wearing right now. "Why the heck are you using armor plate like that, Wendy? It makes you look like a mini-Erza."

Blushing, Wendy looked away, kicking at the floor of Erza's suite, where the girls had congregated since it had more than enough room, Erza's rooms taking an entire wing of the large building. She sensed that Mira didn't like her wearing armor for some reason, though she didn't know why. "Well, um, I've heard a lot about Erza-san from Carla and even Ranma-nii a few times. Hehe, I've even read about her and all of you in Sorcerer's Weekly since we entered Fiore."

Then she brightened, gesturing down at her armor and the dress she wore under it. That dress was dark blue with silver lines along the sides and went down to right below her knees, with long sleeves marked by silver curlicues here and there. "Ranma-nii bought these for me. We got the Song Silk after saving King Jian, only he wasn't a king then, from some odd goat person. Then this armor was enchanted under order from the King of Pergrande. It's really good! It's stopped Ranma-nii's punches at full power and even helped me when this giant manticore thing tried to bite me." Wendy's eyes narrowed at the memory. "That was a nasty creature, for all that it looked sort of like a giant kitty at first."

Shaking her head at the number of adventures this young, barely twelve year old girl had been a part of already, Mira shot a betrayed look at Carla, who hastily looked away before Mira turned back to Wendy. "That's fine, but why does a Dragon Slayer need armor at all? I thought your magics made you all super durable, with endurance to match."

The last was said as Mira's eyes twitched over to Lisanna and Anna who were already thinking of what that endurance could mean, with predictably heavy blushes on their faces. Bisca too looked thoughtful, and Mira had to admit that she was starting to develop a personal interest in that particular question also.

"It does, but I'm still a young girl, you know. And Ranma-nii could never really bring himself to put me through the same kind of training he went through with Typhon Ojii-san or before. So he thought armor would be the best thing," Wendy replied, finishing putting away the last of her clothing in her Requip space before sighing. "Let's get this over with," she moaned.

"If you don't want to fight, you don't have to, Wendy," Bisca said quickly, moving to walk beside the younger girl as the others followed.

"I'd like to think so, but Natsu-san seems to be rather…single-minded?" Wendy said, hesitant to seem as if she was being rude to the other Dragon Slayer. "I think I need to at least show I'm stronger than him before he'll listen to me about not getting into my personal space as he did, let alone the whole, the whole sniffing thing," she finished with a blush. That bit of rudeness was evidently still bothering her.

The Fairy Tail girls all exchanged glances. "Yeah, that might not work as well as you think it might. Natsu is simple-minded, not single, and he really likes to challenge those he thinks are stronger than him. He challenged me a time or two and even Erza occasionally before we put the fear of…well, us…in him. He still challenges Laxus and Gildarts constantly too. The only one he doesn't is Master Makarov," Mira said, shaking her head. "You might just get more of his attention."

"Oh…" Wendy frowned. "Hmm. What about me saying that he needs to prove himself stronger each time or I'll just refuse to fight him?"

"Won't work. He'll just attack you," Lisanna said, shaking her head. "No, the best bet would be to beat him now, then sic him on your brother and let him deal with it by saying he's even stronger than you."

"Well, he is," Wendy replied with a nod, but she still looked worried. "But, um, Ranma-nii might not be very nice to Natsu-san if Natsu just up and attacks him and doesn't seem to have trained or gotten stronger since the last time he did."

"How mean are we talking about?" Anna asked, while Lisanna frowned beside her. While both would have preferred their hoped-to-be boyfriend concentrate on something besides fighting, they didn't want him to be seriously hurt.

Wendy, however, shook her head in ignorance, causing the twins to both frown now. Bisca just looked thoughtful once more albeit with a different reason, wondering what Ranma would do to someone who irritated him.

Behind them, Mira and Carla were having a discussion as the female Exceed defended her position of having held up Erza as role model rather than Mira. "I mean, I can still remember how you used to dress before I left. Even if you had toned down your clothing somewhat, you still dressed like some kind of street walker!"

"Gah! I knew you were a secret member of team Erza!" Mira groused, but even that was a sign she was conceding the point.

By that point they had reached the front doors of the dorm, opening it to find Happy and Natsu waiting for them. The thankfully still dressed Happy flew straight toward Carla, who groaned but made no move to back away, thinking that it would be better for Happy to get it out of his system. _At least he hasn't attempted to thrust a fish into my face yet,_ she thought philosophically. _Now if only there were other Exceed around, specifically other girls to point him at._

"About time!" Natsu shouted, leaping to his feet and looking at the now armored Wendy, fighting back a shiver from a flashback to when Erza had been that age and kicked his rear. "Are you finally ready to go?"

"Yes, but I want some rules first. If I win, you have to not try to fight me for a few days. You're free to challenge Ranma-nii if you want, but not me. Second, no just trying to attack me out of the blue, getting in my personal space, or sniffing me!" Wendy said, fighting back a blush at that last. That still bothered her quite a bit, though why it did she put down to instincts.

"Man, that all sounds so boring," Natsu groaned. "Can't we just fight now!?" Wendy continued to stare at him, and the pink-haired Dragon Slayer finally sighed. "Fine, be that way. So boring."

At that Wendy nodded with a smile, then ducked as Natsu, without further preamble, charged forward, punching out hard to where her head was a second ago. Then he gasped in turn, as a kick took him in the side of the knee, sending him stumbling. A second punch to the side of his face as Natsu stood back up was caught, and Wendy was barely able to get her own hand up to block the elbow Natsu sent her way after pulling her in close.

The two Dragon Slayers exchanged blows after that, with every one of Natsu's blows blocked or redirected by the far smaller Wendy. In return, however, her blows didn't seem to have enough stopping power behind them.

It looked to be a classic stalemate to many of the watchers, but Mira saw it very differently. The others could barely track either Dragon Slayers' movements, but she could follow both of them easily, and it was clear to her that Wendy had both the speed and style advantage. _And it looks more like she's feeling him out rather than vice-versa._

"Heh, you're keeping up pretty well, but what if we take this up another notch!? Karyu no Tekken (Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)!" Natsu bellowed, fire magic flaring around his hands.

But Wendy once more dodged his punch, leaping up into the air and nailing him in the head with a kick. She then used the momentum of that kick to stay in the air. Several hard kicks and punches slipped past Natsu's guard, such as it was, and Natsu reeled back.

The next instant, though, he roared out, "Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragon's Roar)!"

"Tenryu no Hoko!" Wendy replied, also roaring.

The two attacks smashed against one another, and while Natsu's attack had a larger diameter, Wendy's was denser, and Mira realized it was also more powerful. _Don't tell me that little girl's stronger than Natsu!?_

Natsu seemed to sense his attack falter and was able to dodge Wendy's return blast at the last second, but then Wendy was on him, hopping around his body and raining down punches and kicks.

"It's not the most ladylike style, but it is effective," Carla muttered, shaking her head. "Ranma called it Anything Goes Aerial style. It is designed to use the opponent's own attacks to take to and then stay in the air. It is a very adaptable style."

Despite being hard-pressed, however, Natsu looked as if he was having a lot of fun. _Gildarts takes me out with one move, Erza scares me, and Laxus ignores me or does the same thing as Gildarts, so this is the first time I've fought someone like this on an even footing._ Naturally, Natsu didn't think that Gray was on his level. Leaping into the air as well, Natsu began another furious series of exchanges.

But Wendy had decided that enough was enough. This wasn't fun at all to her; fighting never was unless Ranma-nii was involved and was teaching her things, and even then only sometimes. And frankly, if this fight continued Natsu might be hurt, which she didn't want. So she rapidly backed away, and began to use her powers over air in a more subtle manner, sucking away the air around Natsu that he needed in order to fuel his flame.

Natsu gaped as his fire began to spiral up into the air towards where Wendy was hovering, only to yelp as it returned to him. "What the!?" The returned attack hit, causing him to cry out in pain as the fire hit him, doing damage in a way most fire-based spells never would have been able to.

The impact also blew him off his feet, but Natsu rolled with it, using the ground to put out the small flames that had appeared here and there on his normal clothing. He stood up quickly, his body now covered with small burns, but they were already fading thanks to his durability.

"Can we stop this now?" Wendy asked, frowning. "You're strong, and you've got a lot of good Dragon Slayer attacks, but you're not fast enough, which is the one thing Ranma-nii's always said was most important." _This is soooo not fun._

"Bah, all I need is just one good hit!" Natsu roared, charging forward again. "Karyu no Tekken!"

Sighing, Wendy stayed still and took his hit on her armor. It stung a little and threw her off her feet, flying backwards. But just as Natsu was celebrating she rolled in midair to land easily on her feet. She pouted at Natsu, then thrust out her hands to either side, gathering magic throughout her body. "Fast wind that runs throughout the heavens, Vernier! Power of the stout wind that tears down heaven, Arms!"

With that she launched herself forward, ten times faster than she had been moving. "Tenryu no Yokugeki!"

Her new speed taking him completely by surprise, the attack slammed home before Natsu could even think of dodging. The hit imparted more momentum than anything else, hurling Natsu backwards and out over the nearby cliff face to splash into the water below.

An instant later Wendy sighed, feeling her enhancement enchantments fading. Looking over at the gob-smacked, or, in Mira's case, cackling, group of Fairy Tail girls, she scuffed the ground, shrugging apologetically. While Happy raced off with a cry of 'Natsu!' she said, "Well, at least this way he'll be able to cool off right away?"

While cackling on the outside, Mira was actually thinking about what she had just seen and what she could sense from Wendy. _The amount of training this little girl has gone through dwarfs what I went through at her age. On top of that, she's fast as hell, adaptable, and tough. She wasn't even really trying there for most of the fight. Wendy could almost be good enough to test for S-class. Not up to my or Erza's weight class, let alone the others in Fairy Tail, but she could walk into practically any other guild and be given the rank day one. But geez, if Wendy's that tough, what does that say about Ranma?_ _ **Fuck,**_ _I so want to throw down with him when he gets back!_

 **OOOOOOO**

It had taken about ten minutes for Ranma and the others to realize that the Dark Guild wasn't going to fall for her plan to drag them into a fight away from any bystanders. With said plan no longer working, they were quickly forced to follow the train to the next town. This took them nearly an hour, with Erza powering the Self-Energy system the entire way, refusing help from the others in the car. Ranma didn't notice this, running along next to the car as she was.

"She's almost as fast as Jet," Gray said, shaking his head as he looked at the racing redhead.

"Hmmpf! I think Ranma's even manlier than that!" Elfman said, shaking his head.

"Erm, you know he's a woman right now, right?" Lucy asked, rolling her eyes then frowning. "Good grief, how to address him, er her, is going to get annoying." Then she looked to Erza, frowning as she saw some sweat on the S-class mage's face. "Are you sure you don't want to switch out, Erza?"

Surprisingly, Erza looked at her with a smile. "No. This is actually some decent exercise for me. Don't worry about it; I could do this for an entire day and still be able to fight afterward." She laughed then. "It'll make me sweat, but that's about all."

Lucy nodded and didn't spot Gray and Elfman's chagrined looks. They knew that Erza was one of the strongest the guild had to offer. But if either of them had been asked to power a small MS car this long and this fast they would have definitely been feeling it. Especially if it had been added on top of the time they had spent initially trying to catch up to the train before they met back up with Lucy and Ranma. Erza, on the other hand, just looked at it like good training.

When they finally arrived at Oshibana, they found the town in chaos. People were running away from the train station, shouting about terrorists and dark mages, while others were looking in that direction. There were several shattered buildings near the train station.

 _Fuck,_ Ranma cursed to herself, shaking her head as she stared around. "We need some…" He paused as Erza marched up to one of the nearest people who was running away from the station. He looked like a station employee.

Behind him Gray and Elfman groaned aloud, muttering, "Oh, not again."

Erza grabbed the man and bellowed, "You! What is happening inside the station?"

"What? Who are you… OW!" the man said, keeling over from a sudden headbutt from the redhead.

Ranma gawked for a moment, then laughed as Erza did it twice more before grabbing her by the shoulder. "While your methods are kind of fun to watch, they don't seem to be getting at any actual information."

"Let's just get in there," Gray said, bringing attention to the fact that he had just stripped off his shirt. "Whatever's going on, we can handle it!"

"Gray, your clothes," Lucy said, shaking her head and sighing. She looked over to Ranma, her eyes dull as she shook her head. "It is really scary how quickly I've gotten used to that."

"I feel your pain," Ranma said patting her on the shoulder. "But stripper boy has a point."

"What did you call me!?"

Before Gray could try to continue his threat, Ranma had a hold of his nose and was tweaking it hard. "I called you stripper boy," she said, pulling his nose this way and that to his squeals. "You have a problem with that?"

"No!" Gray replied, flailing his arms around. "Just let go of my nose, please!"

Ranma did so before following Erza inside, whistling happily to herself, her good humor restored by the antics of the Fairy Tail mages.

"What is it about redheads being so freaking scary?" Gray muttered to Elfman.

"They really are quite manly, yes," Elfman said, nodding his head soberly.

"I think they'd take that as an insult. Well, Erza would, anyway…" Lucy said, trailing off before she snickered. "Ranma might actually take it as a compliment."

"It's a manly one," Elfman said, nodding once more as the three of them followed the first two redheads.

Ranma's good humor vanished a second later, however, as the loud speakers set around the corners of the station came alive in a blare of static. "Attention! This is Eisenwald, the Mage Guild Eisenwald, one of many the Mage Council has labeled Dark. Well, far be it from us not to accept that label! But we are not here to talk about ancient history. A few hours ago, a Fairy Tail mage stole something from one of my guildmates. We want it back. If the Fairy Tail mages do not give themselves up to us in the next ten minutes, we will start killing hostages. Let's say three for every ten minutes. Trust me, ladies and gentlemen, you don't want to test the Shinigami's patience."

 _Damn it, I underestimated Erigor's intelligence and ability to think things through. Mistakes like that have fucking plagued me since this mission began._ Her game face fully on now, Ranma turned and looked at the equally grim-faced Fairy Tail members. "Let's go."

Inside they found several dozen fallen men in armor all wearing the same tabards scattered across the interior stairwell leading up to the main station area. "Who're these chumps?" Ranma asked, kneeling beside one of them and looking at his uniform and weapons critically. Their weapons were simple staff-spears, which probably contained a few charge spells within them. But their armor was pathetic, and since there wasn't even a single Eisenwald member among the scattered bodies, they were obviously pathetic as well.

"These are Rune Knights," Erza said, looking around at them and trying to find someone awake who could answer some more questions. They needed to know how many hostages they were dealing with, as well as anything they could find about the layout of station, though that was secondary. "They answer directly to the Magic Council and are sort of magical security force."

"They don't do a good job at it, do they?"

"No, not against the unwilling," Erza said with a sigh, nodding her head to the other redhead in acknowledgment of her point, given their conversation earlier that day.

"Okay. They can't tell us anything, so it falls to us to figure everything out," Ranma said, staring first at Erza, then over her shoulder to the others who had finally joined them, handing Lullaby over to Erza. "I'll head up first, scout out the area, and place myself near the hostages. Give me five minutes, then follow me. Get their attention with that, then I'll take out any guards I need to get the hostages free. I'd bet that the dark guild will have concentrated all its members in one place in order to take us out."

"How? Does Water Dragon Slayer magic give you some way to sneak around without being seen?" Erza asked quizzically. She was fine with the plan, but the particulars bothered her.

"I did say that I had other tricks in my bag o' tricks. They'll never see me coming," Ranma said, stepping backwards and disappearing under the Umi-Sen Ken. Between one moment and the next, Ranma was gone from their senses, both physical and magical.

The others gaped at where Ranma had just been standing, shuddering a little. "That was scary, right?" Lucy asked, looking around at the others. "I mean, that was scary; that wasn't just me, right?"

"No, that wasn't just you. I didn't even see a flare of magic there," Gray said.

"Enough," Erza said, holding up the flute. "Let's get ready to go in there. We'll give him the five minutes he wanted, then we're heading in."

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma found that the interior of the train station was built around a vaulted hall around three stories tall with a slight curve to the roof. One side of this hall led into the train station's loading area through several large doors, all of which were closed now. One section of the loading area was piled high with loading boxes, the other was clear at present, but Ranma supposed that that was where the people were supposed to board the train. There was a walkway situated on the second floor wrapping all around the hall, allowing people to stand up there and watch the goings on. There were two corridors which led off into the back of the station from there at either end of the just slightly rectangular hall. There were also two other doorways on the first floor, both of which were open as Ranma moved through the area unseen. One led directly into a large storage area. Ranma couldn't see where the other one led, since that corridor turned to the side almost immediately.

The hostages, around twenty men and women, were being held up on the second floor balcony well away from the two corridors. There were a dozen mages around them, led by the man Ranma recognized as the current leader of Eisenwald, since its Guild Master had been arrested: Erigor, the so-called Shinigami. He sat on the balcony's rail, his back to the prisoners, as he stared down at the main entrance leading into the hall, his scythe balanced on his crossed legs.

Neither he nor any of the others noticed Ranma enter and hop up to the second floor silently. An instant later Ranma was clinging to the roof directly above the prisoners.

Five minutes after Ranma had left them, Erza marched up the stairs and into the main hall. She was followed immediately by the others, but Ranma felt that Erza, in her gleaming steel armor and with her penetrating gaze and flowing red hair, definitely cut a more commanding figure than the other three.

In front of her stood the Eisenwald guild members. Their numbers covered about half of the hall from one end to the other, added to the dozen more up on the balcony. The mages were all raring for battle, weapons and spells at the ready.

"Welcome to my parlor, fairy flies!" Erigor shouted, thrusting his arms above his head in both directions, his scythe held loosely in one of them. "If you do exactly what I say, you might even get out of here alive, if I'm feeling generous."

Below, however, some of the more knowledgeable guild members were not as confident. "A redhead, he said. Just a redhead!?" muttered one Eisenwald member to another. "Kageyama couldn't recognize the **fucking** Fairy Queen Titania!?"

"She must've been in disguise or something, I suppose. Besides, who cares? She can't be all that!" said another guild member nearby. "And just think about what we can do after we beat her or that blonde."

Elsewhere in the crowd near the right side, Kageyama had stepped forward, glaring at the redhead and at the blonde who had tricked him. "You! You bitch, do you see what you cost me!?" he growled, gesturing to the stump of his ear.

"I didn't do that!" Lucy retorted, looking a little sick. "Your own allies did that to you, not me."

"They did it because of you and that redhead!" Kageyama bellowed, while Erigor watched from on high. The pineapple-haired mage gestured, and magic coated his body for an instant, reaching out through his shadow onto the floor. Two massive fists appeared from it, flashing forward along the floor towards Erza and Lucy in an instant.

Squeaking, Lucy hopped backwards, her hand flashing down to her whip. She whipped it out, and the end of it glowed with yellow light for an instant before it intersected the moving shadow, shattering Kageyama's control over it. "Just because I'm a pretty face doesn't mean I'm an easy mark!" Lucy huffed, trying to hide her trembling knees. Despite her training under Capricorn, she still wasn't used to real life and death situations.

Erza huffed, one hand flicking out with one of her numerous swords, slicing the shadow away the instant it tried to raise up out of the ground. "I agree with Lucy. Your anger is misplaced and stupid. Now, do back away; the adults are talking."

"Heh, well said. Kageyama, did you forget we have to repair your mistake first?" Erigor asked, glaring down at the shadow user, who flinched. Satisfied with that, Erigor turned back to the Fairy Tail mages, pointing his scythe back over his shoulder towards the hostages. "You have something that belongs to my guild, fairy flies. If you care about the lives of these pathetic cretins, you'll hand it over now."

Sighing, Erza slowly pulled out the flute, holding in one hand above her head. "What guarantee do I have that you'll not injure the hostages if I hand this over?"

"None," Erigor said blandly. "But you have my guarantee that I'll kill them all if you don't."

"Not good enough," Erza said, trying to buy time for what she knew was going to happen as the others spread out so that they formed a thin line facing the Eisenwald mages across a cleared zone in the center of the hall. "I need a guarantee that you won't harm them, or else I'll destroy this flute before I hand it over to you!"

Erigor gritted his teeth, grabbing his scythe and hopping into the air. "You're in no position to demand anything from me, you fucking fly!"

"Just because we follow the Magic Council's dictates doesn't mean we're weak!" Erza bellowed back. "You're the weak ones, taking whatever job is offered regardless of morality! You fight, you kill for money, you'll never know what it is like to really fight for a cause, for a family!"

"Hah! Did I say I was interested in your opinions? There were assassination jobs on the offering, and our guild was the only one strong enough to offer to take them! That's why we were sanctioned. The Magic Council feared us, so they struck us down!" Erigor replied, shouting the words now to the entire room, causing the other Eisenwald members to shout agreement. "Well, we'll show them! We'll show them all that Eisenwald is still around and that they painted a target on their own damn backs! The name of the Shinigami Erigor will go down in history!"

Erza grit her teeth, but didn't respond as Ranma suddenly made her presence known. She came out of nowhere from above Erigor, slamming a foot down into the back of his head, sending him down off his perch on the balcony. With that impact, Ranma flipped off backwards, her hands flashing out in either direction. "Soryu no Kaiten Tsunami!"

The massive plumes of barely shaped water magic slammed into the various Eisenwald members that were up on the second floor, hurling them away as Ranma landed in front of the hostages. "Run!" she shouted, pointing toward the nearest corridor leading deeper into the train station. "Find some place to hide until this all blows over!"

The hostages—men and women, no children among them, thankfully, or families, who Erigor felt would be more trouble than they were worth—needed no second urging. They turned as one, racing away as, down below, the Fairy Tail members charged.

Lucy thrust out two of her keys to either side, shouting, "Open Taurus and Cancer!"

"Take Over:" shouted Elfman, slamming his fists together. "Demon Arms!"

"Ice Make Cannon!" Gray bellowed, opening the fight with a massive torrent of ice, which slammed into the first rank of their enemies.

"Fuck, get her!" Erigor shouted, one hand holding the back of his head as he spiraled up into the air, using his other hand to control his scythe, with which he sent down several air attacks towards Ranma.

But Ranma simply conjured up a small shield of water which absorbed the attacks easily. She didn't respond in kind, though, busy protecting the hostages as they ran, hopping this way and that, getting her water shield or fists and feet between them and any spells sent their way. Protecting over forty scattering panicked civvies was tough, even for Ranma.

Oh, she could have created a water shield to protect the entire group, if they had remained in once place rather than scattered. But then she wouldn't have been able to fight back, which she was also doing. This came in the form of punches and kicks to the still conscious mages on the second floor and perhaps her favorite type of offense: taunting.

"Is that it? Oh come on, Shini-shitty, I thought you were supposed to be hot stuff! And the rest of you jesters, you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn! Your parents would be so ashamed! That is, if they could say anything when seeing ya other than, 'damn, you ugly!'"

"Sh, Shini-shitty? I'll gut you like a fish, you fucking fly!" Erigor shouted, attacking the redhead with ever increasing furor. Even the rest of his guild, those not already engaged with the Fairy Tail mages, had turned. Many of them were sending up as many spells as they could to try to kill the redhead, while others had charged up the steps to engage her more closely.

Those mages soon realized they had earned themselves an express trip to the realm of pain as Ranma closed between one instant and the next, hammering them this way and that. Two of them were then hurled back the way she had come, only to intercept several of the spells being sent up from the floor. The last mage went down, and Ranma was back in place, still shouting insults and guarding the last few straggling hostages as they gained the entrance to the corridor.

Down below, Erza realized that their new acquaintance was doing what she could to protect the civilians and also keep the enemy mage's attention on herself. So instead of jumping up to engage Erigor alone, she made to charge forward with the others, eager to make as many of the opposing mages concentrate on her as possible. She was about to summon her magical blades, when she felt something grab the flute.

She turned quickly, only to see that someone had used magic to become part of the wall. He, a rather fat, ugly sort of mage, had then thrust his hand out from the wall to grab it from behind her, disappearing into the wall in the same instant. "No!" she shouted, two swords appearing in her hand as she hacked into the wall, roaring angrily.

But the mage was already gone, racing through the wall and away. Erigor was cursing luridly when his ally appeared, flute in hand in the ceiling above him, as he flew above the fight, still hurling down air attacks at Ranma.

Nothing he had launched had hit or even come close to the bitch who had cold-cocked him. Not only had the redhead not been hit, none of the fleeing hostages had been hurt at all. And the redhead was still throwing curses with every breath, including that horrible Shini-shitty name! It was beyond frustrating, and Erigor had quickly lost both his cool and his grasp of their actual mission.

The shout from his sneaky guildmate directly above him, however, brought his head around like a turret. "Erigor-sama, I've got Lullaby!"

"What? Oh, um," Erigor nodded, coming back to himself, pushing his hair out of his face. "Good work, Karacka! Give it to me, then do what you can to help pin these flies down while I…get…away…" Below, two more of his mages fell to Ranma, but that was a mere sideshow to Erza joining the battle below.

Erza had stalked forward, her entire body brimming with rage as she thought about how she had just been blindsided, taken unaware! _How can I call myself an S-class mage if I can be taken by surprise! The only way to make this right is through overwhelming force!_

Between one step and the next she summoned up her power. Erza's normal everyday armor was a simple chest plate with accompanying greaves, heavy boots, and a skirt that came to her knees. As her magic flared, that changed, her clothing disappearing in a near blinding flash of light. Even Ranma, who was looking away at the time, blinked as spots appeared in her vision, and the flash blinded more than one Eisenwald mage.

The flash swiftly disappeared, revealing Erza in her new armor. It was silver plated armor in the shape of a built up bra with a large metal flower over it that bared her taut, toned stomach above a large, billowing skirt made of cloth and metal plates, which fell to her knees. Large metal wings that seemed to be made of individual blades of various sizes were attached to her back armor. Coupled with a wing-like headpiece, it was clear to Ranma that it was this armor that gave Erza her Fairy Queen nickname. She looked for all the world like a fairy crossed with a Valkyrie.

The air all around her formed a wave of weapons. There were hundreds of them, at least four of them for every enemy mage. They hovered there above, behind, and to both sides of her. "Dance, my blades: Overwhelming Barrage!"

In groups of ten, those weapons flashed out in arcing attacks, slicing into, cutting, and pinning down more than two-thirds of the remaining Eisenwald mages. The only reasons it wasn't all of them were that some had thought to use their fellows as shields and Erza's desire to incapacitate rather than kill. This was Fiore, after all, and killing even Dark Mages was against the law here, something Erza had no problems with.

Even Erigor and Karacka were targeted. Karacka squealed and retreated into the wall, barely ahead of several massive claymores that slammed hilt deep into the wall, leaving behind some blood from where they had nicked him anyway. Erigor hastily blocked two spears coming at him, only for the side of his neck and right shoulder to be nicked by two swords as they flew by.

He stared down at Titania's mismatched eyes as she glared up at him. "You will never have the chance to use Lullaby!" she roared, taking to the air and rushing towards him. But she was stopped by another mage wearing clothing that made him look somewhat like an Egyptian mummy. He had hidden below two of his pinned fellows and now lashed out with his magic. From his fingers, long, black bands lashed out at her, grabbing her ankles.

At the same time Ranma dealt with two spiky-haired twins and a mage wielding light magic, of all things. Smashing them down, she was about to leap toward Erigor from a standing start from over a hundred feet away. At the same time Erza hacked down, slicing through the bands holding her ankles, and Kageyama appeared out of a shadow right next to where Ranma was leaping. Dodging Kageyama's shadow fist took Ranma just slightly too much time to get to Erigor before he had dove down and into one of the corridors on the first floor.

"Damn it!" Ranma roared, leaping down and after Erigor so fast, it looked as if she was flying too. But then she halted as a blast of wind magic filled the corridor from one side to another, a wall of wind that moved so fast it stung Ranma's body. Still, Ranma drove on, trusting her durability, even if it wasn't quite where she would have liked it to have been by this point.

There was a reason for that, of course, though it had taken Ranma a long time to realize what it was or even that there was a problem in the first place. But after his fight with the Beast, Ranma had realized that despite what he had thought at the time, his ability to take damage hadn't actually increased during his time in this world. His strength, speed and endurance had, in those areas he was stronger than he had ever been in his old world. But this was not the case in terms of his body's endurance to damage.

The cause of this was the odd and at times combative dichotomy between Ranma's magical core, which Typhon had awakened within him, and his ki.

Ranma had meditated on this for a flat month and had finally realized that Dragon Slayer magic, by its very nature, was dangerous, doing something to the user's body as it gave them a dragon's features, such as scales. There was something within the core that caused this change, a seed of the dragon's own being, almost. Ranma couldn't describe it better than that.

While Ranma had thought that that was an awesome idea when he was younger, his ki certainly didn't. Instead it fought what it saw as a kind of virus, keeping the Draconic powers at bay. All this didn't matter at all in terms of his offensive abilities, but the impact to his endurance was pretty bad. The Dragon Slayer core was constantly at war with his ki, and Ranma couldn't control the response of either, not yet.

But Erigor had filled the entire corridor with wind from one end to another, forcing Ranma to slow down even as she forced her way forward. "Hah! You're tough, but not that tough! Get sliced to ribbons and despair as I sing a little song for the townsfolk using this station's intercom!"

Growling, Ranma brought her hands together and then shot them forward. "Soryu no Doriru Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!" A torrent of spiraling water flew from her hands to smash into the whirling dervish of wind that filled the corridor. It was a contest of elements, and while water didn't have as much offensive punch as wind, Ranma's willpower, and her magic, was stronger.

After only a few seconds Ranma stepped forward into a now cleared corridor, racing after Erigor. Yet even so, he scowled as he realized he could no longer smell his quarry, the man's scent was instead all around him, with no direction. _Still there's only one direction he could have gone._ A second later, that was no longer the case as he saw windows on either side of the corridor. "FUCK!"

Back in the main hall Erza had gotten free now and frowned, staring after Ranma and Erigor. _That makes no sense. Why would they want to kill some random townsfolk with Lullaby? That's too small a target to need such a powerful magical device, and it seems too small even for their professed goal of getting back at the Council, especially with what I heard about them targeting the guild masters. So why would he even say that?_ "Don't tell me…" she breathed, turning and racing for the stairs down to the entrance to the station.

It wasn't as if she was needed here any longer, after all, since none of the Eisenwald mages were still on their feet. Lucy had dealt with Kageyama, whipping him into submission while her spirits helped subdue or tie up the few dark mages who had escaped Erza, Gray, and Elfman. Elfman had concentrated on clearing out any group of mages that tried to escape to the other corridor on the ground floor, while Gray had been smashing any large groups with his Ice Make powers. It had been something of a rout from the get-go after Ranma had rescued the hostages.

Even the mage who had snared Erza's legs to stop her from attacking Erigor was now frozen against one wall, courtesy of Gray, who stood next to him, his eyes as cold as the ice that currently imprisoned the other mage. "So, you want to tell me what your real plan is now? No way have you all gone to such lengths to use a cursed item like Lullaby to kill some random townsfolk. What's your real target?"

"Kekekeke," the mage chuckled, shaking his head. "Too late. You're too damn late. Now you're trapped here, you fucking flies. There's no escape for you or for your precious Guild Masters!"

"Guild Masters?" Gray said as the ice encasing the man slowly rose up his body. "What about the Guild Masters?" He hadn't been close enough to hear that bit when Erza was explaining it back in the guild.

At this point Elfman and Lucy both came over, their attention also grabbed by that last bit, who also hadn't heard that before. But even having an audience didn't seem to worry the Eisenwald mage. He kept on laughing even as the ice reached his neck. "Erigor's gone to sing your precious leaders a little song! That is our vengeance, our showing the world that strength is the only thing that matters, not their stupid arbitrary GAH!"

In an instant the ice had finished its journey up his body, trapping him within it as it grew ever colder, actually beginning to freeze his body too. "You're wrong," Gray said, his face a mask of fury matched by Elfman's. Lucy simply looked horrified. "You're wrong. You'll never touch our parents, and we will show you what happens to anyone who threatens our family."

 **OOOOOOO**

Having exited the station after throwing Ranma off his trail for a moment, Erigor paused, alighting on the ground as he stared back at the large building, his face set into a grim line. "Your sacrifices will not be in vain, my friends. The Guild Masters and all of Fiore will pay for what they did!"

With that, he raised his hands, looking at two bracelets on his wrists. They were made of stones, which looked the color of dried blood mixed with an odd looking metal, which looked like burnished steel, but with a subtle purplish gleam to it. Erigor touched them, one bracelet after another, and purplish magic began to flow out from his hands. "Hah! It's just like that demon girl said, these things really do multiply my magic! They were worth the blood I had to give her to bind them to my magic."

With the added power Erigor began a spell. Under his command a tornado instantly formed around the entire train station. Slowly thickening well beyond his normal level to control, the tornado began to shred the buildings to every side of it. Soon it was a wall of air meters thick, moving so fast that anything that tried to get through would either bounce or be shredded.

Once that was in place, Erigor gasped, shaking his head at the amount of magical power that had taken out of him. His two bracelets also noticeably dimmed, all of the stones turning a dull gray color now, drained utterly.

As he was regaining his breath, Erza came bursting out of the stairwell. She stared at this, then threw herself toward Erigor, only to bounce off, angrily shouting, "You coward! Stay and fight like a mage!"

"I'd rather be a winner then a fool!" Erigor said in return, laughing. "Have fun, knowing that all your attempts to stop me are in vain!"

Still laughing, Erigor floated once more into the air, moving until he was above the train station. His hands glowing with magical energy, Erigor brought them together slowly. Under his direction, the tornado changed from a circular wall into a dome over the train station. A dome that, as he watched, slowly began to shrink.

With the Fairy Tail mages now seen to, Erigor turned, flying off towards Clover Town. Behind him the spinning swirling dervish of air started to impact the building, shredding portions of it as it did, forcing Erza back inside as she continued to shout at the swiftly disappearing Erigor.

 **OOOOOOO**

Soon enough Elfman was joined by the others, save for Lucy, who was busy directing two of her this Celestial Spirits and tying up the guild members with the help of the former hostages. "Do you think you can do something about this?" Erza asked Ranma, while Elfman and Gray tried desperately to break the wall of wind. Nothing they did seemed to work, however.

She had tried with a few of her different armors, but none of them had been able to shatter the dome of tornado-like wind. None of her swords could slice all the way through, which Erza felt would be enough to break the spell. They'd gotten close a few times, but not all the way through.

"Let's see," Ranma said, drawing his arms back and concentrating a bit of his magic into his hands. So much so, that if not for the wind barrier, his next attack could well have destroyed a large swath of the town beyond. "Soryu no Saiga (Water Dragon's Crushing Fang)!"

The attack lashed out, a flat battering ram of water smashing through the wall of wind. It broke through, but then was torn asunder by the still moving wind in turn. Ranma moved the attack, lashing it through the wall and trying to cut through it horizontally then vertically, his attack being torn apart in turn as he went until he finally cancelled it. He then tried to leap forward with Erza, but the wall reformed too quickly for them to get all the way through, forcing them both back.

"Damn it, that's what I was afraid of." Ranma groused, shaking his head and letting his hands fall to his side. A water spell could only break through the ensorcelled wind; it wouldn't overpower the spell. This was down to how the elements interacted in terms of magic, something Ranma had known, but he had hoped he had enough power to get through it regardless. But the tornado would just keep going unless he broke it in multiple places, which wasn't good since they would close as soon as he moved on to the nect one. "I can't stop the spell itself, and, given the speed it's closing in, I don't think we can assume that it'll shut down if I find Erigor and feed him his own ass."

He then stared down at the ground thoughtfully, tapping it. "But I think we can go under it much more easily. Let's get back to the others."

Inside they found Lucy standing over the crumpled form of two of the dark mages, looking frantic as Cancer quickly went to work sewing up Kageyama's side, where it was obvious he had just been stabbed. Nearby in a pile of rubble that had been a wall lay the fat, thick-lipped fellow who had taken the flute back from Erza. He was unconscious, a long gash going from one shoulder to the other.

She turned hurriedly to the others, pointing at him. "I thought that Kageyama could somehow cancel Erigor's spell if he had dispel magic," she said over the sound of the tornado smashing deeper into the building. "Then this guy came out of the wall and stabbed him! If not for Taurus, he might've gotten away with it too."

The giant, bullheaded Taurus roared. "As always, Lucy, you are as kind as your breasts are fantastic!"

"Yes, yes. That's enough out of you, you perverted spirit!" Lucy growled, swiftly pushing her key towards the bull and forcing his gate to close. With that accomplished, she turned back to the others. "How about you all?"

Rama shook his head, but once more tapped his foot down on the ground, even as the sound of the tornado came closer. "Nope, but I think we can dig through the ground and get out, at least."

He was about to start, when Lucy grinned, holding up another key. "Then it's a very good thing I made that contract earlier, isn't it?" she said smugly.

Just then the tornado finally burst through the far wall, causing many of the hostages to start screaming and even a few of the conscious dark guild members to cry out in alarm. Lucy womanfully ignored this, thrusting out her key in front of her as the wind started to pick up around her, flinging her hair and skirt every which way. "Open, Virgo!"

An instant later the pink-haired Virgo appeared, standing beside her. She instantly reached over, holding down Lucy's skirt and pulling it down so that her panties weren't showing even as her own skirt flared up, showing practically everything underneath. "Hime, your skirt!"

"This is so not the time, Virgo!" she shouted.

Ranma, on the other hand simply stared, shaking his head. "Black panties and matching garter belt. Nice."

Next to him Erza nodded too, blushing. To one side Elfman and Gray were also looking, along with a group of former hostages and current prisoners who had an angle to see the action.

"That's enough of that!" Lucy shouted at them, then turned to Virgo. "Virgo, we need a tunnel to get all of these people out of here. Can you do it?""

"As you wish, Hime," Virgo said, turning away, the cuffs on her wrists and legs clinking as she did. A second later, she dove into the ground as easily as a dolphin into water. The ground began to quiver and shake where she had entered, and soon enough there was a tunnel leading down and away.

Ranma grunted, moving over to the unconscious Rune Knights, piling them up onto his shoulders three each. "Hostages and wounded out first, then the rest of these assholes." The others, even Erza, agreed to that, and they quickly got moving, pushing the hostages in first, then following after with the two dozen wounded and unconscious Rune Knights.

Eventually they got all the hostages and their prisoners out, piling up most of the dark guild members like cord wood to one side of the tunnel, uncaring of their discomfort. In fact, Ranma took a bit of sadistic glee in dropping them on top of each other as he piled them higher.

Just as they were finishing, the wind spell dissipated, the train station now nothing more than rubble. Lucy frowned, looking around her in confusion. "Wait, where did Elfman go?"

The others looked around too then Ranma shook his head. "He must've gone after Erigor himself. We'll have to trust that he can at least slow the guy down before he gets to Clover Town."

 **OOOOOOO**

Thinking that he had left behind everyone who was after him, Erigor was completely surprised when someone shouted, "A man finishes what he started!" directly above him.

Trying to turn, Erigor yet again felt the feeling of someone slamming into him from above. With a massive weight on his back, Erigor crashed into the ground on the other side of the gorge he had just been flying over.

Growling and flipping himself to his feet, Erigor stared angrily at Elfman, who had rolled away with the impact of their crash, twisting around to face him. Both of his arms were shifting back to normal from some kind of bird wings as his feet changed back from a bird's talons.

"You're a persistent fly, and foolish!" Erigor said, twirling his staff in front of him. "There is a reason why I'm called the reaper, after all!"

Elfman shrugged his shoulders, cracking his neck and working out his arms for a moment. "Meh, you didn't seem all that manly when you faced Ranma earlier. And, last time I looked, it was you who ran away like a coward."

"Feh. If you're too stupid to realize that was tactics, I'm not about to explain it to you. Why waste words on a dead man, after all?" Erigor said, his lips twisting into a sneer.

With that, the two charged towards one another. Erigor lashed out with his scythe, sending several blades of wind at Elfman. "Emera Baram!"

Elfman ducked or dodged most of them, but one of them struck him in the waist. Yet to Erigor's surprise it didn't cut through the other mage as it should have, as evinced by the way the blades of wind had chopped into the ground and even some of the rail line behind Elfman.

As the attack dissipated, he saw that Elfman's body had taken some damage, a long, thin slice there, but it hadn't penetrated. By the time he realized that, Elfman was within punching distance. "Take Over: Beast Arm!" The large, clawed hand slammed into Erigor's face, hurling him several feet away.

Grunting and spitting out a tooth, Erigor barely got his scythe in between him and Elfman's next punch. "A real man fights with his fists!" Elfman roared.

"Oh, shut up already!" Erigor bellowed back, the shaft of his scythe breaking under the power of Elfman's punch. Dropping it, he launched another point blank Emera Baram. But Elfman raised his arms, blocking the attack.

This still allowed Erigor time to leap back, off the bridge and into the air. His hand glowed a light purple for a moment, then he thrust it palm out towards Elfman. "Storm Bringer!"

Instantly a large tornado appeared around and under Elfman, raising him into the air even as it cut into him. But Elfman simply lashed out in every direction with his fists and legs, howling, "Not strong enough!" To Erigor's shock this actually burst the tornado, allowing Elfman to fall to the ground.

Despite his surprise at this, Erigor followed up before Elfman could settle himself, flashing his hands glowing with energy around, then slamming them forward, bringing them together in front of him. "Magic Wind Palm!"

This created a concentrated vortex of air that should have shredded Elfman. But Elfman responded, roaring out, "Take Over: Armored Armadillo!"

Unlike his previous forms, this was a full-bodied Take Over, and actually looked something like a version his sister Lisanna used. Elfman's body became almost rotund, yellow and light brown, with a small, cute snout. The massive plates of armor on his back were no joke, though, and when he curled into a ball the Magic Wind Palm attack did nothing to him, simply rattling his body from side to side.

Soon enough Erigor's attack dissipated, and Elfman quickly uncurled. _I have to hand it to Lisanna-chan, her Take Overs might mostly be cutesy, but sometimes the animals she chose do have a distinct upside to them._

However, above him, Erigor had had enough of this. "You're not the only one who can use armor, you fly! Storm Mail!" Around Erigor the wind condensed even as it sped up, covering him head to toe in armor created by wind power. With that he swooped down, slamming into Elfman and sending him flying through the air to land on the far side of the gorge with enough force to raise a furrow in the ground.

Now bleeding from numerous cuts, Elfman pushed himself to his feet, barely getting a palm up to block the next blow from his enemy. The winds around Erigor's fist cut into Elfman's hand, covering it with tiny bleeding cuts as Elfman was hurled backwards once more.

"Hahah! You'll never beat me, you fucking fly!" Erigor shouted, rising once more into the air, his voice somewhat distorted by the wind around his face.

Shaking out his bleeding hand, Elfman stared thoughtfully at Erigor. When he spoke, his voice was calm, far calmer than it had been since he and the others had shown up at the train station. Indeed, the clash between his current tone and his still cutesy-looking body was quite jarring, to say nothing of the fact that the snout he currently had could even form words.

"You know, several years ago I made a mistake," he said, staring hard at Erigor. "I took too much onto my plate, and I nearly got both of my sisters killed. The only reason I didn't is because a complete stranger to us came around just then and saved us with the help of another guild member who none of us was on the best of terms with. Ranma saved the sister I didn't even know I had. He saved Lisanna from my rampage, and he saved Mirajane from facing a world where her decision to take us on that mission would have cost us Lisanna just as much as my mistake. I'm on this job to pay him back, to, in some small measure, repay a debt that can never be made right."

His hands clenched into a fist Elfman ignored the blood still dripping from his badly cut up hand as he growled, "And, on top of that, you had to give me more motivation! You had to threaten our grandfather! Take Over: Lizard Man!"

An instant later Elfman's form had changed. He had grown several inches and, instead of looking like a plush toy in the shape of an armadillo, he now looked like a monstrous were-lizard of some kind. There were rows of spikes going up his back and along his arms, his forehead was armored further by a scale, which looked like the top of a helmet, and his hair had become a wild mane of white hair going down his stooped back. "Let's see which is stronger, your wind or my scales!" he roared, charging forward.

Scowling underneath his armor, Erigor did the same, wishing to put this fly in his place. Erigor's blow got in first, smashing into Elfman's chest, but doing nothing. This caused Erigor's eyes to widen, but before he could do anything Elfman reached out, thrusting his hand through the Storm Mail somehow to grab Erigor's actual hand.

"You should have flown away when you had the chance!" Elfman bellowed into Erigor's face, his other hand lashing out in a scale-encrusted punch that smashed through Erigor's vaunted Storm Mail armor to smash into his upper chest. "Now you're not getting away from me!"

Desperately, Erigor tried to pull his hand out of the other mage's grip, but Elfman was far superior in terms of brute strength. "Get off me!" He lashed out again with a point plank Magic Wind Palm, but Elfman retained his grip even as cuts and slashes began to appear on his scales.

"Never!" Elfman punched Erigor again, this time bringing his hand down in a hammer blow on the top of Erigor's head, sending him to his knees. Still holding onto Erigor's other arm, Elfman pummeled Erigor into submission. Erigor tried to fight back, and Elfman's scales were shattered here and there, deep cuts appearing over his body.

Yet in the end it was Erigor who collapsed first. "No, no! You, guh, you can't beat, no… Justice… Must, must make them pay…"

"In a battle between men, it is the one with the most will who wins! And guess what, **you lose!** " Elfman roared, bringing his head down in a massive headbutt as Erigor started to lose control of his Storm Mail. The blow shattered Erigor's nose and several of his teeth, blowing out Erigor's remaining consciousness at the same time.

Finally letting the now comatose mage go, Elfman released his Take Over soul, slumping to the ground. His body was covered in bruises now, with a few shallow cuts here and there. Even so, he couldn't stop himself from raising his arms in the air and shouting, "MAN!" at the top of his lungs before he fell backwards, utterly exhausted.

Barely five minutes after that, Elfman roused himself from the ground, barely pushing himself to his knees as he heard the sound of an oncoming car. Turning his head blearily in that direction, he smiled at the sight of his friends racing towards him. Ranma ran to one side of the car, while Erza sat in the driver's seat, with Gray and Lucy both sticking their heads out from the other side of the car.

Ranma was the first to reach him. Giving Elfman a manly thumbs up, Ranma moved past him to check on Erigor, making sure he was still breathing before pulling out a pair of strange looking handcuffs. They looked almost like stone, but not quite, and they had tiny lacrima worked into the chains that connected them. Ranma clapped them in place, touching a slightly larger lacrima set in the center of the chain and watching as they all began to glow.

Then he turned to Elfman, but Erza was already there, pulling Elfman to his feet. "Elfman, you did it! Your sisters will be so proud of you! I'm proud of you!" Then she pulled him into a hug, slamming his head into her chest plate with jarring force.

"Hard!" Elfman squeaked, completely overpowered both by the impact and by the fact that Erza had just lifted him off the ground and manhandled him so easily.

Gray and Lucy came next, with Gray moving to help Elfman, slipping an arm around Elfman's waist and one of Elfman's arms around his shoulders as Lucy did the same, despite her lack of height in comparison to the tall Elfman on the other side. "Damn good job, big man," he said gruffly.

As they moved off, Erza moved towards where Ranma was handcuffing Erigor. She peered down looking at the cuffs and nodded. "Magic suppressing handcuffs. Those are expensive."

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, but they're useful and reusable."

"And you just happened to have them on you? Or are you going to tell me they were given to you for this mission by Queen Rose?" Erza asked, winning a wry chuckle from Ranma. "I don't suppose then that you'd be interested in joining Fairy Tail? I know Laxus would be ecstatic once he returns, and we can always use someone who can actually think ahead like you can."

"I'm afraid not," Ranma said with an answering smile, brushing the front of one of his pecs for a moment where Erza could see the Ranger brooch still there on his cloak, which he had not removed for the entire battle. In fact, Ranma barely looked winded at this point, as if everything that happened was just a daily occurrence to him. None of the others could say that. Even Erza looked as if she at least had just had a good day's exercise.

She looked down at Erigor's unconscious form, smiling appreciatively at the amount of damage that Elfman had done to him. "So, what is the plan with this one and the others? Will you turn them into the local authorities, or will you need to drag them back to Bosco?"

"Well, I…" Ranma paused, looking around. "Wait, where's the freaking flute?"

As Erza and Ranma were talking, Elfman and the two helping him had moved back towards the car, when Lucy brought them to a halt. "Hey, what's he doing in the driver's seat?"

Kageyama had been brought along by Lucy just in case they needed his dispel abilities again, which, given Erigor's penchant for traps, had seemed to make sense at the time. Now, however, it proved to be a mistake, as it seemed as if he was, at least in part, feigning his injuries. When the Fairy Tail mages hadn't been looking, he had moved from the back of the vehicle to the driver's seat and hooked himself into the Self-Energy plug. The car now bolted down the train tracks, and Kageyama leaned out, grabbing the flute from where it had fallen during one of the clashes between Elfman and Erigor.

He barely dodged a bolt from Ranma of something that flew through the car's windows and would've impacted his head, but he kept on going, pushing as much of his magical power as he could into the engine of the car. "Hahaha! You lose, fairy flies!"

Behind him Lucy shook her head sadly. "Darn it, why'd he do that? His own guildmate stabbed him, and we were the ones who patched him up, but he's still trying to complete their darn mission!?"

"Who can tell what he's thinking?" Gray muttered, just as angry that their kindness had gone unheeded. "I suppose it's just easier to keep going no matter how bad your actions are than admit you were wrong."

The two of them were not the only ones unhappy about this latest development, of course. Erza was beyond pissed off with herself for having not thought about the flute since they had been forced to get the hostages and Rune Knights out from the now entirely demolished train station. Elfman was cursing for having overlooked the damn thing entirely during the battle against Erigor, having literally forgotten how Erigor had wanted to attack the Guild Masters, only remembering he had wanted to.

As for Ranma, he was possibly the most furious of them all, literally trembling with anger, but not at Kageyama's betrayal of them after Lucy had helped save his life. No, he was furious with himself.

 _Dammit! I've been making mistakes today. I didn't take these twats seriously, and it's bitten me in the ass twice now,_ he thought to himself, remonstrating with himself rather angrily.

"I'm going after him," he said, looking around at the others. "You lot follow up when you can, and don't leave Erigor here, whatever you do!" With that, he turned and raced off, once again moving so fast the Fairy Tail mages were put in mind of Jet, literally leaving them all in his dust.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma arrived just as Kageyama was raising the flute to his lips. He was about to charge forward when a hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him to a halt. A voice he'd heard a few days before this said, "Easy there, Ranma. Let Makky handle this."

He turned and frowned at Goldmine. "Why? What's he going to do?" _Admittedly, I'm getting some serious 'old people warning' tingles from the dwarf, but still…_ These were the kind of tingles Ranma got when he was around someone who had either outfought or outlived his enemies. Normally in his old world his arrogance had gotten in the way of his understanding that particular warning from his sixth sense. In this world he had overcome much of that arrogance, though he hadn't actually met that many old people who caused him to feel it before this. _Even so, does Goldmine expect him to somehow stop pineapple head from blowing on that thing?_

"Ara, is this the Ranma you were talking about with Makky earlier, Goldmine-kun? He really is a cutie."

Ranma leaped away as he felt a second presence behind them, grabbing a tree limb and flipping himself higher up into the tree to stare down at the man behind him, his eyes widening in horror as his jaw went slack. After a second of truly horrified staring, he turned away. _Oh my God, some things just are not meant to exist! My eyes, someone gouge them out, please!_

"What is that thing?!" He said pointing downwards, still not looking where he was pointing, though he did point directly at the bizarre Guild Master below him. _I wonder if there are spells in this world to erase specific memories? I could get Wendy to use one on me. Call it a mental health issue, and she'd jump all over it._

"Don't let him bother you," Goldmine said. "And you should sit quiet and let Makky handle this, because he's really good at talking people down. You'll see."

Ranma did, and he watched somewhere between amused and incredulous as the littlest Guild Master somehow talked Kageyama down. _Okay, so is that some strange magical power, Rhetoric or something? Weird. Still, it makes my job… Wait, Ranma. Nno, don't think like…_

"This is pathetic!" shouted a voice, which Ranma and the others swiftly realized was coming from the flute. As they stared, it began to expand, growing until it bashed away Kageyama who had been holding it and forced Makarov to leap away. Within one instant and the next, it had grown to four stories tall, and then kept growing to around ten stories. It looked like the other Demons Ranma had seen, but made out of wood like a sort of skeleton without a giant hole where its ribs should be and numerous long slits in its body here and there. It had dark red eyes and the normal glaring Demonic face.

"You're all pathetic!" the Demon shouted. "If no one's strong enough to make me sing, I'll do it myself! Prepare to die, all of you! It's been a while since I last fed, so hopefully your souls will satisfy me!"

Most of the Guild Masters bolted, shouting about the Demon, but Goldmine, Makarov, and the freak show stood there with Ranma, staring up at it thoughtfully. "It's a big one, isn't it Makky?"

"True enough, but I suppose the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Ranma growled, slamming his fists together. "I don't freaking care how big it is!" he said, even as he felt his magic start to shift within him for some reason. Dark whorls of black began to appear on his skin, fighting his Dragon Slayer and Ki-reinforced skin for a moment and even winning! But since it didn't seem to be weakening him, Ranma ignored it and leaped towards the Demon, water condensing around one of his hands.

Within one second and the next, a fist the size of the Demon's own had slammed into the thing's face, hurling it backwards onto its ass. The Demon growled, pushing itself to its feet and staring at Ranma before attacking in a rage. "Those black marks, you're a Demon slayer! Hah! No matter, your soul will taste just as sweet!"

"Demon Slayer?" Ranma asked, shaking his head while letting his curiosity get the better of him, which in turn allowed the Demon to get to its feet. "What the hell is that?"

"Don't toy with me!" the Demon shouted, attacking far faster than something its size should have been able to. But Ranma continued to dodge, allowing the Demon to do a lot of damage to the ground around him, but not actually hitting him personally. Over the past two years Ranma had become even faster; there was no chance a Demon this size could ever touch him. It would still hurt getting hit, but Ranma had no intention of allowing that.

More than that, Ranma's instincts were suddenly going off the charts, helping him anticipate the Demon's attacks.

"GRAHAHH! Damn it, stay still!" Lullaby shouted

"Hmm, you're not too bright, are ya? I mean, has that ever worked, asking someone to stay still?" Ranma asked, hopping up over one such attack to land on the thing's armor. Racing along it, his hands flashed before him and to the side with pinpoint slicing type water attacks, creating long gouges here and there, even holes **.** He could have ended the fight quickly, of course, but he wanted to figure out what was going on with his magic right now.

 _It's like there's another…flavor or something—don't know the right word—to my magic now, but it only showed up in the Demon's presence. It is also letting me figure out what Lullaby's attacks and special abilities are, almost like I'm seeing notes on him here and there. Weird, but worse is what it's doing something to my body now. Crap, feels as if the two-way war just became a three way one. Need to figure this out, string this idiot along, and get to the bottom of what's happening to me._

"Hey, let us help you!" Makarov shouted, interrupting Ranma's thoughts while behind him and the other Guild Masters, Erza, and the others arrived on the scene. Lucy and Elfman gaped at the massive Demon, but Erza and Gray raced forward, their magic activating as they stared at the Demon.

"Bah! More fools to the slaughter!" Lullaby shouted. It twirled its body, which flung Ranma off its arm, then brought its hands up to its mouth. Thick veins of dark black energy coalesced here and there throughout its form as it shouted, "Now, all of you will listen to my song!"

From the Demon's mouth and the various holes in its body, including the ones Ranma had made on its arms, there came a noise somewhere between the world's nastiest fart and a child letting air out of a large balloon, accompanied by the sound of a giant horn. Everyone stopped at that, looking at the Demon in confusion.

The Demon stared down at itself, then back to the others before trying again. "Wh, what is, what's happening? Why isn't my Death Lullaby working!?"

"Meh, there are pills to help with that kind of thing, I hear. Not that I'd know about that kinda thing, but I bet the Guild Masters over there could tell you where they shop," Ranma said, smirking as he pointed over his shoulder.

"Hey!" shouted Goldmine and Makky, while the freak show simply guffawed.

"Damn you!" shouted the Demon, attacking even harder, while at the same time still attempting to use its sound based magic. An instant later Lullaby got lucky.

Thanks to the damage Ranma had already done to its arms, the Demon's sound assault wasn't going the way it should, but it was still creating a lot of sound and air. As Ranma once more closed, landing on the things shoulder with the help of a water step, one of the blasts of sound and air came out of a hole in its neck, which Ranma had caused earlier. The attack hit Ranma, hurling him away as he screamed, holding his hand over his ears. _Dammit! I seriously need to do something about that._ Such was the randomness of the damage that had been caused, that even with the added aid of his 'Demon Slayer' magic he had been unable to tell that was going to happen and took it full bore.

Ranma tumbled through the air, pulling the Umi-Sen Ken around himself as he redirected himself midair with his mastery of the Anything Goes Aerial Style. The Demon roared in triumph, staring around him as he shouted, "See! Even a Demon Slayer will flee before me!" It then swatted aside one of Gray's assaults before dodging around Erza's own, letting the massive energy attack she had launched carve into the ground where it had been standing an instant earlier. A kick took Erza in the chest, hurling her away like an iron football, but she rolled with it, seemingly without any injury other than her pride as she raced back to the attack.

At that moment something in the distance took Lullaby's attention. A battalion of Rune Knights appeared on a distant road, marching in step towards where Lullaby loomed near the town. "Protect the Guild Masters!" shouted a voice, barely heard at this distance. "Take that Demon down!"

"Small fry should know their place!" Lullaby shouted, opening his mouth and sending out the mouth-based energy attack that every Demon seemed to have, in Ranma's experience. Just as it did, however, Ranma slammed into its legs, shredding its ankles with Twin Dragon Claw attacks. This caused it to fall forward, sending the beam into the ground right in front of the advancing Rune Knights.

There it carved a deep gouge into the earth, blocking the Rune Knights from getting close. As one they stopped, and their officer shouted, "retreat!" and they turned around.

The Fairy Tail mages and the Guild Masters, even the ones in hiding, saw or heard this and sighed, shaking their heads as they muttered as one, "Pathetic."

Back with the Demon, it had just turned, its mouth opening again quickly, blasting out another attack towards Clover Town. Before it could hit, however, Ranma shouted out, "Soryu no Shahei Kyutai! (Water Dragon's Shielding Globe)!"

The same spell he had first used against the Demon in Joya flashed from his outstretched fist, forming a massive globe of water around the town. As the others watched in shock, the attack hit, causing a lot of steam. But the Demon's energy attack dissipated before the dome did.

"How!?" Lullaby bellowed, then had to protect itself from the attacks from Erza and Gray. Gray's attacks now began to actually do damage, while Erza's nearly chopped its other leg entirely off at the knee.

There was worse coming for the ancient creation of Zeref. Ranma had its measure by this point and found Lullaby easily the weakest Demon he had fought. It had one real trick, the sound based attacks, and really, once he knew to keep his distance, those didn't matter. Its speed was frankly pathetic, and it had little of the Beast's durability and no adaptability to speak of.

 _It must have been seriously weakened after so long being sealed. On the other hand, it at least it gave me the name of whatever the heck has been going on with my magic. Pity that Demon Slaying thing doesn't seem to come to the fore unless there's a Demon around; I would have been able to train with it before this. But it seems to be more of a passive ability than anything I have to activate or use myself, so that's okay for now. Still, it's time to end this. Can't learn anything more from this weakling._

Lullaby barely had a second to look up in shock as Ranma gathered water around his arms. "Soryu no Tsume!"

From his arms came two giant draconic limbs, reaching forward and grabbing the Demon by the shoulders. In an instant Ranma ripped his hands to either side, the giant watery limbs acting in tandem, shredding the wooden looking muscles there. The two Demonic arms were ripped entirely off before Ranma hurled them away. They shriveled to nothing in seconds as Lullaby roared in agony, falling sideways. Lullaby was feeling fear now, Ranma could tell, not that he was going to let it feel that for very long.

Striding forward, he waved off Gray and Erza, who pulled back. Gray was now looking at him with shock, utterly flabbergasted by Ranma's easy show of power, while Erza looked approving, nodding at Ranma. "Do you need help?"

"Nah, Red. I got this." Ranma moved in front of the Demon, watching as it tried to push itself upright without arms. "That wasn't how you do a breath attack, Lullaby. Let me show you how it really goes." Between one second and the next Ranma had gathered some of his magic power into his mouth. Not a lot—the Demon didn't seem to have enough endurance to warrant that, and he didn't want to do any more damage to the landscape than they already had. "Soryu no Hoko!"

The condensed torrent of swirling water slammed into Lullaby's head, shredding it from the chest up. The Demon's now headless and armless body collapsed, dissipating into small bits and pieces of light as the whorls on Ranma's skin grew even darker for a second. Ranma glared down at them and began to actively redirect his ki toward those areas.

Like the Dragon Slayer magic active in his body, the ki attacked this new type of magic like it was a virus or a wound. At the same time, so did Ranma's Dragon Slayer magic. Between them the visible form of Demon Slayer magic quickly started to lose color.

However it didn't fade away as quickly as it should have, and he frowned, looking around for a brief instant and activating his ki-based radar. _Someone's still out there watching, and it's a Demon. A strong one too, about half a mile away on that hill opposite the road. So what was this? Some kind of experiment, or…_

His thoughts were interrupted as Erza and the others piled into him, shouting their congratulations. His head was pulled into Erza's armored chest with a thump while his shoulders were squeezed in a vice by Elfman's arms, and one side felt a little bit of heaven as Lucy hugged him from the side. Gray at least had pulled up short, letting the others barrel into him before stepping forward, thumping his fist into Ranma's own.

Turning, Ranma smirked at the Fairy Tail mages, wrapping his arms around them in turn before looking over Lucy's head at the gathered Guild Masters. "Hey, you'd be Laxus' gramps, right? Names Ranma," he said drolly to Makarov even as Lullaby the flute fell into his suddenly outstretched hand, where he shattered it with a single squeeze, ignoring the low pulse of power that came from it. "Nice to finally meet ya, shorty-Jiji."

 **End Chapter**

* * *

This is about as canon as **anything** is going to go and it was honestly painful to try and keep it that way. The only other two arcs that will go anywhere near canon will be the Oración Seis arc and the Guild War, and even there not much. I **hate** trying to keep to canon, and from the next chapter on, watch as canon disappears, never to be seen again and Ranma meets yet two more exotically beautiful women, though this time most decidedly of the femme-fatale variety. And naturally, he starts a fight with one of them, which results in even more changes BWWHAAHAH.

Even so, I'm not very happy with the initial combat sections against Eisenwald. The bit on the train is fine, I think. But the battle in the train station doesn't really show enough actual action, and Ranma made way too many mistakes. Still, I am happy with the fight against Lullaby and the Erigor/Elfman fight, and really there was no real need to show a lot of the characters abilities just yet.


	8. Chapter 8

I don't draw.

The secodn of my two chapters for Mother's Day.

Heheheh, Heheheh, MWWAHAHAHHA! This is mostly another setup chapter to the next big event, but it's still a lot of fun all by itself. Hope you all enjoy it.

This chapter has been betaed by _Michael_ , and _Justlovereadin'_ join me in thanking them for their work please.

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Random Encounters 'Helping'**

Near the center of Fiore was a town named Era, in the center of which was a large stone hill jutting up many times taller than the nearest buildings. On top of this hill was a series of buildings, many of them towers, surrounded on a few sides by an outer wall. In the tallest tower of this construction there was a conversation going on, the topic of which was the events surrounding Lullaby. But the people talking about it had a very unique perspective…

"One train almost derailed, structural support damage to a bridge, an entire Rune Knight company incapacitated, several dozen normal citizens injured, and an entire train station destroyed! Those damned Fairy Tail mages! What the hell do they think they're doing!" The speaker's voice was old, with a whiny tone underscoring its obvious anger.

"Yet if Fairy Tail hadn't stopped Eisenwald's mad scheme, we'd be mourning the deaths of numerous guild masters. So, really, what are you complaining about?" asked a second voice.

This second voice was much younger than the first, as was its owner. He was a fit, twenty-something man with dark blue hair and an odd tattoo on his face coupled with gleaming, almost hypnotic eyes. He wore blue pantaloons and a blue and black jacket in contrast to the more formal robes that the other people around the table were wearing.

The only exception to this rule was a young woman around the same age as him, who had black hair which cascaded straight down her back. She wore a loose kimono at present, which emphasized her chest and her long legs, something she had occasionally used to her advantage. Not that any of the men around her complained about that; even old men who could barely see out of their beards liked some eye candy.

This woman spoke up now in agreement with her friend. Or at least most of the other people in the Council thought they were friends. They did often move in lockstep in these discussions, as they were doing now. "Exactly. What would've been worse, the death of over a dozen guild masters or a hostage situation in which no one died followed by the arrest of an entire Dark Guild? To say nothing of the demon that was apparently seen near Crocus."

"I discount those rumors!" said another member of the Council, hastily. "There has been no proven sighting of a demon in Fiore for more than two hundred years!"

Another council member spoke up now. He was a short man, matching Makarov for his lack of height, with a long rectangular looking face and salubrious eyes. "What do you call the appearance of the Beast several years ago, then?"

"Those were unsubstantiated rumors! Only those Fairy Tail mages said it was a demon; everything else we've seen about it indicates that it was some kind of animal. And we all know how that guild has a very limited understanding of what constitutes the truth, just like they have no idea of the word restraint!"

That drew a few scoffs from the three people who seemed to be standing up for Fairy Tail. But before any of them could say anything, another man, this one with the most magnificent beard in the room and a staff in hand, spoke up. "The fact of the matter is that this situation could have been diffused before the guild masters were targeted **without** putting people in danger. I won't say they were not acting in good faith, but the way Fairy Tail acted was over the top! We need to censure them."

"Oh, yes, that would look fantastic: the Magic Council censuring the guild that helped stop an incident that we could be seen as having caused in the first place," the young woman said, rolling her eyes. "After all, it was our mistake that allowed the majority of that Dark Guild to get away when we captured their former guild master."

"Are you saying that it's our fault!" shouted the man at the head of the long oblong table. He was a large, fat, elderly man with a long beard, plaited at the end slightly.

"We're saying that the public could see it like that." The younger man backed up his friend calmly before going on in a more conciliatory tone. "That being said, the means and methods that the mages from Fairy Tail used do need to be addressed. They put a lot of lives at risk trying to fight Eisenwald in a straight up battle in the center of town. I vote we call in one of the mages involved to impress upon them our displeasure at how destructive they are."

"Tell them it'll balance out, then? We split the penalties for destroying the train station; we don't jail them, but we also don't publicly congratulate them," said another member of the Council. "Yes, that could work. And if we choose the right mage to call in it could have a carryover effect to the rest of that blasted guild."

Leaning back, the woman, whose name was Ultear, hid a sigh very carefully, holding one hand up to her mouth as if she was hiding a smile as the rest of the Magic Council began to bend to Siegrain's wishes. She was feeling rather ambivalent about the whole thing. Not the fact that Siegrain wanted to bring in a Fairy Tail mage for questioning, that she was fine with. The reports of water magic being used against the demon were interesting, even if they were so far unsubstantiated, coming from non-magical citizenry. _How long can it take those foolish Runic Knights to write up a damn report?_

No, that she had no issue with. The problem was that Siegrain was beginning to be a bit too overt for her tastes in his manipulations. Some of the demands he had made of her recently in terms of their various council duties pointed to him moving toward some kind of end game soon, and she wasn't here for that. Ultear was here to spy on the Magic Council, not take any real action beyond subtly steering interest in acting against specific Dark Guilds away at need.

 _I've only recently discovered how they activate the Etherano cannon, but I've also found out that they have discovered another ancient weapon and are in the process of learning how to control it just like they already control Etherion. So my orders from Master Hades haven't changed, which is irritating. I am supposed to back Siegrain as part of our agreement with the Oraci_ _ó_ _n Siete , but this is getting a little dangerous, to say nothing about how he's been coming on to me at times._

 _Still, watching Siegrain make Erza squirm should be fun._ Ultear shivered then and blinked, sitting upright so quickly that she drew some looks from the others as she twisted around, trying to look behind her because she had just had the feeling of someone dropping cold water down the back of her shirt. _What the hell was that about?!_

Ultear settled down after a second, making as if she had just gotten a neck cramp or something, waving off the others' looks as she made a mental note of that feeling. _It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you…_

 **OOOOOOO**

After ducking his way out of the group hug, which Elfman showed no sign of letting up, Ranma looked at Erza. "Where's Eribore, or whatever his name is?"

Erza wiggled out of Elfman's grip at that, thumping him on the shoulder again, and he let go of Lucy and Gray at the same time. She then pointed to where the four of them had initially appeared on the scene while Ranma was dealing with the demon.

There Ranma saw that the dark mage in question was lying face down in the dirt. Besides having been handcuffed by Ranma, someone had tied a rope around his body. To Ranma's eyes it also looked as if he had also been dragged on his face. "Nice," Ranma said, giving Erza a thumbs-up.

She chuckled at that, shaking her head before glaring at the man. "While I would normally not condone brutality to an unconscious opponent, none of us could have made as good speed as we did carrying the man, especially after Kageyama stole our car! Where is that one by the way?"

Before any other others could reply, the sound of tramping feet came to them from the direction of Crocus, and Ranma shook his head, looking between the road leading back into Crocus and the woods. "Here come the Rune Knights. I'd suggest handing that guy over to them and letting them deal with him. It might let them save a little face. Not that I particularly care about that, but the less questions asked about me, the better."

Surprisingly, Makarov seemed to pick up on this and gestured Ranma out into the woods. "Well, I've got a lot of questions for you, boy, particularly about those tattoos your sporting now and how you think you can get away with calling me shorty. I can understand your desire to not deal with the folderol. So why don't you disappear for a bit and let the guild masters handle this."

"That's mean, Makky!" the disturbing baby faced freak of nature said with a pout. "After all, I want to talk to Ranma-kun too. Hehehe, I think I've heard his name from one of my cutie mage-chans."

"He's too wild for you!" said Goldmine, patting the other man on the shoulder and gesturing for him to follow Makarov as he led the way back into the town. "Trust me on that."

The others exchanged glances, wondering why Ranma wanted to evade the Rune Knights. After all, he hadn't done anything truly illegal yet, to the best of their knowledge, anyway.

But Erza nodded. "Those in your profession do their work best when you're not so well known, I suppose. Do you want me to take credit for the demon, then? I can say it was a new water using armor," Erza said, ignoring her fellow mages looks of confusion and curiosity. If Ranma wanted them to know, he could fill them in.

"That'd be great," Ranma said. "I'll hide out in the woods for, like, an hour or so and then come back when you're done dealing with the runic idiots."

Her lips twitching at his name for them, Erza was torn between remonstrating with Ranma and agreeing with him. She was a big believer in authority, and the Rune Knights were a sign of the Magic Council's authority, yet they were also kind of useless. Erza was enough of a realist to acknowledge that.

"That should be more than enough," she said, leading the others off and taking Lucy's arm in hers when she seemed to want to protest. "We'll see you in a bit."

Nodding, Ranma faded back into the woods, easily hiding himself in the darkness there for a moment before he closed his eyes, sending out his ki pulse once more. An instant later he turned in the direction of the massive magical signature he felt out there, disappearing under the Umi-Sen-Ken as he raced in that direction. The signature was at least a mile away now and moving further away as his pulse went out. Idly, Ranma wondered if maybe being watched by a devil from that long a distance was enough to activate his devil powers, or if they were just that sensitive. _And how exactly are you going to test that kind of theory?_ he asked himself sardonically as he ran.

Soon enough he was within sight of where he felt the signature. Ranma twitched, feeling the Devil Slayer magic starting to spread once more through his skin, affecting his eyes somewhat and his muscles slightly. "I know you're here!" he said, coming out of the Umi-Sen-Ken. "Come out! Don't think for one moment I'm going to let you keep on spying on me!"

A woman slid out from the darkness of the tree foliage to one side of Ranma, hopping down lightly to stand across from him. From the light of the moon, Ranma could see horns on her head, glinting golden in the moonlight. She had white skin and a face that could've been carved from a statue it was so good looking, framed by black hair and only slightly marred by an odd mark on her forehead consisting of a circle with a dot in the middle and several small dashes around the top. Her lips were small but unmarked by any kind of lipstick. Her eyes were purple or black, it was hard to tell without better lighting,

But there could be no doubt that her figure was enough to deaden a man's mind: her breasts were larger than any Ranma had seen before, matched to a toned stomach and svelte hips, all of which were shown off by her currently wearing some kind of kimono-like thing with a leopard print on it.

At this sight Ranma's Devil Slayer power activated even further, the dark whorls spreading to cover his entire body, but Ranma ignored it, instead blushing hotly as he tried desperately to keep his eyes on her face. But he couldn't stop his control of his mouth getting away from him. "Um, who is your tailor? And uh…damn, but I bet you've got back pains from those things." At that his eyes strayed down for another second before he rapidly shook his head.

"Somewhat, but not as often as one might assume. As for my clothing, I cannot remember. How did you know where I was?" she asked, her voice almost monotone, but still inquisitive rather than aggressive.

Not wanting to give any of his ki abilities away, Ranma shrugged. "I'm a Devil Slayer and a Dragon Slayer in one, though the first bit's kind of new. The Devil Slayer magic allowed me to figure out your direction with a bit of effort, and then I used my nose to sniff you out once I was close enough. The only question I have for you, though, is, why did you stay around after I killed Lullaby the Blowhard?"

"I wish to test you," the woman replied.

"Test me?" Ranma growled, then he had to dodge a punch as the woman flashed forward towards him, moving faster than someone with her body type should have been able to move. Still, she was nowhere near as fast as Ranma, and, thanks to the enhanced perception of her tells he seemed to have gotten from his Devil Slayer magic, he dodged her first attack like it was in slow motion. Though he did have trouble with the next one, which nearly tagged him on the chin, causing him to stumble slightly. The reason for this was that the blow came from a large book which had been hidden in the grass nearby. The book had suddenly flown up to slam into his chin without any warning beyond a faint light appearing briefly in one of her hands.

A kick came around, but Ranma blocked it, returning with a blow to her knee, which, in turn, the female demon dodged by the skin of her teeth, pushing off of his block adroitly and lashing out with another attack. The two of them exchanged attacks, with several dozen more books revealing themselves and floating towards Ranma, attacking him as if they had minds of their own. Each would fly towards him with the speed of a bullet, but Ranma would block or dodge them with ease. At times tree branches or bits of foliage would get in his way or fly toward him, but, while irritating because Ranma couldn't predict them and only saw them coming occasionally, none of that amounted to much of an advantage for the woman.

Still, this and the woman's own attacks slowly pushed Ranma backwards, since he was reluctant to show off more of his style to the woman than she might have already seen. _I don't know if she has some way to escape, and I'm getting the impression that this was some kind of scouting mission from a group rather than by her alone._

It soon became apparent to Ranma that she was pushing herself hard to keep up with his speed, though her strength was closer to his own. Her style, too, was decent: better than most he'd fought in this dimension, though not up to even Ryoga's standards back in his old world. _This gal is decent, around the same level as that guy in Capricorn's body but physically stronger. Still, nowhere near my level._

"So," he said as he ducked under a punch which shattered a tree behind them. _Yep. Decent strength, not a lot of skill._ "Can I at least get the name of the demon gal who is trying to attack me?"

"Why would I give my name to someone whose story I am charged to end?" the girl asked, actually cocking her head quizzically to one side as if the question made no sense whatsoever to her.

This allowed Ranma to get in a blow. But she dodged at the last second, instead ripping her shirt to the left side of her chest rather than landing cleanly. In response she landed a blow to the side of his head that should have sent him reeling. But all it really did was make him blink.

"Fine, then I'll figure out a name for you, babe," Ranma said with a smirk, thinking, _Huh, she's a lot better at dodging than she is at offense_. "So, horny-girl, why exactly are you trying to kill me? Watching over Lullaby I can understand, but I've never seen you before in my life, purple-eyes. Or are you just interested in me because of the whole Devil Slayer thing?"

"Grr… The name is Seilah. Call me babe again, and I will end your story right here!" Seilah growled, dodging a follow on punch and nearly slamming a palm into Ranma's jaw, though he moved with the blow.

"Duly noted," Ranma said, working his jaw for a moment, as that one had actually stung. He blocked several more punches, returning a kick that forced her to block in turn, nearly opening her up for another that whistled by her head.

He didn't dodge her follow-up blow though, the impetus of which smashed him through a tree behind him. He did, however, return it with a mule kick into her stomach which hurled Seilah up into the air.

No longer able to ignore his instincts, Ranma slammed his foot back down onto the ground and launched himself up after her. To his surprise, however, the woman seemed just as comfortable in the air as she was on the ground, hovering there and batting aside a few his attacks and returning her own, seemingly not at all discommoded by his ability to fight and dodge just as well in midair as he could on the ground.

At seeing his shocked expression in the moonlight, Seilah allowed a brief smile to cross over her features. "You are not the only one who has a mastery of midair combat. Are you so arrogant that you thought you were?"

"Nah," Ranma grumped. "I just didn't see any wings on you so I figured ya couldn't fly, that's all."

Seilah peered closer at his face as they grappled, strength against strength. "…Are you pouting?"

"Men don't pout," Ranma pouted, going for a knee to the stomach.

She blocked with her own knee, disengaging with one hand and slamming a hard palm into his stomach. However, Ranma grabbed Seilah's wrist before she could pull back, and a punch caught her on the side of her head right below her horn, sending her sideways through the air. She was able to break his grip a second later, and Ranma was forced to block and redirect the momentum from a roundhouse kick to remain in the air. She pushed off of that attack just as he did, however, negating some of his technique and swiftly floating away out of his reach.

Flipping himself once, Ranma let gravity reassert power over him, falling to the ground where he landed on his feet. There he stared up at Seilah, his eyes narrowed. _Okay, so what she lacks in actual combat ability she makes up for in intelligence. First time someone was able to negate my midair combat style. Then again, it's not like I'm going all out here. This is more of my own kind of info gathering mission._

"So it is through the use of my own attacks that you remain in the air," she mused as she floated down to the ground. "That is an interesting style, but it has an obvious weakness."

"Ya think so?" Ranma said with a scowl. _Okay, if that's how you want it lady…_

Seilah had barely touched ground before Ranma was on her, attacking this time in earnest, his hands and feet flashing faster than they had been. The woman grimaced, but dodged or blocked as much as she could by the barest of margins, her dress taking further damage as she tried to keep up, not realizing that Ranma was still sort of playing with her.

In a furor of blows she almost pressed Ranma back for just a second, attempting to bring her long legs into better use on the offensive side of things. But Ranma didn't let her, pressing forward again and again, forcing her to use only her fists for offense, which seems to hinder her abilities somewhat. Even the random floating books and the tree branches getting in the way didn't slow Ranma's assault down enough for Seilah to gain an advantage.

For his part, Ranma was dealing with a distinctly unusual issue at the moment: he was getting turned on by this fight. Not that it would have been a mystery at all to any other man given the fact that the woman in front of him was practically falling out of her dress by this point. Indeed, Ranma occasionally got a glimpse of a nipple and saw a lot of cleavage more often than not, which seemed to arrest his eyes even as his body continued to move on automatic. _So I'm a breast man regardless of having a set of my own half the time, that's interesting but god damn it this is_ _ **not**_ _the time!_

Another blow got through her defenses, ripping her dress further, but again she dodged at the last instant, avoiding any more than a little bruise, and Ranma nodded slightly. He could tell now that his skill in reading his opponent via his Devil Slayer ability wasn't working as well against an intelligent Demon as it had against an unthinking brute. The woman seemed to recognize that he was reading her tells and had endeavored to do what she could to do away with them.

Eventually Ranma stumbled a little: one of Seilah's books flew in, getting just a little too close to going below the belt for his current peace of mind. This allowed her to bring up a kick which Ranma was forced to block with his own leg. The two of them then pushed off one another, gaining some space and pausing as they watched one another across the intervening distance.

The woman frowned at him, unmindful of the fact that her dress was almost falling off her body at this point. "Why have you not brought out your magic?" she asked coolly, showing none of the pressure she was under in keeping up with Ranma physically.

"Why haven't you brought out yours?" Ranma replied quickly, thankful the light wasn't better as it let him concentrate on her face more than her body. "If you want to up the game you have to pony up first Seilah-chan."

Seilah scowled but didn't reply further. Ranma was the first Devil Slayer Seilah had fought, but she knew something of their abilities since, much to her chagrin and many of the others, Mard Geer had brought in a Devil Slayer recently to join the guild. She knew that their magic gave them some immunity to the various demonic Curses.

So that left her with her generic demonic powers of enhanced speed and strength, plus her Macro Curse's ability to control other things around her. And that wasn't enough. Even when she attempted to move entire trees to get in Ranma's way, he was too fast for them to work. There were no stones of usable size, though she had used pebbles here and there. But Ranma hadn't even seemed to notice their impact.

That left only direct magical attacks. But Seilah could only access those magical attacks if she removed her limiter and changed into her Etherious form, which Seilah had been flatly ordered by Mard Geer to not do at this point, just like all the other Etherious Demons in the field. Tartarus was in no way ready to reveal its true strength yet.

Indeed, she was actually going against orders at this moment, having revealed herself to Ranma in the first place. _The moment that I realized Ranma was aware of me I should've run away,_ she remonstrated with herself. But the ease with which Ranma had dealt with the lesser demon, the sheer amount of strength he had gained since the time they had briefly crossed paths in Joya had intrigued her, and she wanted to see how good he was up close. _I overestimated my abilities greatly here. Even Kyoka-sama would have trouble with this one._

As if reading her mind, Ranma grinned evilly. "And don't think you're getting out of here without answering some more of my questions, Seilah-chan. Unless you can teleport, there's no way you're fast enough to get away from me."

"Then your story will end here!" Seilah growled, charging forward. _I must wait for an opening, something I can use to get away._

Once more the two of them began to exchange blows. However, it soon became obvious that Ranma was continually upping the ante every few blows, moving faster and faster. _While I can match him in strength with difficulty, his speed is incredible!_ Seilah thought, grimacing as more blows began to actually tag her rather than tear at her clothing. _Guh… I can't…keep…up…_

A second later a blow smashed into her side that she couldn't block or dodge at all, hitting with all the power of a sledge hammer. Seilah doubled over, opening herself up to a knee to the head which flung her backwards with a gasp of agony. She barely blocked the follow-on blow, but couldn't stop Ranma from tripping her, only grabbing at him and rolling with him, trying to pin him down in turn even as her head rang like a tocsin.

They ended their tumble with Ranma on top of her, pinning her down by sitting on her stomach, his legs to either side of her, pinning her arms to the ground. He reached down, grabbing her horns and pinning her head down with them. "Enough! Unless you're going to start using magic, this match goes to me. Now, are you going to an… answer… some…" Ranma slowly stuttered to a halt as he realized the kind of position they were in, and also saw that her chest had popped entirely out of her shirt by this point.

There they were in all their glory, directly between his own legs and pressing into his crotch. Her breasts were soft looking but stuck out proudly with only a slight hint of sag, pressing into the inner sides of Ranma's thighs. These magnificent white peaks were capped by dark black nipples, which had crinkled, either because of being exposed to the weather or for some other reason.

Ranma wasn't a prude any longer. He wasn't even entirely ignorant of what guys and girls could get up to. He hadn't experienced much of that personally, however, and this sight, what this looked to be a set up for, froze his mind entirely as a certain appendage began to rise to the occasion.

Staring up at him, Seilah briefly wondered why Ranma's face had suddenly turned so red she could actually see the change in color in the moonlight, as well as why he had frozen. She realized why after a moment and began to blush herself, the feeling of Ranma's hands on her horns and the pressure of his body on her stomach causing her insides to do cartwheels as it did when her lover, Kyoka, did the same thing. Her horns were one of Seilah's erogenous zones, but half of the reaction was due to the fact that Ranma was a man. _A man, a human man, is…is…_

But Seilah didn't lose her ability to function like Ranma had and quickly took advantage of Ranma's frozen state. Heaving her waist up she flung Ranma to the side, rolling and pinning him there in turn. Before Ranma could regain his senses entirely, Seilah did something that she would never have considered before that moment. Struck by a sudden inexplicable urge, she leaned in and kissed Ranma hard on the lips. Thrusting her tongue into his mouth, she thoroughly dominated the kiss even as she felt Ranma begin to respond.

Just as he was almost fully back to his self-awareness, however, Seilah pushed off him, leaping into the woods. As she went she threw a final taunt over her shoulder. "So much for not being able to get away from you. Our stories will intertwine again, Devil Slayer; I guarantee it!"

This caused all manner of bouncing, which Ranma couldn't stop from noticing. He stared after her, making no effort to get to his feet, stunned at what had occurred. "Well," he said at last, coming back to himself and pushing to his feet, feeling his Devil Slayer magic fading slowly now there was no demon close by. "That was…something. And yeah, Seilah-chan, I can guarantee our stories will intertwine again too…" He paused then, shaking his head. "Damn, that sounded dirty for some reason."

He returned to the others, thankfully finding that they had finished with talking to the Rune Knights. "That was more like an hour and a half, Ranma," Erza said, frowning at him. Then she looked at him quizzically, noticing Ranma's rather harried appearance. "Were you training? You didn't get enough exercise today?" she asked in amusement.

Lucy too noted Ranma's appearance and shook her head. "What the heck happened out there?"

"Nothing," Ranma said, shaking his head rapidly and squeaking for some reason as both women looked at him. "Nothing at all."

Makarov read more into Ranma's body language than the others and began to chortle. "What, did you run into a little lost maiden out there? Have a little bit of **fun,** did you?"

While Lucy scowled at that and Erza blinked, frowning, Elfman and Gray simply looked uncomprehending.

Ranma glared at the old man. "I will punt you like a soccer ball, you old raisin!"

"Enough," Erza said. "Punish the guild master for his perversions later. I think we need to start heading back to the guild."

Ranma nodded hurriedly, eager to change the subject. "Yeah, I kind of want to get back to Wendy as soon as possible. I know she, y'know, manipulated me a bit about it, but Wendy really does have issues with being left alone. How long will it take us to get back?"

That will depend on whether or not the bridge where Elfman and Erigor fought is still usable," Makarov replied.

"It should be! As manly as our fight was, we didn't do that much damage to the bridge we were fighting on," Elfman said.

"In that case, as soon as they can get the trains running, we'll be able to head back. Tomorrow morning at the latest."

"Ah, right. Trains," Ranma drawled. "Hmm… Yeah, y'know what, I think I'll just run back now…"

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the Rune Knights will block us from leaving just yet. And they might need to ask you some questions too…" Makarov said.

 **OOOOOOO**

Wendy actually didn't have the time to wallow in her misery about having been left her behind, and not just because she was having fun with Mirajane and the other girls. Ever since having come back from where Wendy had flung him out onto the ocean, Natsu had been persistently chasing after her, demanding a rematch. The others had started to take her around Magnolia to show her the sights but Natsu started showing up barely fifteen minutes after the fight had ended. Even after Mira tried to scare him off that first time, Natsu kept coming back. Unfortunately, Lisanna and Anna had gone back to the guild after the fight to resume their jobs as barmaids, which removed the two people who were best able to get Natsu to listen to reason.

Despite that and her Onii-chan still being away, Wendy was having fun. Being around so many older girls was fun as heck! Carla didn't really get into the whole talking about fashion thing. Given her size, whenever Carla tried to shop for new clothes, the saleswomen, once they got over their surprise at a cat or cat girl, would always try to get her into children's clothing, which infuriated Carla for some reason Wendy didn't understand, since she quite liked that kind of clothing. And Ranma couldn't care less so long as she looked good in something. And neither liked gossip or simply taking in the sights like normal people. Being around Mira and the others was feeding a part of her little girl soul that Wendy hadn't even known she had.

"Come on! Fight me!" Natsu whined as the girls walked out of a beauty boutique where Wendy had been given her first ever manicure. After Mira's last remonstrance about throwing a punch at a little girl, he was trying to get Wendy to throw a punch his way instead. But it wasn't working.

"No!" Wendy growled back, turning away and flouncing over to join Cana and Bisca where they were discussing where to go next. "You've already broken the promise you made. Why should I bother with you? Besides, I don't like fighting."

"Come on, you're a Dragon Slayer! You have to like fighting!" Natsu said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "All I'm asking is for another spar! I won't even go all out, just like I didn't last time!"

Wendy rolled her eyes. "I know you were trying as hard as you could last time," she retorted, smiling as Bisca reached down to ruffle her hair. "And I'm not a combat junkie, such that teasing will make me want to fight you."

"You think we should just hide back in Fairy Hills?" Bisca asked, looking over at Mira who was glaring at Natsu, her fingers twitching.

She **so** wanted to pound him, but before they left Lisanna and Anna had made her promise not to hurt Natsu if he didn't actually throw the first punch, and Mira had put the fear of…well…herself, in Natsu when he showed up again, so that wasn't happening. "No," Mira said angrily. "That'll be like giving into him. Besides, there's only so many things we can do in Fairy Hills, after all."

"Well, that's from our perspective," Bisca said. "Wendy, how would you like to go and see where we all live?"

"Where **you** all live," Mira interjected. "I live with my siblings, remember."

"Well then, why don't we start with your house?"

"That's fine and all, but Natsu will still follow us," Cana interjected. She pulled out a small barrel from somewhere and took a long drought as she looked over to where Wendy was actually climbing up a lamp post to get away from Natsu. Or at least, that's what Wendy would probably say, but since she seemed to really like being up high Cana figured that that was only half the reason.

 _She's like a little cat sometimes, with her love of heights._ "You know he'll follow us. He's the one guy in the guild who doesn't seem to understand the whole no men allowed thing."

"And I reiterate my reply to that: I think he just hasn't gone through puberty yet!" Mira retorted.

Cana laughed. "Maybe you should ask Erza about that."

Turning away from the ongoing issue with the two Dragon Slayers, Bisca joined Mira in staring at Cana. "Wait, what? How would Red know the answer to that?" Mira asked for both of them.

"They used to take baths together: Erza, Natsu, and Gray," Cana replied. "You didn't know?"

"No, I didn't," Mira said with a grin crossing her features. "But that seems pretty juicy too."

"You think that Erza would actually care?" Cana asked. "She was pretty open about it for a while."

"Oh, trust me, there are ways underneath that armor of hers," Mira said with a cackle. _How that ties into her love of erotic books, for one, and her lack of a boyfriend, for another. Both would cause an explosion, for certain._

Then the eldest Strauss sighed, trooping over to Natsu to grab him by his scarf. "Natsu," she growled angrily, actually summoning her demon form. "If you don't stop pestering Wendy, you're going to have problems with me! Now back off!"

"But Mira!" Natsu said, his voice a whine. "She's a Dragon Slayer like me! There's no telling how much I could learn by fighting her!"

"You've already fought me once!" Wendy said. "Besides, you broke your promise," she finished with a huff, turning her nose upwards and staring up into the sky.

"Come on! Those promises never count; everyone knows that! Why don't you want to show off your strength?" he said, his voice now sounding rather more frustrated than it had.

 _Is this some kind of bonding thing for Natsu?_ Mira thought. _I know he's really close with Gildarts, and most of their interaction is just Natsu trying to fight Gildarts and being thrown around. Crud… I really have been looking at this too much from Wendy's perspective. Some big sister I am._ Somewhere over the years since the Beast, Mira had slowly begun to act like a big sister for all the guild at times, and that included Natsu.

"Look, Natsu," she said, trying to calm her voice down. "I understand where you're coming from. I know that you're ecstatic about meeting another Dragon Slayer like this. But Wendy is not only a Dragon Slayer. She is a little girl, and little girls, generally speaking, don't like to fight. You can't compare her to the way me or Erza were in the past. Instead, instead compare her to how Cana or Levy were. So, right now, you're coming off as a bully."

That actually made Natsu think, and he frowned, scuffing the ground. "I don't want to do that, but **why** doesn't she like fighting! She's a Dragon Slayer, not just a little girl, whatever you say. We're different. We're all different from normal people. Fighting is in our very blood."

"That may be true for you, but not for me," Wendy replied, climbing down semi-reluctantly from the lamppost. Mira didn't respond as Wendy actually leaped from the lamppost to land on her shoulder before jumping down to the ground. She wiped at her dress, then looked up at Natsu. "I understand that you think Dragon Slayers like to fight. And I guess that is true for you and my Onii-chan, but it's not true for me. I'll fight if I have to, and I kind of like some of the training I've done, but fighting for fun isn't something I'm going to do. Can you please understand that and stop pestering me!"

That finally seems to get through to Natsu, and he scowled. "Fine. I won't bother you anymore. But this Onii-chan of yours, Ranma? He'll be coming back for you, right? You said so, right?"

"Yep," Wendy said. "And he likes the fight too. Not as much as you seem to, but he'll definitely fight you if you are persistent enough with him." _Sorry, Ranma-nii, but you can handle Natsu-san better than I can…_

"Great!" Natsu said, giving her a thumbs up. Then he looked over at Mira and the others, pulling at his scarf for a moment. Now that he'd had his face rubbed into it, Natsu realized that he had really been acting out too much and decided to get all the apologizing with over with at once. He bowed deeply from the waist, shouting, "Sorry!" Then he grinned up at them. "You know I kind of get carried away sometimes."

"That's fine and dandy, but you need to pick your opponents better. Don't let your instincts override your common sense. If you have any in the first place," Mira said tartly

Cana chuckled at that. _I wouldn't put any money on that one either way,_ she thought to herself, ruffling Natsu's hair. Despite the fact that he had been irritating today, Natsu was one of the best guildmates any of them could ask for, always there for them when they needed help or cheering up. "Why don't you go see Lisanna and Anna. I bet they would like some fun. And besides, with you here, who's going to stop some of the other men in the guild from flirting with them?"

While Natsu really didn't understand the whole flirting thing, the idea of other men around Lisanna and Anna never sat well with Natsu. At Cana's words he nodded resolutely and marched off without another word.

The four girls waited, then breathed a sigh of relief as Natsu turned the corner. "Right. That's that," Bisca said, clapping her hands. She glanced up, gauging the time of day from where the sun was in the sky. It was pushing evening, and she looked over at Mira. "It looks as if it's going to take at least another few hours before Ranma returns, so why don't we all get something to eat, and Wendy can tell us some more about the adventures she's gone on?" she asked, looking over at Wendy.

The young, blue-haired girl nodded agreeably. "You all have told me a lot about yourselves and everything your guild gets up to. It's only fair," she said with a nod.

"What was the first adventure you had with Ranma?" Cana asked, leading the way not towards the guild, but towards a restaurant nearby that owed her a few free meals. _Heh, everybody says I'm lazy whenever I take a job in Magnolia, but free drinks are free drinks._

"Oh, that's easy! While we did run into a few of those silly Vulcan creatures that never seem to realize they shouldn't mess with Dragon Slayers, the first real adventure we went on was us dealing with some pirates. Before that we had to play dress-up to enter a castle to talk to a king, and then we went after some pirates up north. It was really **cold**! But also kind of fun," Wendy exclaimed, waving her hands to either side. "Ranma stood on the water, using his Dragon Slayer powers to stay like that, and I used mine to propel us forward.

"Tenryu no Owofuro(Sky dragons spinning tail)!" she said, giggling at the name she'd come up with for that move when she was younger. "It was a lot of fun, and I watched Onii-chan deal with the pirates from a ship that carried us out to sea."

"That does sound like fun," Bisca said, then paused and waved at three individuals coming down the intersection they had just passed. "Levy, Jet, Droy! Over here."

The three newcomers paused, then smiled and moved towards the girls, looking at Wendy quizzically. "Did Master Makarov find another wayward kid?" one of them asked, squatting down to smile at Wendy, who shied away a little, looking at the three newcomers from behind Mira's leg. She was at her limit for interacting with new people by this point, and she didn't have her Onii-chan or Carla around to help either.

"This is Wendy. She's the Sky Dragon Slayer and the healer who helped me and my siblings a few years back. We're watching her for her brother who went with Erza, Elfman, Gray, and Lucy on a mission to hunt down a Dark Guild. They should be back sometime tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest. Wendy," Mira went on, putting a hand on the little girl's head, "this is team Shadow Gear. The girl is Levy, and the other two are Jet and Droy."

"Nice to meet another blue haired girl," Levy said, holding out a hand happily to the youngster. _And she's both younger and flatter than me,_ Levy thought. Levy had a slight complex about how flat she was in comparison to the other girls in the guild.

"Are her brother and Wendy looking to join the guild?" Jet asked.

"Nope," Wendy said with a shake of her head. "It's a great place to visit, but I don't think Ranma-nii's job would allow him to join full-time."

"Job?"

"Let's not talk about that here," Mira ordered, smirking at the three newcomers. "You're back early. Were there complications on your mission again?"

"Nothing like that, at least with the job. There were complications with getting paid," Droy said with a shake of his head. "We cleared out the ancient temple, just like the locals wanted. But they didn't say anything about us not being allowed to open the vault inside… or activating protective spells on it which will cause other people to be unable to enter it."

Levy shrugged her shoulders. "They didn't ask us to open the vault; they asked us to clear out the local monsters. And the vault in question holds several cursed items, so I was never going to let anyone without magical abilities poke around in there. We already sent out a report to the Magic Council. Hopefully they'll send an inspector out that way to remove or destroy the cursed items."

"We'll see you back at the guild, then, unless you want to join us for an early dinner?" Mira offered.

The three newcomers shook their heads and smiled down at Wendy. "No, I want to get back. We were able to pick up that new staff Anna wanted to try. I hope to see you around, Wendy," Levy said with a smile. "Maybe if you're still here tomorrow morning we can hang out then."

"Okay," Wendy nodded, then blushed as her stomach began to gurgle.

"At least in that area you're like our Dragon Slayers," Mira said with a laugh. "Let's go get some food."

"And booze!" Cana said, throwing her hands in the air.

Bisca rolled her eyes, then reached down to take Wendy's hand. "If Cana gets drunk you might want to stop listening to anything she says. She's not a bad drunk; she just gets ruder, that's all. Cana, it might be best if you stay out of grabbing range."

"Hey," Cana said, pointing at Bisca. "Are you implying I might take advantage of little Wendy?"

"You've taken advantage of every other girl in the guild when you're drunk, stealing our first kisses!" Mira replied tartly. "Why should we think that Wendy would be immune to your kissing craziness!"

Blushing, Cana looked away. "Because she's so young?" she suggested lamely. After all, she couldn't argue the point. Cana had kissed every girl in the Guild, and the only one who had gotten a kiss before Cana kissed her was Evergreen.

The group soon sat down at a restaurant with an outside area, where they continued to share stories. Wendy asked Mira numerous questions about being a model and a mage at the same time, as well as how to be more confident in herself. Despite her training with Ranma, sometimes Wendy's self-image bothered her, and Wendy often worried that she didn't put herself forward as she should.

Once Mira had answered all these questions, however, she changed the subject quickly. "How long have you been able to fly using your Dragon Slayer powers?"

"I don't **really** fly," Wendy said, waving one hand in front of her face in an iffy motion. "It's more like I hop in the sky for a long period of time. I can glide—that's easy if I start from high enough—but I can't really fly like Carla can under my own power just yet. Ranma-nii's been training me to try and fly like that for a while now. We just haven't quite gotten there. Still, I'm able to hop for longer and longer periods and move more easily too!"

Bisca leaned forward. "Requip, healing, and Sky Dragon Slayer magic... Your brother seemed to indicate the first time we met that he was willing to pick up any magics he could and add them to his repertoire. In particular, he mentioned Guns magic. Do you practice that too?"

"Sort of," Wendy said with a pout. "I'm not very good with it yet, but for my last birthday I got this." The young girl held out a hand, and said, "Requip: gun." In her hand there appeared a small, very tiny gun shaped to fit the palm of her hand.

Bisca looked at it closely, whistling as Wendy held it over the table towards her. The gun was not like a regular gun. Instead, it was shaped like a holdout pistol, the barrel poking out from a small circular sphere with a trigger poking out slightly next to it. A girl Wendy's size could hold it in her palm and hide the entire thing beyond the small barrel poking out past her fingers. Looking closely, however, you could tell it was a very well made item, with ground lacrima glinting in the metal, a small lacrima crystal that looked violet in the light of the lamps nearby, and another one in the actual barrel.

"That doesn't look like it would have much stopping power, not from regular bullets, anyway. But is this a amplifier array here, and is that a second lacrima embedded into the inside of the barrel?" she muttered. This thing was a work of art, the kind of thing that would cost as much as one of Erza's magical weapons. While Erza made more than any three of the other mages in the guild, she also spent almost as much as she made on her various suits of armor.

Wendy nodded. "The blacksmith who gave it to me is an old friend of Ranma-nii's. We've stayed with him and his wife a few times. He tried to explain how it worked, but most of it went over my head. The gun basically shoots out compressed air pellets if I push my Dragon Slayer magic into it. I can only fire a few times before I have to let it rest or the crystal within it will break, but it's still a very good long-range punch. I've only used it once, though, since I'm not a very good shot," she said, looking down at the table top.

"Well, I can help you with that," Bisca said with a smile.

Cana and Mira both nodded, with Cana going on. "We have two Guns magic users in our guild, and Bisca is the best sharpshooter of the two. She's even won some competitions against other guilds' Guns magic users."

Having lifted the gun out from Wendy's unresisting hand, Bisca had been turning it this way and that, examining it while Cana talked, and now she gasped. "This maker's mark! You got this from WL, William and Laitha of Appledore?"

"Yes," she said with a nod. "Onii-chan knew them from before he met me. In fact, he helped them move from wherever they had been before to Appledore."

"I am **so** jealous right now!" Bisca said, throwing her hands up. "Do you have any idea how much a personalized customized gun like that would cost here in Fiore? The lacrima and initial enchantment would actually be better here, but the metal and everything else? That has to be shipped, and the price is just so huge!"

Wendy shrugged ignorance of that, and the conversation shifted from there, with Cana now taking more and more a part. To the surprise of the other two girls she hadn't started to drink heavily. Yes, she was still drinking—she wouldn't be Cana if she wasn't—but she wasn't getting drunk, which was the important thing.

Eventually Wendy began to nod off at the table, and Bisca quickly stood up, moving around the table to pick her up. "Come on. You can stay with us in Fairy Hills for the night. If Ranma comes back at some point tonight, the rest of the guild can direct him there." She smirked. "Although he'll have to shift to his female form to get in."

The group made their way towards the guild dorms, meeting up with Carla on the way. She had gone with Lisanna and Anna back to the guild to talk to them some more, with Happy following along. Thankfully, Natsu had come in a few minutes before, and he and Happy had headed off home, allowing Carla to finally escape Happy's unwanted affections for a time. As the two of them waited for the girls to decide where they'd be sleeping, Carla asked, "So, what do you think of Fairy Tail?"

"Mmm, they're nice… Fun. I hope Ranma-nii decides we can stay here for a bit," Wendy replied, smiling. Then her lips turned downwards. "I wonder what's keeping him?"

 **OOOOOOO**

The Rune Knight leader, a captain or commander—Ranma wasn't certain what their rank insignia meant and really didn't care to correct his ignorance—did indeed have time to come back to question the guild masters and the Fairy Tail mages again. Specifically, he questioned the whereabouts of Lullaby: the magic flute version, not the demon.

When they all pointed to where Ranma was talking with Elfman and Gray, he marched over and demanded that it be handed over to him. Needless to say, this did not go very well.

"First," Ranma said evenly, "you don't get to demand anything from me after your troops ran away like little bitches with their tails between their legs." He was being deliberately antagonistic at this point, more irritated with himself that he had allowed Seilah to get away than for any other reason, though, despite being a Ranger, he still did have some problems with governmental authority.

As the Rune Knight commander seemed to inflate angrily, Ranma held up a second finger. "Second, I can't hand it over to you. I destroyed it. The pieces," he went on in a somewhat more helpful tone of voice, "are back where we fought the demon, if you want to collect them."

"What, that…" the Rune Knight spluttered. "H, how dare you! That is a priceless magical artifact of…"

"Yep, it's worth zilch, all right. You're right about that," Ranma interrupted with a grin.

"Do you have any idea what the Magic Council could've learned from that!"

"What they could and could not do?" Ranma asked, cocking his head in confusion. "Besides which, why do you think I'd ever hand it over to your Council? The flute was hidden in Bosco. If I was going to turn it over to anyone, it would be Queen Rose, who gave me the job in the first place."

That caused the spluttering Rune Knight to go quiet for a moment, then he went on slowly. "In regard to that, I think you'll find that regulations agree that if a magical item is recovered in another country it automatically becomes the property of that country."

"I'm not a barrack room lawyer," Ranma said with a laugh. "And I don't need to argue with you about it. Like I said, I destroyed it."

"There will be consequences for this, you know," the Rune Knight said, unable to let it go at that.

"Tell someone who cares," Ranma said with another laugh and turned back to his discussion with Gray and Elfman, who were both grinning at this point. "So yeah, like I was saying, sending out your magic over a distance is kind of like…you have to visualize it in your head, almost like you're sending out a lasso or something like that. If you want to cover an entire area, well, what I did here…"

The Rune Knight growled, unused to being ignored, but the foreigner and the Fairy Tail mages continued to ignore him, and he turned away in a huff. As irritating as Ranma was, he couldn't simply arrest a mage for being disrespectful. And since Ranma seemed to have destroyed the flute through ignorance of what should've occurred here in Fiore, he couldn't arrest him for that either.

It was pushing midnight by the time the trains started up once more. With Erza and Gray pushing him, Ranma was forced onto the train, still arguing. "No, really. I'll just run alongside. Seriously, it'll be much easier."

"But not nearly as much fun for us, nor as restful for you. Come now, Ranma. While I am fully behind the idea of daily exercise, doing the equivalent of sprinting for hours on end just to get around feeling some motion sickness is a bit silly," Erza said, smirking at the back of Ranma's head.

"Silly, she says. Silly," Ranma groaned. "My greatest weakness, and she calls it silly. Beautiful but cruel, Erza. That's you."

Because he was facing forward, Ranma didn't see Erza blush at his tease. Lucy did but didn't comment, being a little (okay, a lot) intimidated by the Fairy Queen.

Despite Gray and Erza pushing him, Ranma paused a moment in the doorway to their carriage. There he lit up his pipe again, inhaling the Dragon's Breath several times before taking a step forward.

"I wonder what it is about Dragon Slayers that causes your motion sickness. I mean, I've seen Natsu on a train, on a cart, on a horse drawn cart, and on a boat."

"Ship," Elfman corrected pedantically, holding up a finger. "If you're talking about what happened when you two first met, that was a ship, not a boat."

"What's the difference?" Lucy asked, pouting quizzically.

"Size," Elfman replied bluntly. "Besides which, ships are more manly!"

Rolling her eyes at that obvious answer, Lucy went on, turning back to Ranma. "It's always the same. The moment the thing starts moving, Natsu goes down within seconds."

"Which, again, makes me think that maybe the guild should invest in some of that Dragon Smoke or whatever is for him," Erza said with a faint smile. "At least you don't look like you're going to throw up."

"Like I said, I can sell him some, but I'm not going to sell him more than one or two pipes worth," Ranma groaned. "I don't have enough of it on hand. As for your question, Lucy, I don't know. Wendy and I have ridden on one another occasionally, and it doesn't bother us. Heck I've even had Carla fly me around once or twice, and it doesn't bother me, and she routinely does that with Wendy for hours. It's mechanical transportation that does it."

"Wait, does that mean you can ride horses?" Lucy asked, fighting to keep a blush off her face as her mind tried to banish the automatic image it had conjured from what Ranma had just said. There was nothing wrong with what he'd said, really. It was just too easy to see it as an innuendo, and her mind had automatically gone there despite knowing the fact that Wendy was so young and the fact that they saw each other as brother and sister.

Looking around surreptitiously, Lucy was grateful for the fact that only Erza seemed to have had her mind taking that path. _Maybe only girls notice that kind of thing, or maybe,_ she thought more sardonically, _the boys in this guild are just idiots._

"I probably could," Ranma replied with a shrug, "but what would be the point? I mean, I can run faster and longer than any horse. You did see me actually along the side of the train at one point, right?"

"That…is true, yes," Lucy said, sweatdropping. "You could do that even carrying Wendy?"

"Easily. She's a light weight." With that Ranma changed the conversation, looking over at Erza. "So, I've heard a lot about you from Laxus over the years, and I'm wondering if you'd like to have a spar at some point?"

"You're going to hang around Magnolia for a bit, then?" Erza asked, her eyes glinting eagerly with the idea of challenging herself against a Ranger like Ranma.

"I intend to stay until I can at least touch base with Laxus, and then maybe a few weeks longer," Ranma said with a chuckle. "Then, too, Wendy and I haven't exactly been able to explore Fiore before this."

"You don't have to check back in with your current employer?" Erza asked circuitously. While she felt that Ranma should probably trust Makarov with the fact that he was a Ranger, it wasn't her place to bring it up.

"Nope. I tend to go wherever the wind takes me," Ranma said with a laugh, although he technically did need to contact Queen Rose and the Fiore King about what had happened. "My job isn't normally one where I have to be directed like that. I find my own short term goals wherever I go."

"Then I have no issues with sparring with you, say, the day after we get back? I'd really like to see how I stack up against a more experienced Dragon Slayer."

"Hey, can anyone get in on this, or is this an exclusive party?" Gray asked eagerly. "I'd love to see how my ice stands up against a water mage."

"You have had over a year now to challenge Julia to a match, yet you never have," Erza retorted. "You can wait your turn now until after I defeat him."

Ranma's eyebrows twitched at that, but before he could respond Elfman cut in with a shout. "It is manly to spar! I request that I go third."

"Fine," Ranma said, leaning away a little since Elfman was currently sitting next to him on the train bench. "Just don't shout in my ear again. I'll have to punt you off the train."

 _I'll need to come up with some way of stopping that from becoming an issue. Admittedly, sound magic doesn't seem to be very common, but the way that demon knocked me off my stride with a single misplaced noise assault is telling. Maybe reinforce my ear drums with ki? No, that would have the opposite effect. Hmm, something to think about._

At the moment, however, Ranma had something else he wanted to concentrate on. "Y'know, you seem pretty confident you'll beat me."

"No offense intended. I am certain you are powerful and experienced," Erza said hastily, truly not meaning to give offense. "However I would wager that my various unknown abilities will be able to combat your own."

"Huh. In that case, how about an actual wager, then?" Ranma asked, his smirk the same type which would have sent his rivals back in Nerima into a fury. "Or are you scared to put your wallet where your mouth is?"

"I will never back down from any such challenge!" Erza growled, leaning forward and staring into Ranma's eyes. "When I win, I want you to pay for a month's worth of strawberry cake!"

"Fine. And when I win, we go out on a date," Ranma said. He was actually interested in Erza, just like he sort of was with the other girls he had met in Fairy Tail, and he figured taking her out on a friendly date could be fun.

Erza blushed at that blunt come-on, though not overmuch, given the fact she wasn't unused to people flirting with her like this. But coupled with Ranma's earlier offhand comment, it had a certain effect. "V, very well. I accept," she said, much to the shock of the thee Fairy Tail mages around them, even Lucy.

Ignoring the looks from her friends with difficulty, Erza coughed into her hand, deliberately changing the subject. "So, at one point you said you used Guns magic and that you fought with a stick. Is that your only hand-to-hand weapon form?"

"Well, other than **un** armed entirely, yeah," Ranma said. "I tried out one gun and one stick at one point, but it didn't really add anything to my repertoire. I mean, I'm so fast with my Requip that I can shift from two guns to two sticks easily, and being without either is still my preferred form. What about you? Do you use twin swords like you did on this mission all the time, or do you switch off too?"

"I switch off depending on the situation and the armor I call on. I'd like to think of myself as an expert with most hand-to-hand weapons, but of course there's always more to learn," Erza said, her voice confident as always yet also lacking in any overarching sense of pride now. "I do prefer to use swords."

"Have you ever tried to use your telekinesis on another opponent's weapons?"

Erza smiled. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?"

"Actually," Lucy interjected before the two warriors could go off on a ramble about their respective styles, " **I'd** like to learn more about your curse, Ranma. Do you have to remain in it for a certain amount of time between shifts? What about taste, does that change? There are so many questions! I mean, what do you think is the biggest difference between a girl and a guy's body?"

"Weight distribution," Ranma answered promptly. "When I went through puberty, I had to almost retrain myself entirely in some of my martial arts forms thanks to how my chest started to get in the way and threw me off my balance. As for taste, I suppose you could say that, yeah. It doesn't really change my preferences in what I like to eat, but it definitely does change how they taste. Steak doesn't taste nearly as good, while chocolate and sweet things taste even better."

"And you're a Water Dragon Slayer, how does that affect your eating habits?" Gray asked. "Flame brain eats most of his food only after setting it on fire."

"Well for one thing, when I drink plain water or something like that I get a lot of different flavors, good and bad depending on the source of it. Most of the time I drink plain water these days simply because it's cheaper and it tastes just as good as orange juice or soda or anything like that," Ranma supplied easily.

Then he winked at Lucy. "Most of the time, anyway. Speaking of tasting different in one form or another though the first time I tried a chocolate smoothie, well let me just say that I was very glad I was alone in the tent at the time, or I would've had to answer a lot of awkward questions from Wendy."

Lucy and Erza both blushed at the implications, while it went straight over Gray and Elfman's heads.

"What are you all talking about?" Makarov asked quizzically, looking up from where he had been writing something down on a piece of paper. "What curse form? Is it dangerous?"

"Not at all," Lucy said with a smile. "It's just weird. He changes into a girl when he gets wet!"

"Not when I get wet, when cold water gets on me," Ranma corrected. Then he gasped in shock as Makarov tossed a bottle of water he pulled from somewhere into his face.

"Wow! You really do change genders!" Makarov shouted as he leaped over, hopping into Ranma's lap and reaching out to touch his chest. "Oh my got they feel real! HAAHAH!"

Twitching Ranma reached up and calmly wiped out at her eyes clearing them from the water. "You know, you're not the first short pervert I've met. That old asshole was incredibly durable, always bouncing back whatever I did to him. Let's see," she said slowly, cracking her knuckles and raising her fist above her head. "If you can say the same!"

Makarov hopped away, and Ranma leaped to her feet to chase after him. But just then the train finally started to move, and Ranma groaned, falling back in her chair and muttering about why the hell it was more painful in his female form. Reaching into her weapon space Ranma pulled out a water bottle of her own. "Thank God I refilled this water bottle when we were waiting for the train," she muttered, heating it up in her hand and then dumping it over her head. Once more a male, Ranma leaned back, glaring angrily around. "Now, where's the pervy-jiji?"

Erza shook her head. "Don't even try it. Not on a moving vehicle, anyway. You'll have to wait until were back in Magnolia to flay master Makarov."

"And you wouldn't have a problem with that?" Lucy asked quickly. "I mean," she stuttered as Erza looked at her. "You are, erm, I mean, you can come off as sort of the guild's rules enforcer. Wouldn't attacking Master Makarov go against the rules?"

"Not when he is literally asking for it by acting like a pervert," Erza said dryly. "Master is known as a bit of a pervert, so whatever you wish to do to him is fine. If you can even catch him, anyway. He's quite fast."

"Whatever," Ranma said, puffing on his pipe again and then pointing at Erza. "So, tell me more about these armors you use. I've only seen you in a few so far. But you said you have hundreds of them?"

"I think you're fishing for information before our match," Erza said with a laugh. "But very well, I'll humor you so long as you have any exact questions and answer mine in turn."

Ranma did, and the conversation moved on from there. Lucy soon became quite lost and turned her attention to the latest Sorcerer Magazine. Surprisingly, Gray began to talk to her about it. Despite the fact that he stripped so often, Gray did actually have a mind for fashion. Elfman, in contrast, pulled out a magazine called Muscles Weekly and began to read it.

Thankfully, for his own safety and for Ranma's state of mind, Makarov made no sign of coming back anytime soon. He was, in fact, nearby, but hiding his presence somewhat, watching Ranma and thinking deeply about what he had seen of Laxus's old friend and what he had been told about him over the years too.

As the conversation continued, Ranma began to realize why Erza was thought of as one of the strongest woman in the Magic Kingdom. Beyond what he had seen, it was the sheer number of different styles that she already knew. Her spear style, swords style, sword and shield style, telekinesis, and even the number of armors. Ranma had sort of dismissed Requip as an offensive style magic, but between his earlier conversation with Erza and this one, he was being forced to rethink that idea. He was still a little concerned because a lot of her abilities seem to come from her various outfits, but being able to use them at all was impressive to the extreme.

For her part, Erza was eagerly asking Ranma as many questions as she could possibly think of about the number of styles he knew and understood. The breadth of his knowledge was frankly astonishing. Ranma knew the names of and could describe the differences between one style and the next to an astonishing degree. She found herself looking forward very much to crossing swords with him, and now understood why his semi-friendship with Laxus had forced Laxus to push himself as hard as it had.

Eventually the conversation petered out, with Erza refusing to give Ranma any more information and vice versa. By mutual consent they agreed to stop asking one another questions until their match, and Ranma leaned back, closing his eyes and puffing on his pipe until he slowly fell into an uneasy sleep as the others, minus the pipe, of course, did the same.

 **OOOOOOO**

The wait for the trains to actually start working was not the only problem they faced on their trip back to Magnolia. They had to change trains at Oshibana, the town where Ranma and the others had fought Eisenwald. A large portion of the train rails by the station where they fought had been badly damaged by the same spell of Erigor's which had destroyed the station. Trains were getting by this by having people and cargo unload from one side of the damage and then getting on a train on the other side. But without the train station and its equipment, this was slow going, on top of which Ranma and the rest had to wait for a passenger train to arrive to take them the rest of the way.

During this enforced layover, the others decided to see if they could find a bar that was still open and get some food or, in Makarov's case, booze. Ranma bowed out, saying he wanted to get some more sleep, though, given the wink Erza gave him, that cover story evidently didn't fly with her.

Leaping up to the top of a nearby building, Ranma made certain there were no windows open nearby or any other way someone could overhear before he sat down, leaning against a small shed set on top of the roof. Pricking his finger, he smeared the blood into the recessed area on his broach, activating it, the glow of the lacrima lighting his face eerily in the moonlight.

A moment later, the King of Fiore, Toma E. Fiore appeared. He was an older man of Vicotronious' generation, but with none of the Pergrandian's intensity to offset his age. Instead, Ranma had, in their few interactions, found him mostly laid back and rather standoffish. Toma had always given Ranma the impression that he simply let the Magic Council act on its own to control his country's mage population, while he concentrated on the normal, civilian side of things. On top of that, Ranma had been surprised to find he actually ran a decent espionage force, though he had refused to give Ranma the means to contact them when Ranma followed Eisenwald back into Fiore. Because of all these mixed signals, Ranma wasn't certain what to think of the man.

"Ranger Oceana, do you have any idea what time it is?" the man groused. He had white hair in a very simple cut, parted in the middle, with a fat, flat nose and deep-set eyes, which Ranma knew were brown, having seen his image before this. Since Toma always had the image just show his face, that was all Ranma could see of the man.

"I know it's about three in the morning or so here, so however you cut it, it's too late or too early. But I figured I'd give you a heads up to pass on to Rose about how my hunt for Eisenwald went," Ranma replied with an overdone shrug, so that the man on the other size of the communication could see it.

Toma's image twitched visibly at how Ranma addressed Queen Rose Bosciona by her first name, but he didn't comment, having run into Ranma's irreverent attitude before this. Instead he just nodded. "I got a very garbled report of some kind of demon sighting a few hours ago, so I can understand the urgency, at least. What happened? Were there any casualties? Is the demon still free somewhere? Will you need backup?"

"No, the hunt's over with. The demon's dead, and all the Eisenwald mages are in custody with the local Rune Knights, who, by the way, were utterly pathetic. I don't know what kind of training they were given, but it kind of sucks," Ranma replied. "Let me start from the beginning…"

From there Ranma started his tale, describing the ups and downs of his mission from the moment he crossed into Fiore. He was blunt about it, not trying to hide the number of mistakes he had made, making it clear that the Fairy Tail mages had been a major help from beginning to end. He then told Toma about his fight with Lullaby, not mentioning his Devil Slayer magic or Seilah. For one, Ranma knew he couldn't talk about that fight without blushing and stuttering, given how it ended, and for another, Ranma was still uncertain what to think about that confrontation at all.

Throughout Ranma's report Toma remained quiet, simply listening, his eyes glinting and a smile on his face at the descriptions of the fighting. It was evident to Ranma that the king liked those parts best for some reason. When Ranma finished the report, he nodded rapidly. "Amazing. And you're right, Fairy Tail seems to have helped you save the day. There's a reason why they are known as one of the best guilds in my country, after all," he said, ending with a bellowing laugh.

Then he seemed to become serious for a moment, staring at Ranma thoughtfully. "You have quickly become known as the best Ranger to deal with magical issues of all sorts, but how are you with dealing with paperwork and investigations?"

"Um… I'm very good at sneaking around and decent at lock-picking, but paperwork is a bit of a mystery for me. I can investigate the physical side of things easily, put not the paperwork side. Why? I mean, ain't there another Ranger who specializes in that? Jardan, right? He's supposed to be a wizard at it," Ranma said, frowning.

That was a bit of an understatement, actually. Four of the kings Ranma had talked to had commented on the fact that Jardan was to numbers and accounting what Ranma was to magic and martial arts: a type of savant who could see patterns in things that others couldn't. The man was not a mage by any means and apparently would be useless in a fight, but he was able to ferret out secrets in numbers that would have taken entire companies of clerks to find in half the time.

"Indeed, hence my question. You see, your own report about the faulty and low-grade lacrima being sold through the auspices of my Magic Council reached me, and I asked Jardan to start looking into it and other things: little, minor mysteries that have impacted trade here and there throughout Fiore. Taken as single incidents they were nothing to worry about, but Jardan has seen a pattern, and one which is rather worrying due to the size of it," Toma replied, his image leaning back, his good humor now entirely gone. "Something is going on, either incompetence on a massive scale, which I cannot abide, or something else."

Ranma nodded slowly, not commenting. Frankly he had a lot of problems already with the way the Magic Council ran things and had the files to prove that there was something going on with them already beyond some kind of money laundering or whatever Toma was talking about. The King of Seven wasn't the only one who was unhappy with the trend they had seen in how the Magic Council did things, specifically with how they dealt with Dark Guilds. Indeed, he had folders from Seven, Bosco, Caelum, and even Minstrel on that score which he had been collecting for years. _Like Toma said, taken as single events none of them would really matter, but there's a definite pattern there once you look._

"So, what do you want from me?" he asked instead.

"I will send you the pertinent information. I take it you are going back to Magnolia?" When Ranma nodded, Toma smiled before going on more hesitantly. "It should be waiting for you when you get there. I'd like a mage's opinion on it. And if you think there is something there, I would like you to investigate my Magic Council for me. I really would prefer not to take this step, but this issue seems too large for me to ignore, especially given there have been actual deaths involved."

"Understood. Don't know how good I'll be in that kind of Investigation, but I'll see what I can do," Ranma replied.

"Good. The information will be held at the train station in Magnolia for you under your name of Oceana, and it will come from 'merchant Hisui,' that's my daughter's name. Read through it, then do whatever you think necessary, Ranger. That is, after all, why you Rangers were created in the first place." Without another word Toma ended the communication spell on his end, leaving Ranma in the dark of the night once more.

True to the king's word, by the time Ranma arrived back in Magnolia there was indeed a series of blue folders in a binder waiting for him under a seal which he had to remove before he could open them. Since it was morning, and he had been away nearly an entire day, Ranma put looking at them off, worried about having left Wendy 'alone' for so long. "This is the longest time I've ever been away from her since I found her. I just hope she's not weepy or depressed. I can't stand it when Wendy's depressed," he confided to the others after supposedly coming back from a trip to the bathroom, where he had picked up the folders, hidden now in his Requip space.

"Hopefully they'll be at the Guild," Erza said, patting him on the shoulder. "And don't worry about Wendy. I'm certain Mira and the others will have watched over her. She should have spent the night up in Fairy Hills with the other girls. Don't worry, I'm sure nothing has happened to her."

"Meh. I'm not worried so much about anything physical having happened to her," Ranma said with a smile. "She's a tough little cookie, despite the fact that she doesn't like to show off. And I doubt that Mira or any of the others would let anything come on. Nah, I'm worried about how she's taking having been left behind for so long."

"And whether or not she'll force you to do something to make up for it, even more so than what she already wrangled out of you before we left, is also a consideration," Erza replied dryly.

"That too," Ranma replied with a sigh.

Ranma needn't have worried. While Wendy had, of course, missed him, she had greatly enjoyed her time around girls. Despite having spent a night away from snuggling with Ranma, she was in a cheerful upbeat mood when she spotted him and the others from where she and Carla were flying above Magnolia. "Look Carla, there's Ranma-nii!"

"Indeed, I see them, Wendy," the little white cat said from where she was latched to Wendy's back via a strap system she and Ranma had developed, her magic wings flaring out to either side of them. This let her have her paws free, just in case, which, given her ability with the Neko-ken, was no small thing. "Shall we go and greet them?"

"Hehe, Yep! Levy-san, Natsu-san, Mira-san! Follow me! Sky Dragon's Dive Attack!" Wendy shouted, flipping herself and kicking off of the air into a dive downwards towards Ranma. With Carla's wings stabilizing them they zoomed down like a runaway missile. "Raaannmaaa-niiiii!"

Hearing the shout, Ranma looked up, smiling as Wendy slammed into him as Carla expertly let herself out of her harness, hopping to land daintily nearby. Keeping his feet easily, he twirled around, dissipating the impetus of her tackle, his arms going around her in as tight a hug as she was giving him. "Hey, Wendy. Did you have fun?"

"Yep," Wendy chirped. "It was really fun. We went to all these different shops, and I had something called a manicure, though I didn't see any men in there, and then I had a sleep over with Bisca, Cana, and the rest of the girls at Fairy Hills. Bisca-san has all of these animals in her room, and they are so amazingly well trained I was able to hold a bunny in my hands, and it was sooo fluffy!"

Eventually running out of air, Wendy slowed down, smiling brightly up at Ranma. "Did you find that Dark Guild and that flute demon?"

"Yep," Ranma said, making his tone just as upbeat as hers had been.

She pouted at that, but he cocked her head back against his and looked up into the air to see Mira and a girl he hadn't met before flying in. Above them there looked to be some kind of rocket going off or something, but he ignored that for now, concentrating on the two girls.

First to take his attention was Mira. With her magic activated she looked like a cross between a succubus and a lizard of some kind. She had the wings and was wearing an outfit that Ranma thought looked like it came from a succubus. Her outfit looked almost like a swimsuit, with most of her stomach and chest on display while hugging Mira's sides and hiding just enough of her breasts to keep her nipples from view. Her forearms had shifted into those of some kind of demonic creature, becoming larger, scaled, and with sharp claws. Mira's ears had grown somewhat pointy, and a long mark that looked almost like a crack had appeared on her face, running down from right above her left eye and down Mira's cheek, though the eye itself was obviously working. Her hair, too, was sticking straight up for some reason.

 _Huh. That's oddly sexy looking. Hell, it's even more in-your face than the outfit Seilah was wearing._

The girl he hadn't met before wasn't doing her own flying. Instead she was sitting on a cloud and pushing behind her with something else. The cloud was shaped like the words 'solid cloud,' while in her other hand the blue-haired girl was using the word 'wind' to push her along. _And that's an interesting kind of magic there._

Behind him Lucy's voice grabbed Ranma's attention, and he turned his head to look at her as she stared at the girl on the cloud. "Levy-chan! How? That, that's amazing!"

"Wendy helped me figure it out," Levy said with a laugh, hopping off of her cloud and dismissing it with a wave of what looked like some kind of pen. "My magic has always been very adaptable, but I never really thought about how to use it like this!"

"She's good at it too," Mira supplied, clapping the shorter girl on the shoulder, almost sending her stumbling. "She nearly kept up with me and Wendy this morning when we were racing along. What took you guys so long, anyway?" she asked, looking first at Ranma then at Erza, her look changing to a challenging one. "What's the matter, Red? You have trouble keeping up or something?"

Knowing that Mira was always more combative once she had called on her Demon Soul powers, Erza did not take offense as she would have years ago to that comment. Instead she simply shook her head. "Not at all. The fight, however, damaged the train tracks quite a bit, so we had some trouble getting back."

"I could've just run it, but no, I had to stay with the group…" Ranma said jokingly, pushing at Erza's armor clad shoulder. She pushed back with a laugh, and the two of them grinned at one another. During their discussion the two of them had found in one another kindred souls of a sort, combat junkies who strove to be the best they could be.

Looking at this, Mira frowned. She really didn't want Erza to make a claim on the new guy, but it wasn't like she could do that either just yet.

Ranma, however, turned back to look at Levy. "So, Levy, right? What is your magic?"

"Solid Script," Levy replied. "I can write out elements like this or anything else, and the word, or name, will be made of that element. Like the 'wind' word I was using to push myself along."

Ranma stared at her, his mouth agape. "You are, like, the most **perfect** support mage ever for a Dragon Slayer. Like, seriously. Please tell me you've teamed up at least occasionally with Laxus and Natsu?"

"Hehe. Well, um, I've gone on a few jobs with both of them, but neither of them have made any attempt to team up with me permanently," Levy said bashfully, looking at the ground for a moment. "I'm not a real fighter, so I tend to work on other kinds of jobs with my own teammates. We're called Team Shadow Gear."

"Ano, Ranma-nii… Um, speaking of other Dragon Slayers," Wendy said, leaning back off of Ranma's shoulder, almost hanging onto his waist by her legs as she poked her fingers together. "I, um, have to apologize for something. See, Natsu was really bothering me about fighting him, even after he promised not to! So I, I told him that he could fight you whenever he wanted."

Ranma simply shrugged. "Okay, fine. I'd like to see what this other Dragon Slayer has to offer anyway." _Besides, being attacked every time, hell, that sounds just like being back in my old world. And maybe this time I'll actually have some fun. Plus, Natsu doesn't sound like the type to hold a grudge after I beat him._

"Um, well, then you might want to get ready!" With that Wendy leaped away, hurrying to put Erza between her and where Ranma was standing, which Carla had already done.

Ranma turned and looked up at that, watching as Natsu zoomed down with a trail of fire coming from his feet, a blue-furred Exceed Ranma hadn't seen before clinging to his back, his wings out and directing them. "Yahoo! Ranma, fight me!" Natsu bellowed at the top of his lungs as he zoomed downward. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Ranma swiftly dodged a bit to one side while conjuring up his water magic powers around his hand. As Natsu flew past where Ranma had been standing, Ranma grabbed Natsu's arm with the hand covered in water. In a welter of steam, that water spread to engulf Natsu entire arm, dousing his flame. Before Natsu could realize what had happened, Ranma had twirled around, hurling him into the ground.

Having hopped away at the last minute, Happy stared between Ranma and Natsu, shaking his head. "Our ninja assault failed, Natsu. We need to retreat and come up with another plan, nin-nin!"

"They were playing sky ninja for some reason," Wendy whispered from where she was still hiding behind Erza. This was a good thing, since Natsu's impact with the road had thrown up chunks of the cobblestones, which Erza, Elfman, and Mira blocked or caught, protecting the other girls.

Gray simply ignored them, being too far away from the point of impact to be hit. Now he shook his head. "Damn, Ash-for-brains, I knew you were weak, but that was freaking sad!"

"Shut up, Icicle Prick!" Pushing himself to his feet, Natsu glared down at his arm and ignited it again despite it still being wet from the water. "No amount of water is going to douse my flames!"

"We'll just see about that," Ranma replied with a smirk.

"Right!" Natsu bellowed, charging forward.

This time Ranma leaped up over him, smacking his hands down onto the back of Natsu's head. This caused him to stumble forward to where he slammed into Erza, face to armored chest.

"Natsu," she growled angrily. "What are the rules about starting fights around the city!? That's what we have sparring areas for back in the Guild!" Before Natsu could back away, Erza kicked him hard in the stomach, sending him flying over the rooftops.

"Not bad distance," Ranma said professionally. "You could've put a little more power into it; you didn't wind up enough. I'd give you a seven out of ten."

Erza huffed irritably at that, showing no sign of thinking it strange to give points about such things. "I promise I'll do better next time."

"Maybe we could make a game of it," Gray said, smirking. "Punt-the-flame-brain."

"You say that as if you're able to do it at all," Mira said dryly. "Isn't he ahead of you in your fights, nineteen to eighteen?"

"Hah! You're wrong, Mira! It's the other way around!" Gray crowed.

Erza and Elfman, however, both took the wind out of his sails quickly. "No, she's right. It's nineteen to eighteen in Natsu's favor, at least. It might be more like twenty-one to sixteen."

"No way!" Gray shouted, stripping suddenly, flinging his clothes in every direction. "I'm at least closer to tying with the flame freak!"

"Kyaah!" Wendy shouted, twisting away and burying her head into Lucy's waist.

"Damn it, Gray! What did I tell you I'd do if you stripped in front of Wendy-chan!" Ranma bellowed, lashing out now with his own kick. It caught Gray in the center of the chest, hurling him up an out of sight into the sky. Turning back to Erza, Ranma winked. "See, that's how you do it."

"I see…" Erza said with a nod, looking as if she was taking notes mentally. "The wind up is more important than I realized when you want to get distance rather than injure."

"Exactly. It's an entirely different style, you see…" Ranma began, moving down the street as Mira led the way back to the Guild Hall.

To Ranma's mild amusement he had to come back to the score he had given to Erza when they came within sight of the massive Guild Hall. Because in front of them stood Natsu, standing right in front of a small crater he must have made when he landed. "Hmm… Did you really intend to have him land right by your Guild Hall?"

"Yes," Erza replied, keeping her face almost expressionless as she responded.

"Realllly?" Ranma asked, leaning in close and looking at Erza with some skepticism.

"Yes, really. I wouldn't lie about something like that," Erza replied, pushing him away and twisting to one side.

"Huh. Well, okay, then. I'll up your score to an eight out of ten. That's pretty decent distance and aim…for an amateur, anyway," Ranma said, a grin spreading across his features.

Erza reared back, her expression shifting into one of affronted pride. "Who are you calling amateur!"

In reply Ranma simply smirked, pointing ahead and to one side of where Natsu was still standing, now glaring at them for having stopped so far away but not moving to attack again. "One, two, three…"

As Ranma hit three, Gray appeared, falling with a crash into the street. "Amateur, see? Gray, you better have found some shorts or something or I'll go through with my threat from the train!"

"Gah!" Gray shouted, leaping up from where he had crashed and rushing inside the Guild Hall before the dust of his impact had settled.

"Hmmpf. That… Very well. It seems at least in that specific area I have much to learn," Erza muttered. Even Mira nodded agreement with that, and the group continued to walk toward the entrance to the Guild Hall.

"Hahah! That's what you get, Stripper!" Natsu shouted, laughing at his rival before turning back to Ranma and the others. "Now, come on! Water Dragon Slayer!" he bellowed with a grin. "Fight me! Let's find out what's really stronger, fire or water!"

But before Natsu could launch himself forward, Gray came back out, once more dressed. He stripped so often the Strauss twins kept five different sets of clothing for Gray at the bar. "Hey, I think Ranma showed pretty well which would win when you attacked a few minutes ago, Pinky! And besides, I've got dibs after Erza! You'll just have to wait your turn."

"So if I beat you, Stripper, I can take your spot, right! Sounds like a plan," Natsu shot back before slamming his forehead into Gray's as the two began to grapple with one another.

As the two forgot about the rest of them, Ranma shook his head. "Does this happen often?"

"More often than I care to think about," Mira said with a sigh, which was shared by every other girl in sight. Even Lucy, the newest member of the guild, joined in.

"For today, though," he said with a smile down at Wendy. "I believe I promised I'd buy my little sister here a few things."

At that Wendy smiled widely and looked over to Carla. Carla too nodded and stood back slightly, placing her hands over her chest as she intoned, "Transformation Magic: Human Form." With that Carla's body changed to that of a young girl who looked the same age as Wendy, with white hair. She retained her tail and ears, and her dress had shifted with her, which was part of the spell.

Lisanna chuckled, having seen this form the evening before along with the others, while nearby, Happy seemed to pout, looking away. "That is so strange. I doubt I'll ever get used to it. I mean, you're very pretty, Carla, but I never would have guessed you could develop that kind of ability."

"Nor I, to be honest. But Ranma, despite being a bore, lout, and all around buffoon at times, was also an excellent teacher," Carla replied, her now human mouth twisting into a scowl, as if praising Ranma physically hurt. She looked over at Happy's expression and smiled thinly. _I should have done this sooner, but it still is not quite second nature to me just yet. Very fun, though, and I hope it will keep Happy from chasing after me._

Carla linked an arm with Wendy, the two of them now looking almost like siblings despite Carla's ears and tail. She turned her attention back to Ranma as Wendy reached up to take her older brother's hands. "Come, I know just the place. Mira-san and the others showed us both around, and now we can do the same with you."

However, before the two Dragon Slayer siblings and Carla could get away, they were interrupted by Natsu, who had smashed back into the Guild Hall. "Oh no you don't! You're not leaving until I get my fight!"

Ranma groaned, but pushed Wendy away lightly and stood there on the road, facing Natsu and making a come hither gesture with one hand. "Well then, come on. Let's get this over with."

At this point Makarov intervened. Having gone ahead while the others waited for Ranma to come back from the bathroom at the station, he had come out of the guild to see what all the fuss was about. Now he thrust out his hand, activating his Titan magic before slamming a gigantic palm between the two of them. "Enough, you two! I won't have mages fighting out in the open! Just think of the repair bills, damn it! No, if you want to fight you'll do it back at the guild's sparring ring."

"Which is what I said earlier, Natsu! You seriously need to start listening more often," Erza said with a huff.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Natsu barked happily.

"Aye, sir!" Happy shouted, landing on Natsu' shoulder.

"Now, wait just a minute! Ranma and I have already agreed to fight one another. You'll just have to wait your turn to challenge our new friend, Natsu," Erza said sternly.

"Bah, I say let 'em go. It isn't like it'll take Ranma long to beat Natsu down, if he's really as strong as Wendy said," Mira retorted. "You'll get your pain fix after that, I'm sure, Red."

While Natsu whined at that, Erza thought about it logically. "Hmm, that is true." She then smirked, moving to clap a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "Just don't forget about our little bet. I'm looking forward to all that free strawberry cake."

"But not our date after I win? I'm hurt," Ranma replied with his own smirk.

"Wait, what?" Mira said, holding up a hand quickly. "What date?"

But Natsu grabbed at Ranma's arm, pulling him along the streets before he could reply. "Never mind that stuff! Let's go!"

Turning, Mira looked at Erza for an explanation, her eyes narrowing.

"Ranma and I have a bet about who will win. My victory will ensure he pays for my strawberry cakes for a month. If he wins, I have agreed to go on a date with him," Erza replied with a very faint blush on her cheeks.

"It sounds like you win either way," Mira groused, seeing the blush and knowing that it meant Erza was interested in Ranma too. _Hmm… So does this mean I need to step up my game, or that he's not interested in me as I had thought?_

With that in mind, Mira sidled up to Ranma, throwing an arm around his shoulder. He didn't object to this, and she smirked internally, sliding a little closer, just enough to press her chest very lightly into his arm. "So," she said coquettishly, "you've already promised Erza a match, and, if you win, you want to go on a date with her? I feel I should be asking for similar treatment~…"

"Erm, well, I can fight you after I'm done with the others, I suppose," Ranma said, making no move to move away or acknowledge the fact that he could feel Mira's breasts against his arm. It wasn't as if it was unpleasant, after all, and if she wanted to flirt with him, that was fine. While he wasn't exactly looking for a relationship, he wasn't blind to the idea of one either, or even just some fun with a girl, regardless of how far it went. "And if ya want a date, well, I suppose I can do that too after our match."

Moments later Ranma and Natsu stared across from one another in the sparring ring. The ring, along with several other training areas, was located in the backyard of the Guild Hall, a large area that stuck out from the rest of the city and was surrounded by a dense forest.

Luckily for everyone involved, it was only midmorning, and most of the guild members hadn't yet shown up for one reason or another, so the onlookers were all able to spread out and get a good view of the fight. The only two who were there were Lisanna and Anna, who joined Happy in holding up tiny 'Go Natsu' signs.

"All right, this match is to knock out or ring out. Beyond that, no blows to the boy bits or eyes and no killing blows. Other than that, go!" Makarov shouted from the sidelines.

At his shout the two Dragon Slayers launched themselves forward, their hands already covered by their magics. When they clashed steam erupted, covering the sparring ring and almost blinding the onlookers as the two slammed their fists into one another.

Ranma had at first thought he'd be able to douse Natsu's flames again just as easily as he had in Natsu's initial attack. But the other Dragon Slayer kept funneling his magical powers into the fire around his arms, keeping them going and steaming away Ranma's water long after a regular flame would have gone out.

 _The boy's got massive magical reserves, at least. Not as large as mine, though_ , Ranma thought, pushing more of his own power into the water. _And his situational awareness needs work._

Indeed, Natsu was concentrating so much on his flames that he didn't notice Ranma's other fist flashing out until it slammed into the side of his head. The blow sent him stumbling backwards, and then he was flung backwards as Ranma's kick caught him in the stomach.

"Decent instincts and magical power, not so much anything else. Ya want to stop now?" Ranma asked.

"Bah! You'll sing a different tune when I burn away your ocean, Oceana!" Natsu shouted. With a growl his arms ignited from elbow to fingertip and his legs did the same from knee down. "Karyu no Tekken (Fire Dragon's Iron Fist)!"

To one side Lucy sidled up to Mira and Erza, who were watching the action and commenting on it to one another. "Erm, do you think they're going to become another Natsu and Gray, and for the same reason? Fire and water don't mix just as much as fire and ice."

"I don't think so," Erza said simply. "While Natsu is a strong mage with an immense amount of potential and heart, I don't believe he has the skills necessary to fight Ranma in a one-on-one just yet."

"That and they don't have the unnecessary baggage weighing them down that Gray and Natsu do," Mira supplied with a smirk, having noticed Gray coming back out of the guild to one side.

"Unnecessary baggage? You mean Natsu and Gray's years of being rivals?" Lucy asked, confused and wondering about the almost dirty look on Mira's face.

"Nope, I mean Gray's unresolved sexual tension towards Natsu," Mira replied with a laugh. "It's the opinion of a few of the girls that he's either completely asexual, having used his Ice magic so often the cold's affected his ability to use his little icicle, or he's gay."

As Lucy blushed and Erza began to shake her head, trying to dispel that image, Mira turned her attention back to the fight. She watched as Ranma ducked under a punch from Natsu, guiding the blow over his head with a flick of his hand, as his other fist pummeled Natsu's chest. _Damn, he is so fast!_

Natsu staggered back slightly, but raised a leg to kick out, which was caught in turn. But before Ranma could take advantage of that, Natsu kicked off the ground with his other leg, throwing that leg around in a kick, forcing Ranma to release Natsu or block the kick with his other hand.

He did, grabbing Natsu's legs in both hands. Swiftly twirling in place, Ranma laughed. "Alleyooop!" With that he let go, and Natsu was flung backwards to slam back into the side of the Guild Hall. He crashed through to the shouts and exclamations of astonishment and anger at the destruction to the guild from the few guild members inside.

Natsu, however, didn't care, grabbing up some of the bits and pieces of the wall and hurling them at Ranma, who shattered them with punches. But this allowed Natsu the time to follow through, shouting out "Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragons Roar)!"

"Soryu no Tsume (Water Dragon's Claws)!" Ranma shouted, smashing his own water claw into the oncoming fireball. Natsu's most powerful attack was engulfed in steam, dissipating well before it could reach Ranma.

But even so, Natsu didn't give up or even slow down. Instead he raced forward, using the steam to close with Ranma. "Karyu no Yokugeki (Fire Dragon's Wing Attack)!"

Again and again they exchange blows, and, again and again, Ranma blocked the fire attacks of his opponent with water. As he did, Ranma analyzed Natsu.

 _Very good strength, nearly up to what I was when I was his age when I arrived in Nerima, though nowhere near where I was when I reached that age this time around. Speed and coordination are both good. Not great, but his style's more static than mine, so that doesn't really matter as much as it would with a more mobile style. And don't get me started on his durability!_

That last thought was tinged with something approaching envy. While Natsu was in no way near to Ranma's own durability, he was far closer than he should have been given the difference in their ages and Ranma's ki reserves. But because his ki and his Dragon Slayer abilities were constantly at odds in that area in particular, Ranma hadn't made nearly as much progress in his durability as he had in his speed or style. The fact that it had taken him so long to realize what was going on galled Ranma at times when he thought of it, and he was no closer to figuring out a solution that would work in actual combat now than he was when he first identified the issue.

Shaking his head at that, Ranma focused once more on his opponent. _He could take most of the mages I've met and Ryoga, maybe even Pantyhose, back in my old world, given his magic. Herb, on the other hand, is probably his better in a lot of ways. He seriously needs training. He's got animal instincts, but he hasn't made the jump from them to combat instincts._

"Which is probably why you're trying fight everyone and their mother," Ranma said aloud, following up on those thoughts as if he'd spoken them all aloud. Natsu paused, frowning at him, and Ranma took advantage of this by pulling on his hands, as they were grappling, throwing Natsu just a little off-balance, enough to get a kick in to hurl Natsu away.

"But just throwing yourself at stronger opponents won't work on its own. You need training, kid," Ranma said, straightening up from his fighting crouch. "You know how to throw a mean punch, but you don't know how to segue from a punch into a kick very well. You don't have much actual style to your assault, just pure instincts and physical ability. Those can only carry you so far, kid."

"I don't need any of that!" Natsu growled. "I just need to challenge strong opponents, and when I beat them I'll get stronger! And stop it with the kid crap! You're not that much older than me!"

 _What do you think you are, a Saiyan?_ Ranma thought, but did not say aloud. "Fine, kid. If you want me to fight you, fine. But once I beat you, you're going to have to do a series of tests before the next time, or else I just won't fight you."

"Grr! Wendy said you would let me, though!" Natsu growled, really irritated that these two weren't following their instincts as Dragon Slayers.

"You can challenge me, you can even throw punches, but I won't fight you," Ranma said flatly. "I'll just let you hit me until you get tired of it." _And if, in this way, I get some durability training, hey, it's all to the good, right?_

Blinking at that, Natsu actually began to scowl before pausing and staring at Ranma's stern features. Nearby Elfman shook his head as Gray and more than a few of the other mages who had begun to gather to watch the fight frowned. "That wouldn't be a very manly way of dealing with a challenge, Ranma."

Ranma shrugged. "Ya want to discourage a combat junky, never give him what he wants."

Indeed, Natsu now looked like a puppy denied a treat. "Fine., what do you mean, a series of tests?"

"I'll tell you after I beat you," Ranma said simply.

"You mean, if you beat me!" Natsu's shouted. His ire and his fires ignited once more. "Karyu no Kagizume! (Fire Dragon's Claw)!" With that Natsu charged forward as if he had just used a rocket under his feet, aiming to slam his equally burning fists into Ranma's body. But Ranma leaped over the blow, coming down with a crescent kick that Natsu was barely able to turn around in time to block.

From there, Ranma began to dodge in the air, lashing out only occasionally as he continued to analyze Natsu's style while giving him some pointers to work on right away. Now that the he knew the level the other Dragon Slayer was at, he had moved from potential friend/rival to young kouhai—junior student—who needed some pointers to take the next step forward.

At one point Natsu thrust out a palm, but instead of dodging Ranma blocked it with his forearm and connected with his own punch that sent Natsu reeling, the magic about his arms guttering out under a new hiss of steam thanks to the water around Ranma's arms. "You telegraph your attacks too much, and they take too much time. Short jabs, controlled movements; none of this wild wailing."

Growling, Natsu called up his magic, but before he could finish his spell, Ranma was in his face, a hard chop coming for his neck, which Natsu barely dodged with a yelp, letting it slam into his shoulder instead. "You take too long to bring up your magic."

This continued for several moments as Ranma went on the attack. He pushed Natsu back and around the sparring ring, the younger Dragon Slayer now utterly unable to regain any of the initiative.

More than half of the guild had arrived at this point and come out to watch the show and most of them were now staring in shock. Yes, they had seen Ranma deal with Natsu earlier but that had been a one-off sucker-punch sort of thing. Whatever else could be said about Natsu, he was one of the best fighters in the guild. To see him being taken apart so easily by this relative stranger was something none of them had anticipated when they came to the guild that day.

Except, that is, for the girls who had seen Wendy fight Natsu the day before and the group who had gone with him against Eisenwald. All of them took it in stride, although Erza was nodding her head sagely at the advice Ranma occasionally shouted out. "I've told them the same things numerous times," she said as an aside to Lucy, who was watching this with her mouth wide open. "Natsu and Gray both telegraph their attacks too much. Natsu also seems to think that volume adds more power to his magic attacks, when all it really does is warn his opponent what he's about to do."

Lucy swallowed involuntarily, knowing that could've just as easily been sent her way when she used her spirits. She tended to shout the orders to them when she really didn't have to. "Oh, heheh. Well, at least that bit's easy to fix, right?"

Back in the fight, Natsu had just been tripped up once more, falling flat on his face as Ranma hopped away. "On the other hand," Ranma said, watching as Natsu once more picked himself up off the floor, "your endurance is pretty decent, at least when it comes to taking punishment. You ever push yourself physically to the limits in terms of endurance, Natsu? Like how far you can run a day or whatever before feeling exhausted?"

"Lots of times," Natsu growled, shooting forward once more. This time, though, he began to show that he had been listening. He wasn't telegraphing his attacks much, and he came in at Ranma in a far more controlled manner.

But when Natsu tried to power up his magic, it still took a lot of time, something that Ranma instantly pointed out while also taking advantage of it. "Don't try to push all of your magical power into each attack!" he growled, slamming a punch into the side of Natsu face, then getting behind him and grabbing him by the back of his vest, hurling him over his shoulder to land face first into the ground.

He tried to get behind Natsu again to lock him in a chokehold, but Natsu rolled, breaking Ranma's grip on the back of his shirt and flinging out a kick that Ranma had to leap over. "Good! You reacted damn well there. Keep it up."

"Is this a spar or a training session?" asked one of the watchers.

"I think it would depend on who you ask, Romeo," Mira said with a laugh. "Ranma sees it as a training session, whereas I think Natsu's just trying to kill him at this point."

Indeed, by this point Natsu was getting frustrated. For a bit he had sort of tried to follow Ranma's advice, but now he was just getting irritated, his inability to really land a punch getting to him once more. "Dammit, stay still!"

"No," Ranma said coldly, irritated at that. "You won't learn anything if I just let you hit me when we're sparring like this."

Watching as Natsu growled incoherently, Ranma shook his head. "You're letting your Dragon Slayer instincts control you," he said before he ducked under a punch instead of using it to take to the air again. An elbow slammed into Natsu's gut, doubling him over, and Ranma then powered up into an upper cut that caught Natsu on the chin, sending him flying backwards.

Before he could land, Ranma had leaped up after him and slammed a punch into the side of his face at Amiguriken speed, accompanied by the sound of a machine gun going off, though, of course, no one in this world would have recognized such. By the time they both hit the ground once more, Natsu was unconscious, his body landing like a sack of flour.

Standing back, Ranma shook his head, looking over at Erza. "He's got fantastic endurance, but his Dragon Slayer instincts sort of bleed over into his combat instincts. He has to separate the two and add a lot more actual style to his repertoire."

"I agree," Erza said, moving over to check Natsu for injuries. Despite the viciousness of that last attack Natsu was only lightly bruised here and there, Ranma having gone very easy on him. "However, how do you differentiate the two? And getting through to Natsu, that has always been the issue."

"Good questions," Ranma mused, tugging at his pigtail thoughtfully.

"What do you want to have him do before you'll accept his next challenge?" Erza asked.

"Control exercises," Ranma stated bluntly. "Not emotional ones—I don't think he'd get very far with those without some kind of example or something. I'll have to think about those more. But you saw him take so much time between attacks, right? He needs to learn how to push just enough magic into his attacks so that he can call them up quicker."

"That's one of the reasons why no one has nominated him for the S class trials yet," Mira supplied, moving over to join the two of them as Lisanna and Anna moved to Natsu. "He's got fantastic endurance, great magical potential and ability, but not enough adaptability. He's also not exactly a thinker, and a lot of times on S class missions you run into things where you need to think through a solution."

"I can't help, teaching him how to think things through," Ranma said with a laugh. "That took me a long time myself. But the rest, I think I can help them if he wants it. **And** if he works at it. If he just turns around and keeps on trying to fight me even after agreeing to my terms, I'm not going to put up with it."

"Don't be too hard on Natsu," Erza said, watching the Strauss twins pulling Natsu to his feet, their arms wrapped around his middle. "Despite his combative tendencies, Natsu's one of the best friends anyone could have, and there's no one I'd rather have my back in a life or death fight, even Laxus."

"I can see that, I suppose," Ranma said. "Still, it wouldn't hurt him to broaden his horizons away from Dragon Slayer magic and into some actual combat styles."

Wendy giggled and said happily, "That's a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it, Onii-chan? You are kind of combat mad."

"Guilty as charged, I suppose, little person," Ranma said, winking at her. "Now, I think we were about to go and do something, right?"

Just then however, their conversation was interrupted by a shout from nearby. "Erza Scarlett! By order of the Magic Council you will come with me."

Everyone there turned in the direction of a small pathway leading around the Guild Hall from where the shout originated. There they saw a short frog-man standing at the head of two columns of Rune Knights, bunched together too much to look really intimidating, but still a presence at his back.

At this sight Wendy shivered and rushed to hide behind Bisca, who was the nearest one to her. "What's the matter, honey?" she asked, looking down at the young girl quizzically.

Carla spoke up for the gagging Wendy, moving over to join the two of them from where she had been speaking to Levy. "Ranma made a meal with frog's legs once, and it was rather disgusting, even for me. It was worse than the times we had to eat lizards when we were traveling through Desierto. Wendy nearly gagged on the smell alone."

"Really," Bisca said with a smile on her face as she ruffled Wendy's hair, deciding to poke fun at the little girl for a second as the others moved into more comfortable talking distance with the frog-man. "Isn't that a bit like cannibalism, a Dragon Slayer eating lizards?"

Wendy pouted at that so adorably it was all Bisca could do not to pick her up and squeal at how cute she was. "No! I might be a Dragon Slayer, but that doesn't make me a dragon myself. And some lizards are kind of tasty if you get the right spices. But nothing could make me ever want to eat frog legs again!"

The frog man coughed, having overheard them and looking a little bit irritated and dyspeptic. He had also fallen silent, however, until the others were close enough to have a conversation without shouting.

"I am Erza Scarlett," Erza said before he could say anything. "What does the Magic Council want with me?"

The frog-man recovered himself and nodded at her abruptly. "You are under arrest for the destruction of Oshibana station as well as damage to one of the nation's trains. You will come with me to the Magic Council's Tower of Knowledge where they will question you on the matter personally. If found guilty you will be imprisoned for willful misuse of magic."

As the rest of the gathered guild roared in anger at that, Erza took the news stoically. "Very well. Give me a moment before…"

But she in turn was stopped by voice. "Yeah, how about no," Ranma said, stepping forward from where he had been walking beside her and Mira. "That's just pathetic and stupid. For one thing, Erza's magic is well known and certainly wasn't part of how the train station was destroyed. You already have the culprit for that. For another, the destruction to the train wasn't much, and that was me and Lucy."

"Don't get me involved in this!" Lucy screamed, trying to hide behind the larger Cana, who was actually the tallest girl in the guild. Cana giggled at that, but didn't make any move to try to get away as Lucy pressed up against her from behind, trying to hide her face in Cana's hair.

"Be that as it may, Erza Scarlett, as leader of this group, will be brought in for questioning," the frog man said sternly.

"And I'm saying no. That's just not going to happen, frog guy," Ranma replied, now within arm's reach.

"It is an order from the Magic Council," the frog said angrily, gesturing to the Rune knights behind him. "Who are you to deny them?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ranma said, moving over and touching his broach for a moment, allowing it to appear. "You know what this is?"

The frog's eyes widened in astonishment. Of course he did. **Every** government official throughout Ishgar knew with those marks meant. Most of them would never have seen them except when they were informed about them, but they were still part of every government official's education. He nodded. "I, I… Yes, I…"

"Good," Ranma said with a thin smile, keeping his voice down and indicating with one hand that the frog-man should do the same. _Damn, it seems as if lady luck has actually worked in my favor this one time._ "In that case you know that unless your orders come from King Toma Fiore, mine supersede any others. Which means I can countermand them," Ranma went on in a low voice as he waved the Fairy Tail Guild away.

The frog-man gulped at that, images of what would happen to him if he came back empty handed going through his mind. "But, but I can't…"

"You can," Ranma said grimly, reaching for and grabbing the frog man's shoulder, "or I can contact Toma personally right here and now and get him to agree to it. Will you argue with him in person?"

The frog man gulped, then shook his head. "What would you have me do, Ranger?"

"You were told to bring in someone for questioning by the Magic Council. So, you're going to take me to them. And if you try to warn them I'm coming, it will go very poorly for you," Ranma said, working out a plan as he went along.

"But they're expecting Erza Scarlett!" the frog-man said, trying to make his tone more helpful than confrontational, understanding now what Ranma had in mind, at least in general terms. "The moment they don't see her and see you instead, they'll know that something is wrong."

"Don't worry about that," Ranma said with a laugh. "I'll figure something out there. Now, go back your troops and tell them what's happening, and I'll meet you by your carriage or whatever in a second."

"…Very well," the frog-man said with a sigh.

As the frog-man ordered his knights back out to the main road, Ranma returned to the others, and Erza immediately began to remonstrate with him. "Ranma, you can't just…"

"Stop," Ranma ordered, holding up a hand and glaring at her, leaning in to whisper so only she and Mira, who was the next nearest, could listen. "What part of my occupation did you not understand? I don't answer to your Magic Council, and I barely have to follow Fiore's laws at all. Besides, I'm sort of using this to follow up on something I was told last night when I checked in. It's called killing two birds with one stone, Erza. Go with it."

"Nonetheless, I don't think you should have been so confrontational with them."

"Really?" Ranma said with a laugh. "If you think of that as confrontational, you really don't want to be there when I meet the council."

"So…" Natsu said, having recovered and having made his way over quickly after learning what was going on. "You're not going to get arrested and neither is Erza? I want to be clear on this. Because, let me tell you, fighting the entire Magic Council sounds like a hell of a lot of fun, and if we have to it to defend our family, we'll do it!"

"It does sound fun, doesn't it," Ranma said with a grin, holding out his fist to the other boy who gleefully slammed his own into it. "Unfortunately, that's not in the cards just yet. Although if it does get to that point I'll keep your name in mind."

Makarov, however, was much more serious when he came over to them. "Boy, do you know what you've done! You've denied the Magic Council. And in my Guild Hall! Or right outside my Guild Hall, which amounts to the same thing. They'll think I'm in cahoots with it whatever you do."

"No, they won't," Ranma said, looking over at Erza and Mira. "After I'm gone, tell him, okay? Right now I need to get ready to go. Besides, their calling in Erza Scarlett has nothing to do with questioning her about the fight against Eisenwald. It's all about them trying to flex their nonexistent muscle, trying to show that they're on the ball or whatever. It's stupid, and I'm not going to put up with it. Erza had nothing to do with that destruction. She followed my orders on this mission, and she's too damn good a mage to be blamed for something that was not her fault."

"You just be careful, okay? If the Magic Council doesn't recognize your authority they might try to throw you in jail," Mira said seriously, scowling somewhat at the way Era had flushed just a little bit at Ranma's words.

"Then they'll be very disappointed in the outcome," Ranma said simply, patting her on the back and then looking over at Erza. "However, I will sort of need to be in disguise for this. So can you help me be Erza Scarlett for a bit?"

Erza smiled at that, and her eyes were twinkling. "I can help you with that, I think. Although, I would like you to take a recording device along if possible. While you're right, I probably shouldn't be there for your conference with the Council, a few of their reactions in particular might interest me."

"Recording device, got it," Ranma replied with a smirk. "Now, I need some of your armor and maybe some of your chest straps."

"How do you know I wear chest straps, Ranma?" Erza said, holding her arms up over her chest even as she turned away to lead the way into the Guild Hall.

"The way you move in that armor," Ranma replied with a faint smile. "How about your hair? Do you do anything with it beyond the obvious? I mean, it's amazing way you have it, but do you ever put it into a ponytail like I do, or do I need to figure out some way of making my hair longer?"

Flushing once more at Ranma's praise, Erza shook her head. "I think you can get away with just having it short, but it will have to be loose. And you'll need contacts for your eyes," Erza went on as she led the way to the women's room.

"I have some. This won't be the first time I've had to go undercover," Ranma said with a chuckle. "Impersonating a specific person isn't something I've done before, but it shouldn't be all that difficult." With that he dumped a bottle of cold water all over his head before following Erza into the girls room, ignoring the shouts of shocked surprise from the onlookers. "Now, come on. Let's make me pretty!"

Erza laughed at that, than followed the other redhead willingly into the girls' room. Soon afterward, Ranma was in one of the bathroom stalls as Erza handed the shorter redhead her normal chest plate. "I still don't know why you don't want my help to put it all on."

"I might look like a girl, but I'm a guy up in my head, Erza. You want a guy you've known for less than two days to see what you have underneath your armor?" Ranma asked, pulling off her shirt and putting on a chest wrap.

"A blouse and my wraps?" Erza asked, her brow furrowing. She then heard a grunt and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought we were the same size up top. Turns out, not so much," Ranma muttered, her face a blush as she pushed both her hands up into the chest cavity. _Damn, she's got at least a full size on me, and that's with wrapping them up!_ "I'm going to have to stuff a bit."

After dressing in much the same outfit Erza was wearing, Ranma exited the stall. She put her hands on her hips and smirked at Erza. "Well, what do you think?"

"I think you might want to bring some high heels or something similar. You are at least three inches shorter than me," Erza replied dryly. "Now, let's work on that makeup of yours. Meanwhile, you can tell me why you want to beard the council in its lair."

A few minutes of humiliation later—Ranma had never worn rouge or lipstick, which Erza did in very tiny amounts—the two redheads walked out to shouts of shock and fear. "Oh my God, there's two of them!" seemed to be the consensus of the majority of the guild, while more than one man was just staring and blushing.

"Wow, that's really weird," Natsu said bluntly. "That curse is odd on its own, but seeing you dress up like Erza makes it even worse. It's like she somehow summoned a slightly shorter version of herself." The Fire Dragon Slayer's eyes widened. "You're not going to help her enforce the rules or anything, are you!?"

"Not at all. I'm not exactly much for rules most of the time. Not even the rules of physics," Ranma replied, smirking at her own little joke. "Still, if I get this reaction from you lot, that means I can probably trick anyone else I run into on this trip."

As she moved toward the waiting frog-man, who had come into the guild as Ranma was getting changed, Wendy raced over to Ranma, taking her hand in both of hers. "No way are you leaving me behind, Onii-chan, not again. There won't be any big demon on this trip, after all."

"But Wendy, this is going to be a really boring job, you know. I'm going to be stuck in meetings the instant we get there for hours on end. Surely you'd like to stay here with Carla and our new friends?"

"We'd love to have you and Carla here," Mira supplied, followed by nods of agreement from most of the nearby guild members. The only one who wasn't nodding was Makarov, who was looking at Erza quizzically, wondering how the heck Ranma had talked her into going along with this ruse.

"Nope. I don't want to be left behind again!" Wendy growled, which from her came out as somewhat out of character, but there was no denying the stubbornness in her eyes.

"Well, I hope you brought a magic light and some coloring books, or else this is going to be a very boring trip for you," Ranma said with a sigh, leaning down and giving her a kiss on her forehead. "I've got a lot of reading on my own to do."

"Best to hide her in the carriage's trunk for the trip," the frog-man said tiredly. "Several of the Councilmen have farseeing lacrima that they could use to check up on our progress back to Crocus."

"What about you, Carla?" Ranma asked, looking over to the Exceed, who was still in her human form.

"I think not. This sounds like a political job, and I would rather not have to deal with that. The last time we had to, there was that mad court wizard who wished to dissect me, remember?" Carla said, growling at the memory. "Besides, this way I can stay to find us an apartment or house to live in while we stay in Magnolia. I presume we are still planning to do so for a time?"

Nodding at that, Ranma sighed. "You sure you still want to do this, Wendy? Carla's right, this is just me putting the fear of their king into them. No fighting, nothing really interesting."

"I'm sure, Onii-chan," Wendy said firmly. "You left me behind on that last job; you're not doing it again, even if Carla stays. I don't want you to get into that kind of bad habit."

Nodding at that, Ranma turned to the Fairy Tail mages, smirking at them all. He'd enjoyed his time around the guild to this point and hoped to return after this…well, he wasn't certain what to call this. Personal quest? Mission? Lucky break? Whatever it was, he was looking forward to once again pointing out to government officials that they were idiots. "We'll be back in a few days, and I hope you're around for our match, Erza, as well as Laxus. Where the heck is Sparky, anyway?"

"He took an S-class mission tracking down some kind of underground monster that was digging under towns and train tracks out there," Makarov supplied, still looking at the boy-turned-girl and Erza quizzically.

"Feh. Oh well, I'll meet up with him eventually, I guess."

OOOOOO

"GRAAAHAHH!" Laxus roared, bringing his hands forward and down, lashing out with dozens of interconnected lightning bolts that slammed out from him in a wave. He was aiming them towards what looked like seven oddly shaped holes in the ground. Each hole was about the size of a normal human being in diameter and was very deep at the same time. Around him were the ruined fields of several farms as well as a road.

Out of one of the holes burst a worm-like creature the same general size of the hole in width but far, far longer. Its head was full of jagged, serrated teeth like those of an eel, and it had what looked like frills going down its sides, which thrust upward, firing off long spines like spears the instant it exited the ground.

Dodging around these spears, Laxus watched as the thing smashed back down into the ground. Behind it three more popped up out of holes, with only one of them being hit by his lightning assault. It shrieked and fell back into its hole, blocking it. Yet at the same time more of the monsters burst out of the ground, smashing two nearby farmhouses and doing further damage to the road.

"Hahahah!" Laxus laughed, actually enjoying this mission. It had been almost a year since he had a mission where he could just let loose like this. "It's like playing whack-a-mole with a mole that's trying to hit back! Hahahahah!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Standing in a window and staring over at the entrance to the Magic Council's office, Jellal, or Seigrain as he was called in this iteration, smiled thinly, seeing the carriage and the frog-man they had sent to Fairy Tail returning. He continued to watch as Erza Scarlett got out of the coach and calmly entered the building, her manner as regal and untouchable as a knight. "There she is, standing proud and tall. It's time once more to put some real fear into her, I think. Time to make that stiff back bow."

"The way you talk to yourself like that as if I'm not even in the room is a little irritating," Ultear said bluntly as she turned away. "And I still don't understand your obsession with Scarlet at all. Still, I suppose we all need our hobbies. Let's just get this over with quickly, though, so we can go on to more important things.

Jellal smirked and made to follow, but paused, turning back to stare out the window once more as Erza reached the front door. "Strange, I thought she was taller than that."

 **OOOOOOO**

Just as she was entering the foyer, Ranma stopped, biting back a sneeze as she felt a felt a shudder go down her back. _Weird, okay so the sneeze is a sign someone just made a crack about my size, the nose twitching with the sneeze told me that. But what the heck caused the shudder? That wasn't a someone just declared me their love or love rival, those shivers start at the base of the neck and the small of my back. Ugh, a whole new type of shudder, joy._

"Lady Scarlet, the jails are this way."

Ranma ignored the guard who had just spoken, moving deeper into the tower. At the same time he looked over to where the carriage was being driven around the edge of the tower to the back. She saw Wendy poke her head up into the back window, waving at her. Ranma smiled back briefly, then kept going, following the directions the frog-man had given her.

"Miss Scarlet, wait. Miss, I said wait. Wait, damn it!" When she reached the staircase leading upwards, the guard who had tried to direct her grabbed at Ranma's arm, but Ranma twisted just enough for the attempt to miss. An instant later the guard lost his balance and fell on his rear, causing his armor to clang.

Moving up the stairs Ranma was faced with several more guards, but she ignored them, ducking and dodging around them, making the heavily armored and armed knights look like idiots. She didn't hurt or even strike them—what would be the point?—but she left more than a dozen bruised egos and bodies in her wake despite that.

Eventually Ranma reached the door that the frog-man had said led into the conference room. There two more guards stood, their polearms crossed in front of the door. When they saw Ranma coming toward them, one shouted, "Halt! No one may enter here except those commanded to by the council."

"Wrong!" Ranma said cheerfully, stepping forward towards them at a brisk pace. The two guards attempted to bring their polearms to bear on the redhead, but she danced between them. Ranma's hands flashed out viper-quick, grabbing the polearms and pulling the two guards off-balance so they crashed to the floor behind her. Before they could think of getting to their feet, Ranma reached the door and smashed it open with a kick.

Within the room was an oval table set sideways in relation to the door. On the other side of it sat several old men of various looks and ages, the oddest looking of which was an extremely short old man with a face that looked almost like a rounded square to his almost rectangular face and amazing eyebrows. A young looking blue-haired man with a weird tattoo on his face who looked a few years older than Ranma and a beautiful black-haired woman of a similar age were the only ones there who looked younger than their sixties. Ranma felt her eyes drawn to that girl, who was looking back at her, not with the shock or rage the others were showing, nor even the trepidation of the square-jawed old man with the amazing eyebrows. No, she was looking on with interest and possibly a hint of amusement.

"Wh, what is this!? Erza Scarlet! I know that you Fairy Tail mages do not understand propriety, but this is too much!" one man bellowed. He was possibly the oldest one there, with a long flowing beard that reminded Ranma of Gandalf from the Tolkien stories, though his body certainly was nowhere near as fit as the wandering wizard.

"Guards! Where are the guards! How did she get this far so quickly?" shouted a second one at the same time. He wore a hood and had the largest sideburns Ranma had ever seen, coupled with tiny sunglasses balanced on his nose.

The other oldsters might have continued in that vein, but the young man's voice cut through the hullabaloo. "You're not Erza Scarlet. Who are you, impostor?" His eyes were locked on Ranma, his face stern and calculating, his expression having changed quickly from one of condescending amusement the instant Ranma had entered the room.

"Well, for one thing, your guards suck," Ranma drawled, stepping forward to the side of the table, Requipping a gun and aiming it at the floor. "For another, the tattooed punk is right. I ain't Erza Scarlet. Guns Magic: Flash!"

As the flash went off with the intent to blind the people around her, Ranma pulled off the armor plate she had been wearing along with the grieves and everything else before using the 'Swift Change' martial arts technique to change out of the rest of her clothing in a blink of an eye. The flash dissipated while Ranma pulled out a water bottle, heating it up and dumping it over her head.

By the time everyone had gotten their eyesight back, Ranma had changed to his male body and clothing before pulling out a chair and sitting across from the council, propping his feet up on the table as he pulled out his broach. "The names Ranma Oceana, and as for why I'm here," Ranma flipped his broach to land on the center of the table, facing up. "Unless you people really are idiots, then you know what that broach means."

More than one of the councilmembers recoiled at the sight of the broach as if it was a snake suddenly popping up into existence in front of them. While her fellow young councilman stayed silent, the young woman's eyes widened, and she stared at it thoughtfully, even leaning forward to tap it with a finger. "I honestly didn't think Rangers were real, let alone that these broaches still existed. Magnificent workmanship even in terms of just their physical design. The enchantments on these things is supposed to be amazing…"

"B, bah!" the man in the center scoffed. "You probably stole that anyway! No real Ranger would simply barge in here like this!"

"That tells me you know nothing about how Rangers operate. Each broach is keyed via blood to the Ranger and remains with the Ranger in question until he dies." Ranma reached out, plucking the broach back up and setting it in place on his chest, smirking at them all. "I…am… a… Ranger. I am fully empowered by the Kings' Conclave to be one of their trouble-shooters throughout Ishgar. This means you answer my questions, not the other way around."

"Tha, that might be true elsewhere, but this is Fiore! Here, when it comes to magic, the Magic Council's words and person are sacrosanct. You cannot simply barge in here and demand answers from us!" another man shouted.

"Would you like me to call up king Toma on this, and let us all ask him his opinion?" Ranma asked, tapping the broach on his chest. "Considering it is partly his request I'm here in the first place, I'm sure he'd love to talk to you all."

The short old man spoke up, placing a placating hand on the oldest councilman's shoulder, though he had to reach up to do it. "Don't, Org. You know that the king will back the Ranger. We will just have to deal with this. I am Yajima, young man. I take it that your being here instead of Erza Scarlet means you have questions or were involved in the Eisenwald incident?"

"I certainly have questions about that, and I was indeed involved. But I also have a few other points I need to bring up with you lot." At that, Ranma leaned forward slightly, sniffing the air over the conference table before scowling. "And I will have my questions answered by people, not thought projections! I want every member of this council here in person, in five minutes. You don't show up, I'll assume that's an admission of guilt and start poking around further than I was already going to."

"This is the first time I've dealt with a Ranger, but surely there is some kind of formality to this?" the blue-haired man asked, looking around at the others. "This odd foreigner comes out of the blue and flashes an admittedly powerful magical artifact and we are all expected to just obey his orders?"

"Do not let your ignorance blind you, Siegrain," said Yajima. "Ranger Oceana may be a foreigner, but that broach gives him the authority to speak in the king's voice in a way none of us could without a specific remit. I suggest you all follow his wishes in this."

"Can I ask, how did you know some of us were using thought projections?" the young woman asked, leaning over the table and flashing a generous amount of cleavage Ranma's way.

Ranma allowed himself to look down for a brief second, but then answered her question in as bland a tone as possible. "I could smell only three distinct scents in this room, and one of them was my own."

"Wait, three?" the man in the center of the group scowled, looking around. "Who…"

"You're real, Yajima's real, and the old lady over there at the end," Ranma supplied, thumbing his nose with a smirk. "Dragon Slayer senses, old man. Gotta love 'em. You've got two minutes now, by the way."

The man turned to glare at the younger two people there. "Siegrain, Ultear, you know how to use Thought Projection magic? Why haven't you reported this to the council? All magics of every council member need to be part of their public record."

"I only learned it recently and can't use it for very long," the young woman named Ultear supplied quickly. "Barely a few hours a day."

"And I…actually forgot about the need to inform the council at all," Siegrain said with a shrug.

"Um idiots, you're still talking when you should be walking. Unless you want me to come and find you, and you really don't want me to do that," Ranma said irritably. "This is going to be tedious enough without these delays."

 **OOOOOOO**

Cursing to herself, Ultear canceled her thought projection, standing up from the desk in her quarters where she had been sitting and making for the door as quickly as possible. Outside she met Jellal coming out of his room, looking even more worried than she was. This was understandable given Jellal had to come from the Tower of Heaven rather than his room. It was only his foresight in setting up a teleportation array in his room that allowed him to cross the intervening distance at a considerable cost in his magical reserves. Those arrays were one-use only magical devices whose power use was second only to the cost of having one made in the first place.

"What are we going to do?" she asked under her breath as they raced to the staircase leading down. The other council members who had been using their thought projections had thankfully been doing so from elsewhere in the council's complex. _Probably from the library and his mistress's quarters, if I know Michello and Leiji._

"I don't know, damn it! I never anticipated a Ranger just showing up out of the blue like this," Jellal muttered, pulling out a pill of dark blue color and tossing it back. It was a short term energy pill that would allow him to renew his magical reserves faster than he would have otherwise been able to. "Hell, I never anticipated one showing up at all! Do you know the last time a Ranger made his presence known in Fiore? I sure as hell don't!"

By this point Ultear had begun to regain control. "Well, beyond wanting to take us to task about how Eisenwald was handled, is there anything you're involved in that could have brought a Ranger's attention?"

At the raven-haired beauty's choice of the word, 'you're,' Jellal halted, grabbing her arm, pulling Ultear to a stop. " **We're** involved in, you mean. Remember, Ultear, anything I've been involved in, you have too!"

Narrowing her eyes, Ultear said nothing, but given that answer she knew that it might well have been something that Jellal had done which had captured King Toma's attention, and thus the Ranger. _Which means I'm being faced with a simple question: do I go down with him or throw Jellal to the wolves. Oh dear, what a choice. Then again, I should probably check in with Master Hades when I can._

 **OOOOOOO**

Once the entire council was physically present, Ranma began. "So, whose bright idea was it to prosecute one of the mages who cleaned up after your stupidity?"

"You cannot talk to us that way, boy!" shouted the mage in charge. He was evidently not doing very well with finding out he could be called on the carpet too.

"The broach means I can. This ain't the kind of problem I thought I'd be signing up for when Queen Rose and the rest decided to offer me the job, but it does have some perks," Ranma replied, his smirk suddenly widening into a snarl as he went on. "Such as telling people like you lot to shut up and listen! Now, I ask again, whose bright idea was it to bring in for questioning someone from the guild which saved not only dozens of lives but cleaned up after your mistake?"

Ranma's eyes flashed around the council, and only Yajima was able to meet his gaze evenly. After a moment that worthy answered. "We wished to have a first-hand account of the battle. Nothing else would have happened beyond perhaps a single night spend here in the tower. We well know that this incident could have been much worse if not for Fairy Tail's involvement."

From the looks on their faces, most of the others didn't agree with that. The two youngest, whose names Ranma had heard were Ultear and Siegrain, were the exceptions.

"That might make sense, **if** your envoy didn't make it a point to say that Erza Scarlet was under arrest when he showed up. Or that she would be questioned for her part in what happened in Oshibana rather than the whole demon thing. So, why was Erza Scarlet singled out instead of, oh, I don't know, the 'unknown water using mage,' maybe?" Ranma asked, his tone becoming more sarcastic with every sentence. "This kind of thing smacks of a personal issue."

After a few minutes everyone looked at Siegrain, who looked back stonily for a moment before shrugging. "We assumed she was in charge of the operation against Eisenwald. I personally thought the water using mage was simply Erza in a new type of armor. Would you like us to apologize to her or Fairy Tail formally?"

"That could be a start. Still, let's set that aside for now. After all, it let me set up this meeting, didn't it?" Ranma said, his teeth flashing in a smile without any humor in it whatsoever, although he was laughing inside at the fact that the man had come up with the same cover story Erza had about who had dealt with Lullaby. "There are two points that I'm supposed to bring up to you lot. Both are sort of broad and made up of different parts that a lot of other people have worked on. I'm just the messenger bringing them to you, as well as coming to you preaching the gospel of **common sense**!"

With that last word Ranma brought his fist down on the table so hard it bounced. It would have shattered if Ranma had wanted it to but he didn't so it simply bounced, making the councilmen, except for Siegrain, once more, shift uncomfortably. "When you morons declare a guild illegal, the proper procedure should be to do so once you have entirely surrounded said guild so that as few of the fuckers get away as possible! This is common sense! Instead, you declare it, **then** send in your Rune Knights, who basically can only capture the idiots who are too stupid or too arrogant to run away. Why?!"

To Ranma's surprise, however, the council was able to actually come up with a comeback to this allegation. The chief of the council, whose name was Crawford Seam, leaned forward intently, tapping the table himself for emphasis. "The fact of the matter is, we don't have enough Rune Knights to go around. Most of the Knights are being used in large garrisons here and there, the rest distributed in penny packets throughout Fiore. We can't call on normal troops to help take on a Mage Guild, of course, so we're left to try and move troops around whenever we get word that a guild has started to act in an unlawful manner."

"On top of that, we, of course, need to investigate the rumors; make certain they are accurate and not just a sign of how a guild is acting. For example, if we listened to rumors about how destructive Fairy Tail is we would have to arrest them. But when we investigate further, of course, we always find out that most of the time the destruction they leave behind is in pursuit of their jobs at the time," Siegrain said, his eyes sly. "I have to wonder, though, what your connection with that guild is, Ranger. Your taking Erza's place here smacks of collusion."

"Queen Rose of Bosco asked me to look into rumors about Eisenwald looking for Lullaby. Given what happened, she was right to do so," Ranma replied with a shrug. "I brought in Fairy Tail as part of my mission rather than letting them operate separately. And as for me taking her place, that was just me being… Call it making the best of an opportunity."

"Does that mean you'll be handing over Lullaby to us, then?" asked the old woman who hadn't been using a thought projection, whose name Ranma hadn't heard yet. "We had reports of it being destroyed, but surely no one would destroy such a priceless magical artifact."

"Yep, it's gone. I crushed it after I killed the demon inside," Ranma said bluntly, smirking at the looks of shock this evoked. "But you were saying it isn't so much that you declare a guild as dark and don't try to contain them, it's more that they learn about that coming before you're in position?"

"We can show you the allocation and organizational chart if you want?" Ultear said quickly, recovering faster than the others at the idea that Ranma had killed the demon Lullaby and then destroyed the flute. It was worrisome, and the way Ranma talked about it seemed to imply that he had done similar things before. _If so, if he's some kind of expert on fighting Demons, then I need to learn as much about him as I can. Yet another reason to get on his good side…and throw Jellal to the wolves when it comes time. Still, I can't do anything about that right now._

Ranma sighed, but nodded at that suggestion and actually spent several minutes going over those items with the council. It seemed to match up, at least on the surface. _So they want me to at least believe that all the issues with more Dark Guilds coming from Fiore was caused by a lack of troops? Bull and shit. Time to start dropping some of the bombs I was passed just in case of a meeting like this._

"This seems to make sense, but only the surface. For one thing, there's been a noted uptick of the number of guilds which have escaped intact enough to remain organized guilds in the last two years." Ranma looked around the table, his eyes homing in on Ultear and Siegrain. "Which would almost coincide to when the two of you were elevated to this council, wouldn't it?"

"Indeed it does, but I think you are looking at it the wrong way. Instead of saying that more dark guilds have been able to get away from the law, say rather that the council has become better at finding out which guilds are breaking our laws," Siegrain said calmly, with Ultear nodding agreement beside him.

"Let's suppose that's true. It still leaves a lot of problems from any outsider's perspective." Ranma held up his hand and activated his Requip magic, pulling out several folders, each of them containing several pages of notes. "These weren't actually gathered by me for the most part. In fact, I was only involved in this one," he said, tapping one finger down on a red folder among the myriad blue and black. "The ones with black on them come from Seven, Bosco, and Caelum's espionage agencies, with the help of your own king. The blue comes from another Ranger, who was brought in at King Toma's personal request."

Waving her hand over the folders one after another, Ultear copied them using council magic and passed them along, watching in amusement as nearly everyone else on the council began to sweat in worry. _Hah! This is fucking ironic. Here I am, a spy for Grimoire Heart, one of the three Dark Guilds which created the Balam Alliance, and I've been keeping my 'official' nose cleaner than this lot! Jellal, I suppose, could be excused, but the others? Aren't they supposed to be the good guys?_ "What exactly are we looking at here?"

"First, we're going to talk about my personal pet peeve with you lot beyond the number of Dark Guilds that Fiore seemingly creates: the issue with faulty lacrima," Ranma said grimly, holding up the red folder. "The fact that I actually had to keep notes on it is only part of the reason it irritates me, the other is the fact that people actually died because of it."

From there he went on to describe the exploding incident, finishing by glaring around the table. "Now, that is purely a question of quality control, which is something you lot are supposed to oversee. Who here is supposed to watch over that kind of thing, and why haven't you caught these issues before this?"

This caused an intense discussion, or as Ranma thought of it, a game of pass the buck. Each council member tried to pass it off to the others save for Ultear, who bluntly stated she had nothing to do with lacrima distribution or anything else. She specialized in leading the council's own intelligence apparatus, which brought her under fire from Ranma too for a bit, but she womanfully defended her position while the others tried to pin the blame for that issue on each other. After all, no one wanted to be even partly to blame for accidents which had killed people.

From there, however, Ranma reached for the black pile of folders. "So you people are so worried about your image and being blamed that none of you have any set area of control. Great, you'll all hang together, then," Ranma said, ignoring the fact that Ultear had not joined in on that.

She huffed irritably, but didn't interrupt him as he went on. "These files pertain to Dark Guilds or specific wizards which have crossed the borders into other countries and performed crimes there. Two-thirds of these folders, the ones marked with the various sigils of the other countries are specific mages from legitimate guilds. I have been told that most of this information was passed back through diplomatic channels to you, but you haven't followed up on them. The rest are about dark mages or entire guilds which have traveled into Fiore from other countries. Which you lot haven't done anything about."

Here Ranma leaned forward again, slamming his hands palm down on the table. "Why not!? If you don't have the manpower, why don't you allow the various legal guilds to go after them in larger numbers? I know you let them go after a few, here and there."

"What you are talking about could lead to war! Fiore saw in ancient times where guild wars would lead. It is better by far to let the Dark Guilds stay in the shadows until we can move against them in strength, sniping at them one by one in the meantime," shouted Crawford. He was a large, fat man with a large, bushy beard which ended in two buns, his patience with a young man taking him to task obviously wearing thin.

"Would you say the same if it was your family, or your livelihood they prey on?" Ranma growled back. "What you're espousing is either a sign of senility or cowardice. Which is it?" He glared around at the council. "Don't think just because I stopped shouting at you means that I'm not pissed off at you for not doing your jobs! If your Rune Knights can't handle it, call on your mages! Or else every time one of these dark mages or guilds act out, paying for the damages will come out of your personal pockets! Every time someone dies from them or is kidnapped and sold into slavery, you'll have to find some way to pay for it!"

This caused yet further uproar, but Ranma had a response to that ready. Concentrating for a brief second he pulled his ki up into his face, activating Soun Tendo's demon face. **"Enough, already!** " the giant head roared. "This isn't up for fucking debate!"

Ultear actually squealed in shock, hopping away from the table as the rest followed. Even Siegrain looked unnerved by the sudden body morph.

After glaring at them for a second with eyes the size of their heads, Ranma let the technique end and continued in a more normal volume. "This is a Ranger, fully empowered by your king and the kings of all Ishgar, giving you an **order**! By the time I leave today, I will have your word that you will start giving more jobs to the legal guilds to get them to clear out your dark guild problems, or else I will get in contact with Toma and have you lot all replaced by people who've got spines."

More than one voice attempted to shout in protest at that idea, but the demon head made a reappearance and they shut up quickly. Siegrain was the first one to simply nod acquiescence, knowing that they, at least, had to make it look like they were going to follow the Ranger's orders. Once his back was turned they could go back to business as usual, which for him was making certain there was a small but steady trickle of recruits heading toward the island where his Tower of Heaven was being built.

The others followed suit, with Ultear being the next one and Yajima, a former member of Fairy Tail, coming in directly after. The rest were slower to accede, and, by the time they did, Siegrain was certain they were coming to the end of this ordeal.

However, the next instant any feeling of complacency Siegrain might have harbored was smashed out of his head by Ranma holding up the stack of blue folders. "These were all compiled by Ranger Jardan at King Toma's request. And all of them have to do with what he called fiscal and material oddities. Wood going missing, stone, food, and lacrima crystals not showing up where they should, driving up prices throughout the nation, something Toma takes seriously, apparently."

Siegrain started to tense at that, knowing precisely where all those goods were going. After all, the Tower of Heaven couldn't build itself. His men and the slaves doing the actual construction needed food, and the island was too small to grow its own. Food, steel, and lacrima crystals were all needed for the tower. A tower over a hundred stories tall and as wide as a sports field wasn't something that he could create overnight.

While the other council mages were all looking rather confused, Ultear knew now where this was going. _Oh dear, I do believe it is time to abandon Jellal to his fate. Now, how to best go about doing so?_

"Jardan did some digging," Ranma went on, seemingly not noticing the reactions he was getting, "and he found out that a lot of these shipments were diverted on the Fiore Magic Council's say-so. So, where did it all go, and why?"

As the council members to a man and woman began to protest their innocence, Ranma began to end the meeting, ordering them all to go and get the paperwork for their personal holdings as well as records showing how much they were paid as councilmen. Since even councilmen had to pay taxes, this type of paperwork was something they would all have to have. Plus, the council members also had two magical books tied to their position as councilmen called the orders and voting books. The councilmen called them the yellow and white books. With them, they would be able to track any order any of them gave to the various workers, knights, and officials who answered to the council.

Though he kept it from showing with the ease of long practice, Jellal was panicking inside. He knew perfectly well that his holdings would not withstand much scrutiny at all, and his order book would be damning as well. _Damn it, the Tower won't be ready for another two months, and I need to retain my position as part of the council in order to convince them to hypercharge it with the magic of the Etherano cannon. How do I get out of this? How…_

A plan occurred to him then. It was a desperate one, but one he felt had a high chance of success. _This Ranger might be tough enough to slay a demon like Lullaby, but that is nothing, not when he has no reason to expect an attack. And if I can make him disappear, I can talk the others into thinking he simply left, convinced of our innocence. Look at their faces. The old idiots are so off-balance they'll jump at the chance to just forget this little meeting ever happened. The only exception is Yajima, and Ultear and I can use charm magic or something else to make him forget._

With this plan in mind, he spoke up as the others finally ceased trying to delay the inevitable. Like all bureaucrats everywhere, the council members were always afraid of being asked questions, but they could not get out of this. "Gentlemen, ladies, I for one agree that the allegations brought before us merit our attention and the attention of the king on our affairs."

The others all looked at Jellal in shock, but after a cough he went on in a tone of voice that made it clear he was choosing his words carefully. "However, we all have, shall we say, items, purchases, or holdings that we would rather not air to the public, which includes one another. Might I ask, Ranger, that we all meet with you in private to go over our books?"

Ultear hadn't joined the rest of the discussion before this point, preferring to go through the blue folders. They detailed numerous mercantile reports, cross-indexed from one port with the next, and tabulations from the ships themselves. Several of the differences, whether the weight of the shipment or the amount of crates or whatever, were noted and then cross-referenced to what was highlighted as 'verbal orders from a council messenger.'

Others were marked by other notations, mostly 'attacked by bandits,' or other 'attacked by' statements. No physical description of the messenger matched from one incident to another, and they didn't even match the individuals known to carry messages for the council. And these notes in turn showed the investigation that they had not, as Ranma had indicated earlier, come entirely from his fellow Ranger.

It was only Ultear's time on the council that gave her the self-control that kept her eyes from widening. _The king, the king put most of this together with his investigation teams! I, Master Hades and I, we all thought he didn't care at all about how the magic council ran itself. But… Is this a sign of that he does care and is watching us, or is this a sign of that he watches trade more closely than we thought? Damn it, whatever else happens, I must report this to Master Hades._

Hearing Jellal's suggestion, Ultear quickly seconded the motion. "I agree. After all, so long as the money we're spending comes from our jobs as councilmen, what we spend it on, so long as it is legal, at any rate, should be private. I doubt anyone would be very interested in how much I spend on massage oils or clothing, after all.

Ranma shrugged unconcern. "Fine, yeah, whatever. I'm not interested in whether or not you have a second vacation house or are boinking your mistress on the side. I'm interested in where those lacrima and the rest of this material went!"

 _And even then, that's not what I'm really interested in. I'm more interested in why the council ain't been going after Dark Guilds. Though I'll be the first to admit the two are probably connected. Wish I had more to go on. I'm not Jardan, I can't follow a paper trail! I am getting some really odd vibes off of the blue boy. And, yeessh, that Ultear woman; I can't tell what's up with her. The rest, other than shorty, anyway, are just shocked. Off-balance and worried. And I bet I can knock them further off-balance during a one-on-one session._

"Very well, we will go in reverse order of seniority. I," Crawford said.

"No," Ranma interjected calmly. "We do this as randomly as possible in the next room over. You lot go get as much of your paperwork as you've got. I'll pick my victims randomly, and we'll go from there."

The Council acceded to that demand quickly enough, rushing out the room as fast as their mostly old bodies could take them. Once they were gone, Ranma moved over to the nearest window, where he found Wendy perched happily on the tiny stone railing looking over the town around the council tower. She turned as Ranma poked his head out, smiling up at him. "Hey, Ranma-nii! Are you nearly finished?"

"Nope. Sorry, imouto, but it looks like this is going to be an all day job. Listen, why don't you climb up to one of the other rooftops over there, not the central tower, but one of the others, and keep an eye out, okay? If you see anyone riding off on horseback in a huge hurry or a magic carriage rushing off, could you make a note of the direction and keep an eye on them until they're out of sight?"

Wendy's eyes sparkled. This sounded like spy stuff, which was far more interesting than just fighting to her. "Do you want me to follow them, Onii-chan?"

"Mmmmm… Only if you can stay out of sight. If not, only make a note of the direction, okay?"

Pouting at that, Wendy nodded. _I bet I could follow them anyway, but I guess Ranma-nii's right…_

As the two siblings were talking, the council had been making their way up the tower to the floors where they all had their private quarters. Siegrain tried to get Ultear's attention, but she was purposefully avoiding his eyes, speaking to Yajima right up until that old fool had split off to enter his room. "Ultear, I have a plan. If that Ranger disappears, everything can go back to normal. You saw the others; they all are terrified of being asked questions like this, and…"

"Are you insane!?" Ultear hissed, looking around quickly to make certain they weren't being overheard. "Did you even bother to look into those blue binders he handed us? While Oceana might have been following up on the number of Dark Guilds and mages we've been letting go, the investigation into what I presume were your activities have been going on for a much longer time and came from the king! He knows something is wrong. If Oceana disappears, they'll just send more investigators."

"But it will at least buy us time, time which we can use to hide our activities. And don't even try to pin all this on me, Ultear. You're involved in this too."

"I understand that, of course. Don't worry, I have your back if you think it best," Ultear said, patting Jellal on the shoulder.

 _What you don't seem to understand is that Oceana is a lot more dangerous than you seem to think. He is a Ranger who specializes in killing demons, after all. And second, our work in halting missions designed to clean up the Dark Guilds is so scattered that no one is going to find them. Especially given the fact that I think you're planning something really stupid._

A second later she was in her room, using her communication lacrima to check in with Master Hades. "Master, we have a situation here."

While Ultear was checking in, Jellal was gathering enough of his paperwork to make it seem as if he was doing what the Ranger had ordered. He was not checking in with his co-conspirator and old mentor Brain, confident in his abilities. He was, after all, a Wizard Saint. _And I was able to win that appellation through the use of a Thought Projection that had only fifty percent of my power. This fool should be no trouble to assassinate!_

 **OOOOOOO**

Master Hades listened intently, steepling his fingers as he thought deeply on this issue. "Will this Oceana fellow be able to find anything incriminating on you personally?"

"If he questions hard enough and looks at some of the decisions I've made, the jobs I've had a part in sending out to the guilds, Ranger Oceana might be able to discover my interest in Zeref," Ultear said after a moment's reflection. "Alone, however, that won't matter much. Whether or not he will be able to tell I have had a hand in steering the council away from confronting the various Dark Guilds, that I cannot say with certainty. I've been very subtle there, so I doubt it, but it is a possibility, and with the stakes we're playing…"

Ultear shrugged, though there was no one to see. Her lacrima only transmitted sound, not image, like the one Ranma used. "The question is, is our alliance with the Oraci _ó_ n Siete more important than my remaining in place? I think that Siegrain is going to do something precipitous. I have no idea if he'll succeed or not, but either way our position on the council will no longer be secure. I've agreed to follow his lead to avoid suspicion, but there are ways I could offset that."

"Correct…" Master Hades thought for a few moments, then nodded slowly. "Your information on Etherano was fascinating, especially the research plans you found and copied. And the information you recently shared about the council's scientific teams working on controlling a second type of ancient weapon disturbs me greatly. Further, even if you'll have to be more circuitous in the future, having a spy on the council is worth quite a bit more to our long-term goal then continuing to work with Brain and his band of indoctrinated fools."

At that Ultear surreptitiously pumped her fist twice. _Finally_ , she thought, thinking the word very loudly indeed.

"Do what you can to create a more positive impression. If Siegrain's attempt at, what, assassinating the Ranger?" When Ultear nodded, he scoffed. "Fool. Those Rangers who specialize in combat and magic tend to be very good in their fields. When he fails at that, the king will no doubt move to either replace or install his own puppets within the mage council. I am hereby ordering you to do what you can and must to make certain your position remains intact if not secure."

"Even if I have to fight Siegrain myself?" Ultear asked, an anticipatory smirk appearing on her face. While she was uncertain she could beat the other dark mage in a one-on-one fight, she could certainly give him a run for his money, and aiding this Ranger against him would be easy.

"If need be, but only if need be. While I believe that we can dispense with the direct alliance between the Oraci _ó_ n Siete and ourselves, that does not mean I wish to come into conflict with them at this time." Hades once more paused there and looked closely at Ultear. "However, if Siegrain is able to get away somehow, this Ranger will go after them. They are like bloodhounds at times. If that happens, get as close to him as possible and learn everything about him you can. We need to know if he will be a threat to our plans going forward."

"Yes, Master," Ultear said with a faint smile. That sounded a lot more interesting than just staying around here and trying to spy on the old men and what they were up to.

"Good. Do not contact me again until events have run their course. It would be best to assume such communications will no long be safe." With that Hades cut the connection, leaving Ultear alone once more in her room. Still smiling, Ultear hid the lacrima once more by simply deconstructing it into pieces, spreading them around her room in various bookcases before leaving her room.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma's theory on how boring this part of his investigation would be quickly proved correct over the next hour. He'd gone through two of the Council members' books chosen at random already and had found little that grabbed his personal interest. Yes, there were some signs that one of them, at least, was fudging his books slightly, taking kickbacks or whatever they were. And the second one seemed to have not one, but three mistresses on the side! All of which he was paying for from his council funds. The guy was actually up front about it when Ranma confronted them and Ranma had to admit that the councilman having three mistresses at his age was kind of impressive in a disturbing never-want-to-think-about-it-ever-again sort of way.

But neither points were anywhere near what he was here to look into. Frankly, beyond putting the fear of their king into them and forcing them to go after the Dark Guilds from now on, the rest of this job should probably have been left to Jardan. The only problem was the possible connection with the way the Magic Council hadn't been doing its job in terms of the Dark Guilds and the theft of so many resources.

Finally, it was the turn of Ultear, the young woman with the magnificent black hair. _Well, at least this way I'll have something nice to look at,_ Ranma thought as Ultear entered the office he'd commandeered. Then he subtly shook his head. _Guh. I'm turning into a freaking pervert like Hiroshi and Daisuke. Seriously need to get a girlfriend or something._

Ultear plopped several folders of her own down next to Ranma's and then sat down across from him, crossing her legs and arms as she did. "So, how does this go? Do you question me, go through my yellow book, or do we get right down to the interrogation? Although I don't see any chains, whips, or red hot irons. Pity."

"Wouldn't know what to do with the chain in terms of torturing, and as for the whip, I think you'd probably like that, or at least feign it," Ranma said dryly, leaning back in turn and looking at her thoughtfully. "Although, since you asked, we'll start with a question-and-answer session. Ultear Milkovich, you're one of the Council members I have to admit I was most interested in meeting."

"Mah, I'm flattered, Ranger Oceana. But what exactly have I done to garner such interest?" Ultear asked coquettishly.

"There's not a lot publicly known about your past, you or your magic. All I could find out was that it was supposedly an ancient Lost Magic. You joined the Council five years ago as mid-level mage functionary, then worked your way up to a Council aid, then onto the Council itself in an astonishingly short amount of time. But what were you doing before you joined the Council? And what made you want to in the first place? Why didn't you just join a guild?" Ranma asked.

"As to your last question, I have a problem with guilds. My parents were supposedly part of one, but since I've never seen their faces or remember anything about them, that should tell you all you need to know about that particular issue," Ultear said, letting her arms fall as she leaned back, her chest thrust forward for a moment. "As for what I was doing before that, my magic is extremely difficult to use. It took me years upon years of practice to be able to control it appropriately without being a danger to those around me."

"After all," she said, stretching her hands above her head and then bringing them back down, letting her fingers trace down her face and then her side. "It has to do with controlling time, and if that backfired on me, well, that would just be a travesty."

"I suppose it would be," Ranma said, keeping his voice calm even as he could not stop his eyes from following the movements of her hands for a second until they disappeared below the desk. "So, where did you train?"

"Here, in Fiore, at a little town called Sunset in the western mountain range." _And if you follow up on this inquiry you'll find lots of brainwashed people and a few plants Master Hades has placed there to cover just such an eventuality. He is nothing if not thorough._

"Bah. You call those mountains; I call them hills. Go to Pergrande or Joya and you'll see real mountains," Ranma quipped, even as he made a mental note of the name. He probably wouldn't follow up on it, but if Toma's espionage services hadn't already done so he'd pass it along.

"I haven't traveled nearly as much as a Ranger like you, no doubt, do," Ultear said with a sigh. "I think I'd rather like to, but that was never my calling. I'm sure, however, that if you go to Sunset, you will find lots of people remember me."

"I'm sure," Ranma said, smirking and giving her a wink. "You are rather memorable, after all."

Ultear smiled that, then answered Ranma's question about why she wanted to join the Magic Council. "As for joining up with the bunch of old people, I wanted to make a difference."

Ranma looked at her, his face deadpan, and Ultear laughed. "Didn't believe that one? Fine. I really thought it was an easy job with lots of high pay that would give me a lot of free time to concentrate on my own research. And there's a certain part of me that likes to order people around.

"As for the mystery behind how quickly I rose in the council's rank, that can be put down to my magic as well. The Magic Council is always interested in bringing in people with powerful magic. Despite our age, that's why myself and Seigrain were able to join."

"The two of you do seem a pair. Is that because you're both so much younger than the rest of the old folks club, or do you feel you have to work together to offset your age? Or is there something more going on," Ranma asked, twitching his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

"Ugh," Ultear said, shaking her head. "No thank you. He's a bit too self-centered and far too arrogant at times for my taste. That tattoo on his face might make him seem dashing or dangerous to some girls, but I think of it more as a skin infection. Personally, I think he just got drunk at one point and someone thought it would be funny to tattoo him up like that with a, what are they called, tramp stamp? A tramp stamp on him, only on his face."

Ranma laughed at that, and Ultear smiled faintly as she successfully derailed that line of questioning before going on with her own. "But speaking of our ages, aren't you rather young to have been able to win enough notoriety that a king or queen recommended you for the Ranger brooch?"

"Let's just say my life has been fraught with peril and leave it at that. Besides, I'm supposed to be the one doing the questioning. What exactly is your job on the Council?"

"And there we have a question that I bet none of my fellow Council members are very happy with. Like you rightfully pointed out earlier, we don't really have set job areas or areas of interest. I assumed command of our intelligence apparatus, but that isn't an official title, and most of my decisions in that post have to be ratified by the rest of the council. There are a **lot** of decisions that require us all, very few decisions that can be made by just one of us, and just a lot of discussion. As the self-chosen head of gathering intelligence, I have to bring up any large decision to the council for debate; I can't make it on my own. It's always been that way. You'd have to ask one of the old timers why."

"What's your area of interest, then?"

"A little of this and little of that," Ultear replied, still smiling. "I don't particularly care about lacrima creation or distribution, if that's what you're asking, and I have no interest at all in simple mercantile endeavors like the rest you told us about. That sounds far too tedious for me. My yellow book will tell you that."

"Then I suppose we should segue to going over your order book. And then your expense book, as well as asking you specifically about certain dates," Ranma finished with a groan.

"You're the one that asked for all this," Ultear said dryly. "You can't then turn around and say it it's boring and have anyone care at all."

Ranma scowled at that but pulled her order book towards him. Going through it, at least, took very little time, thanks to the magic inherent in the books. Ultear's account ledger took quite a bit longer, but eventually they were finished. Besides some questionable orders about investigating this or that legal guild, or not investigating in a few cases, Ranma didn't find anything unusual in the order book. In terms of her expense reporter, there were a few questionable purchases, things that cost a lot more money than they should have, but Ranma wasn't interested in that aspect, so he simply set them aside for someone else to investigate.

Despite that, Ranma was a little put off by Ultear for some reason. He felt that there was something odd there, her body language or her eyes or something that hinted at more than was there on the surface. She certainly used her body to redirect attention, but that was flirtatious, not criminal, and he couldn't say he didn't enjoy it. And if there was anything hidden in her books, he couldn't discover it.

He tried to engage her in further discussion about how she voted on various matters, in particular anything that touched on Dark Guilds either as a group or a specific such guild. But his attempts to sound her out there ran into the fact that Ultear rarely actually said anything during such meetings, instead just voting with the majority. She had spoken against the idea of attacking the Balam Alliance members and did so now, defending her position and that of the council. She didn't persuade Ranma, of course, but he felt she did honestly worry about how many good mages might die in a direct confrontation with those three guilds. Still, Ranma was slightly suspicious of her all the same.

After that, Ranma dealt with the old guy who seemed to like Fairy Tail. He was the easiest by far, although at first Ranma thought he might be trying to buy out all the restaurants in the nearby town. It turned out, however, he was just trying to invest in them and then learn their cookery secrets. While odd and sort of wrong to use council functionaries as spies, that wasn't technically illegal, and Ranma let the man go.

He was down to his final two Council members by that point, Siegrain and one more old guy, and Seigrain was the one he called next, randomly pointing at him as he came out of the office. "Let's get this over with," Ranma groaned, moving back to his chair and leaning back slightly.

At this point Ranma was pretty certain he wasn't going to find anything really incriminating. Yes, incompetence and moral cowardice should be punishable, but that wasn't his area of expertise. He'd leave that to Toma Fiore.

"So, Siegrain," he said in a drawl, now utterly bored with this entire affair. "What were you doing before you joined the Council? I also note you were elevated directly to the Council rather than spending time at the lower levels, thanks to the strength of your magic. You were even named a Wizard Saint? That's amazing, I suppose."

"Well, there's a very simple reason for that. People in power always wants to gather further power to themselves. I represented something new and interesting, and they thought that, given my age, they could influence me. Just as they thought they could do the same with Ultear. If I had known how boring the job would be I wouldn't've taken their offer, of course," Siegrain replied with a laugh as if he didn't have a care in the world. He followed Ranma into the room, setting down his yellow book and expense book before moving to sit down.

He turned slightly away from Ranma to locate the chair, hiding his chest and one arm from Ranma's sight for an instant before turning. His hand glowing with yellow magic, he leaped across the table without any warning, his hand flashing toward Ranma's throat in a textbook killing stroke. "But as boring as this is, I can't let you oust me just yet!"

Before the blow could land, Ranma kicked off the desk, flipping backwards over his chair and thrusting out with both hands, slamming them into the side of the desk, hurling it into Siegrain. This forced Siegrain to use his other hand to smash the desk to pieces, and Ranma dodged his initial blow entirely.

Then Ranma was on Siegrain, grinning and laughing, of all things. "About damn time!"

It was at that moment that Jellal wondered if maybe he had made a mistake here...

The next instant he stopped questioning that, both because he could no longer afford to take the time to do so and because Ranma's fist had just burst through his defenses to slam into the side of his head, sending him reeling backwards.

Growling, Siegrain summoned up his magic, which was called Heavenly Body Magic. Based around taking the power of celestial objects and using them through the body of the mage, it was a dangerous and very flexible magic. His magic covering his entire body in a yellow aura, Siegrain burst forward like a runaway star, shouting, "Meteor!"

With that Siegrain slammed into Ranma with enough force to carry them both backwards into the wall and through it, out into the air beyond. Ranma grunted in pain, not having anticipated the speed this guy had. But not only did the impact not really hurt all that much, but he was still able to grab Siegrain's arms where they had been attempting to throttle him. With that hold Ranma flipped himself up and over Siegrain, slamming a fist down hard into the back of his head, sending him tumbling further down through the air. "Nice try, Siggy, but you're going to have to do better than that!"

But Siegrain righted himself, his magic seemingly giving him the power of flight too as well as enhancing his durability. He fell away for a second before reactivating his magic, using it zig and zag around the area as Ranma continued to fall towards the ground. Not willing to assume that the ground would finish Ranma off, he attacked again, aiming to slam a punch into Ranma's back after zigging around him to be in that position.

So fast was he that his opponent, especially since he was falling through the air, out of control, should never have been able to see him. But Ranma had turned at the last instant, and one of his arms looped around Siegrain's, pulling him in. The two pummeled one another, Siegrain not able to break Ranma's grip. For his part, Ranma began to move close to Amiguriken speed to keep up with the blows of his opponent, but even so he was smiling as he did. _Hell, yes! This has made my freaking day!_

All around them alarms began to blare in the various buildings of the Magic Council's Tower of Knowledge.

Rune Knights boiled out of several of the buildings, and then three of the major Council also made their presence's known, sticking their heads and arms out of various windows to stare at the fight. "What's going on!" shouted one of them querulously.

That shout brought Jellal back to himself. His attempt at assassination had failed the instant Ranma had dodged that first blow, and now they were fighting out in the open. _Fuck. I should have retreated the moment that first shot failed and, if not that, kept him in the office. At least that way we wouldn't be out in the open for all to see_.

This left Jellal with only a few options. One, he could keep fighting and kill Ranma and then every other witness in the tower and town. This was admittedly somewhat doable, although it certainly wouldn't be easy. The second option, just to run away, didn't quite appeal. _If I beat Ranma I could call in Brain to help me brainwash all of the townsfolk, council, and council workers. Between him, myself, and Ultear, we could do that, and if I cut communications…_

As he thought that, a kick from Ranma nearly doubled him over. "Oy! Concentrate on the fight, asshole!"

Growling, Jellal slammed a palm into Ranma's wrist, forcing him to let go. With that he zoomed away, regaining some distance, having realized that Ranma was simply his better in terms of hand to hand combat. It was astonishing, given the speed and durability advantage Heavenly Body magic gave him, but also something he was honest enough to realize.

Jellal then had to duck his head as a shiny silver ball zoomed through the space it had just occupied.

"You know," said Ultear as she hopped out from one of the windows to land on a balcony nearby. "I think that we can take your attacking a Ranger sent by the king as a sign that you're guilty of something, yes, Siegrain?"

"So you betray me too?" Jellal growled.

"The word betray implies I was on your side to begin with," Ultear quipped, calling back her silver ball to her hand before she leaped up to the roof, standing more or less parallel with Siegrain. "Just because we mostly agreed on certain issues and generally worked together because of our ages in comparison to the rest of the council doesn't mean I was on your side or even like you, really."

She watched as Jellal's eyes narrowed before going on. "But I'm the last person you should be worrying about right now."

Jellal had just an instant to wonder what she meant by that before Ranma's Water Dragons Claw slammed into his chest, smashing through the protection of his magic and hurling him upwards into the air. Despite his magic's protection, he felt a rib break at that blow.

Pushing through the pain of that blow, Jellal righted himself, dodging a massive construct of water made to look like a giant dragon paw. Instead of going back on the attack after dodging, he glared down at first, Ranma, then over at Ultear and the rest of the major Council who were coming out of the windows here and there. Two of them were also now firing off spells towards him.

Realizing now that he couldn't fight Ranma and the rest of them all at once, Jellal knew his plan to simply wipe Ranma out then brainwash everyone else wouldn't work. That left just running away, leaving behind years of labor. _But, then again, this persona was never meant to last for very long._

He wondered for a moment if he should out the Grimoire Heart bitch. He decided, however, that no, he wouldn't do that. After all, there was the possibility she was playing the long game still. _With her here I can then order her to follow through with our goal, that of convincing the council to fire Etherion at the tower. I don't like having to rely on her for that after this, but it'll have to do._

"Damn you, Oceana," he roared aloud, his magic flaring around him. "You might think you've won something here, but you're wrong! This was merely a prelude to what's to come. When I create the perfect world, you and those like you will have no place in it!"

With that Jellal dodged to the side, this time dodging Ranma as he boosted up towards him on blasts of water. Before Ranma could redirect himself, Jellal turned and rocketed away in a blast of yellow energy. He once more began to zigzag as he streaked away from the town. He didn't slow down at all nor choose a set course until he was well beyond the horizon from the tower.

Behind the fleeing former councilman, Ranma growled, letting his Water technique fail, falling to the outer wall of the enclave. Landing there he stared after Siegrain, wondering aloud, "Hmm… I wonder if I could catch up to him? He's moving fast, but I doubt he could keep it up longer than I could run."

"Before you do that, shouldn't you at least give us some kind of explanation as to what went on here?" said a voice tartly behind him. Ultear and two other council members landed to either side of Ranma, looking at him with some concern and a lot of suspicion on their faces.

"Your fellow councilmember attacked me," Ranma said with a smirk. "It sure as hell brightened up my day. Well, right up until he got away, anyway." _Damn it, if I'd only brought Carla along, but then again, there wasn't enough room for her and Wendy in the carriage's boot. I wonder where Wendy is right now?_

Turning away from watching the yellow light of Siegrain's flight head over the horizon, Ranma looked at Ultear and the old fogies. "Any of you have any idea what he could possibly be up to with that much raw material?"

"None," Ultear replied for all of them as more of the council joined them. The only one who didn't was one who remained behind to start repairing the hole Ranma and Seigrain had made in the side of the main tower. "I know him better than most, but he never shared anything much about his past other than where he trained and with who. Beyond that, he had an interest in Zeref and his creations, but that could be said for all of us."

Ultear supposed she could have pulled out some hints from her perfectly shaped rear, but decided against it. _I've seen some of Ranma's skills in a fight, let's see if he's resourceful out of one…_

"We'll have to put out an APB on him," said another councilman, pulling at his long beard in distress. "I wouldn't have believed someone like Siegrain, a Wizard Saint, was able to act like that, but he must have feared you would find something out. Running away like he did, that is the most obvious sign of guilt you could ever expect to see."

"Don't bother with that. I'll hunt him down one way or another. I just…need…a …direction…" Ranma said slowly, looking up and smiling at something above and behind the councilmembers. They all turned to see a young, blue-haired girl floating down towards them.

Wendy alighted next to Ranma, looking at him quizzically. "I kicked up really, **really** high and followed whoever that was part of the way like you said I should, Ranma-nii. He kept on moving all over the place for a bit, then settled down on a straight line."

"Show me, Wendy-chan," Ranma said picking her up and racing towards the nearest tower There he leaped up from one balcony to another, making his way upwards, hopping off a gargoyle, and landing on top of the Tower's tallest tower. There he pulled out a compass, looking down at Wendy expectantly.

He didn't notice as a few of the major Council members including Ultear floated up beside them, watching as Wendy pointed. "That way, Onii-chan. He was going really fast, but he eventually settled down going in that direction."

"Northwest," Ranma said, looking from where Wendy was pointing down to the compass he had pulled out of his Requip space. "That's the direction of the ocean, right? That is, if he isn't hiding somewhere in Fiore."

"Eventually, yes," said Yajima. He looked both worried and sad, staring out over the vista with his mostly-closed eyes. "But not Caelum. That would put him in the waters between Caelum, Fiore, and the northern continent. But there is no way a mage could fly all that way, no matter how strong. The storms up there are fierce, and the sheer distance is impossibly daunting."

Crawford spoke up. "He won't be hiding in Fiore, **that** is for certain. While I never have had need to before, my magic, Super Archive Real-Time Link, can find any mage I've met throughout Fiore, including Siegrain. Since he knows that and that we're hunting him, Siegrain won't stay in the country."

Ranma scowled. "And who's to say he won't change direction once he reaches the ocean? Even if we can close the ports down to anyone looking like him, there're magics which he can use to change his appearance. Not good at all. Still, he's an arrogant ass, to think he could take me out and then just whitewash over everything. That's a sign of someone with a major megalomania issue. I can't see him doing that. No, his base is somewhere out there along that line."

Whirling on the council, he glared at them all, in particular Ultear. "Is there anything, anything at all that you can tell me about Seigrain, something to give me some idea where he could be hiding out there? Anything out of the ordinary?"

Ultear and the others looked at one another, and then Yajima said cautiously, "He seemed to have an inordinate interest in Fairy Tail and Erza Scarlet in particular. As we said earlier, it was his suggestion that Erza would be brought in."

"That's true. He talked about Erza several times. For a while I thought they were an item or, perhaps, exes," Ultear lied. "He mentioned a secret she needed to keep, but beyond that…" Ultear shrugged before walking over to look down at Wendy, a real smile on her face, the difference slight but telling. Though slightly younger, the blue-haired girl reminded her of Meredy. "And who's this, hmmm?"

"This is my little sister, Wendy. She's a Dragon Slayer too, and today she was my little eye in the sky," Ranma said, ruffling Wendy's hair. "Wendy, this is Ultear and a bunch of old guys whose names I can't bother remembering."

As the council either snorted in good humor or glared—mostly glared—Ranma turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "If Siegrain and Erza have a history, then maybe we should call her in for real. I don't suppose you have some kind of really fast mode of transportation?"

The Magic Council all looked at one another, then down at the damage Siegrain and Ranma had done to the Tower of Knowledge in their brief battle. "We may have someone that can help. Doranbolt should be able to return with her by tonight," Crawford said.

"Tell him to bring Natsu Dragneel with Erza if he volunteers to come and to meet me at the nearest port to this straight line," Ranma ordered. He looked out over the distance in the direction where, somewhere, this Siegrain character was hiding planning who knew what. "I said I'd call him in if I got into a fight, and I think an extra Dragon Slayer might very well be needed soon..."

 **End Chapter**

* * *

It always irritated me how hands off Toma was in canon (that and how dumb he and his daughter were to be fooled so utterly to open the gate) and the fact that no one noticed Jellal building the tower? Especially with the massive amounts of lacrima needed. Yeah, no. As for the rest, they have magazines, which equals printing presses, which equals paperwork, which equals lots of records. So here we go, using logic and real world concepts to blow up canon.

As for Jellal not being under Ultear's command, that's even simpler to explain. Not once since then did Ultear ever use possession magic. Not once. So sorry folks, but this time it's Jellal turning to evil all on his own.

If you want to know what happens next, consider signing up on Patty on, or just wait for Father's Day for the next chapter. Mind you I'm up to chapter 19 this month of this story so...


	9. Chapter 9

Not named Hiro or Rumiko.

Happy belated Father's Day people! Sorry, forgot to put this out yesterday, thanks to my not having time to do anything. Turns out trying to work while also having a conversation with your father and being forced to watch golf and pretend it's interesting (no offense implied to anyone who likes the sport) is really hard.

Warning, this is easily the most combat intensive chapter of this story. Even stranger, most of it is just the same battle. But given the implications for the future and the fact that the original canon events of the tower of heaven were so important, I felt it justified.

This chapter has been betaed by **justlovereadin'** and checked over by **Michael**.

… When Mira fights, you might want to play Daughter's of Darkness by Halestorm. Other than that, the Erza Tribute Undefeated fits for when she fights. Now enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Tower War**

As she had nearly every hour since Ranma had convinced Erza to let him (then, her) take Erza's place with the Council's messenger, Erza sat alone at the bar, eating strawberry cake. Or rather, stabbing at the plate with her fork, her eyes locked in a thousand yard stare. She hadn't even noticed that there was no cake underneath her deadly fork or that the plate itself was in danger of being cracked.

The reason for this lack of cake was simple: about ten minutes before, Mirajane had dared Natsu to switch her plate out with an empty one in an effort to get a response from the redhead. To their astonishment, it hadn't worked.

Erza's thoughts were still on Ranma and what she had allowed him to do in her stead. She was wondering if the Guild would get in trouble, if the Council would listen to a Ranger, or if there would be some kind of big conflict there when they refused to acknowledge his authority. Given her own dealings the Council, she was not certain if they would bow to anyone, even a direct representative of their king, let alone one who was supposed to act for every king in Ishgar equally and who hadn't been appointed by King Toma.

She was also just thinking about Ranma: his fight against the demon, their discussions and the way he had seemed to enjoy sparring with Natsu. And then, of course, the fact that he wanted to go out on a date with her. Despite the fact that she was somewhat used to men flirting with her, Erza wasn't at all used to men actually asking her out. Most of the time their flirting consisted of ways to get her out of her armor, and she ignored them with queenly disdain. Ranma's straightforward appreciation, good humor, and his skill all interested her.

Nearby, Mirajane had, of course, noticed this lack of reaction and scowled at her little joke having been completely overlooked. Yet her thoughts also twisted to Ranma. She was not happy at all that Erza was interested in him and had to wonder if it was romantic interest, or if she was just intrigued at his strength and wanting a new sparring partner. She looked around the Guild, smiling as she realized that Bisca had left a few hours ago with her possible boyfriend, Alzack.

 _She hadn't looked at all that enthusiastic about it, but willing enough when she handed the request in to me. Hah,_ she thought to herself. _At least she has another romantic interest. Whereas me? Nothing! Oh, there are a few boys from other Guilds who flirt with me that are cute, I suppose, but nothing to write home about, really. The less said about that ass, Ren, the better. Can't believe Jenny tried to set us up. Ugh._

Nearby she also heard Cana and Lucy talking, and their discussion was also about Ranma, though, from what she was overhearing, they were more interested in his strength than his looks. _Funny, that. I would've thought that Cana would be all over him. But, then again, maybe she saw how me and Erza were acting and decided to bow out? She's always been smart like that about social stuff, though she likes to hide it behind her drunkard exterior._

As she looked at Cana, Cana looked back and moved over to Erza. "Can't help but notice you're trying to kill that plate, Erza. Did it do something to offend you, or are you just angry you finished your cake off and didn't even notice?"

Blinking, Erza looked down at the plate, then sighed before looking up at Mira. "Another piece of cake, please, Mira."

"Yeah, sure. Far be it from me to stop you from eating whatever you want," Mira replied, her tone making Erza's eyes narrow.

Cana, however brought Erza's attention back to her quickly. "So, Ranma. He's an interesting fellow, isn't he?"

"Indeed. Most amusing, but able to be serious at times. I believe that he will be able to handle anything the Council throws at him with, if not poise, then good humor. And then he will come back here with young Wendy. I'm looking forward to seeing more of his combat style," Erza replied, smiling blandly, if neutrally.

"I'll agree to that," said Mirajane, coming over with Erza's next cake. She set it in front of her rival, smirking at the worried look on her face, and decided to tease her rival to her face this time. "Don't worry. I didn't do anything to it this time."

Erza leaped to her feet, glaring over the bar at Mirajane and pointing dramatically. "So you admit you have in the past! Foul villain!"

"Maybe you should actually cook your own meals occasionally, then, you armored fatty! You know those cakes of yours go right to your hips, right?" Mira growled.

"Let's get back to Ranma," Cana said, clapping her hands and speaking slightly louder, although it didn't carry far thanks to the amount of background noise always prevalent in the guildhall. "So, when I said he was interesting, I meant he was **interesting** ," she said, smirking and giving a meaningful look at the other girls, her eyebrows going up and down dramatically.

Erza blushed but didn't look away, while Mirajane smirked, running one hand through her hair and the other down her side as she returned Cana's look with her own. "That means you're interested in him? Do I have more competition?"

"Nah, he's not my type," Cana said, waving that off before looking at Lucy.

Shaking her head, the blonde replied in the negative. "No, thanks. Oh, he's handsome enough, but a combat junky like that would be way too hard to get interested in anything else."

Erza and Mirajane were now looking at one another challengingly. "He's asked me out on a date," Erza said loftily.

"Oh yes, only after the two of you finish beating one another into submission! That's soooo romantic," Mira replied with a sarcastic drawl. "Then again, what can I expect from a Neanderthal woman who thinks that armor is the height of fashion? On the other hand, he and I have flirted a lot, he trusted Wendy to me when he went away, and we've already promised to hang out some more and talk about our different magics."

"We'll learn about one another's magic while fighting and then have an actual date if he wins. During which, I would think that flirting would occur, and in a much more romantic setting," Erza said caustically.

Cana spoke up again just for the sake of adding more oil into the fire. "Bisca was also flirting with him, wasn't she? And he was flirting right back with both you and Erza there too. So, is he a player or just being really friendly?"

"That is a question we should probably ask him, shouldn't we?" Erza asked, looking around at Cana then at Mira. "On the other hand, I still think I'm one ahead, considering he actually did ask me on that date. That seems a little more solid sign of his interest than simply flirting."

"You wish!" Mirajane scoffed. "Besides which, even if it is, I bet I can take his interest away from you quickly enough."

"How? By showing him some of those centerfolds pictures of yours?" Erza retorted. "Maybe he'll lose interest in you if he knows that every man in Fiore has seen your body by this point! And no doubt used your images in their, ahem, private time!"

"Oh, you would know all about private time, wouldn't you, with those books of yours!" Mira shouted back, the two girls getting in one another's face.

Nearby, Makarov watched this from on high, rather amused by what he was seeing. _Add a new boy, and it's like adding gunpowder to a fire! T_ hat colorful imagery sprang to his mind because of Natsu and Gray fighting nearby around the edge of the Guild Hall by the dart boards, a challenge between them having gone the way it always did. He watched as another brawl broke out, smaller than normal this time, since none of the other Guild members wanted to come close to the bar where the girls were all gathered, the air about the two gorgeous S-class mages warning them off.

 _Mirajane and Erza are so different on the outside, but they are very similar on the inside in many ways._ Strength was an important thing they both looked for in boys, though admittedly, Makarov didn't think they realized that themselves. Neither of them hung out with most of the Guild members outside of here in the hall, but they did do so with Natsu, Gray, and Laxus…in a way, anyway. Ranma was similar in strength to those three, but more, he seemed to know something about how to flirt judging from a few comments Makarov had overheard, and seemed to be very easy going with all of them rather than either scared or antagonistic.

 _HAH! It's like throwing meat to a few hungry sharks,_ he thought, cackling as he watched Mirajane and Erza line up against one another across the bar. He wasn't worried about them coming to blows, however, as he saw a familiar sight racing around the Guild Hall now, heading straight for them.

Just as Mira and Erza were going to come to blows, they were stopped by the arrival of Carla, winging her way between them away from the chasing Happy. "Stop following me, you blasted tomcat! I was just trying to go to the bathroom!"

Carla had changed back into her Exceed body a few hours ago, being in danger of running out of magic. And instantly, Happy, who had seemed a little bemused and bothered by her human form, had started to chase her around again, going so far as to almost chase her into the bathroom.

"No! If I let you out of my sight you'll disappear again! I don't want you to go!" Happy bawled.

At that heartfelt plea, Carla twisted around slightly the air, still dodging him, but landing lightly beside Mira on the top of the bar. "I'm not about to go anywhere just now," she said with exasperation. "Both Wendy and Ranma are going to be coming back here after their—or, rather, his—work with the Council is over. Why would I leave?"

"I don't know," Happy replied, landing across from her and scuffing his toes into the top of the bar. "I don't even know why you left the first time."

Carla sighed. "I've told you before, I had been seeing Wendy in some of my prophetic dreams long before we left. I had to go with her when she appeared in front of me like that. I knew it was my destiny to be her friend, and it has worked very well over the years. I regret leaving Fairy Tail, I suppose, but these things happen sometimes. You shouldn't take it personally, and you shouldn't still be hung up on it!"

"How can I not be hung up on it?" Happy said, while Erza and Mirajane leaned back, watching this bit of drama unfold and putting their own conflict on the backburner for now. "You're Carla! You're the only girl for me."

"Wait, you know what boys and girls do together?" Mira asked, raising her hand just a little. "I know for a fact Natsu doesn't."

"Hey, I heard that! And I know perfectly well what boys and girls can do together!" Natsu shouted from nearby, where he had just plowed the stripper into the ground headfirst. The fact that Gray had once more lost his pants was almost ignored by the rest of the Guild, so used to the view were they by now. Even the girls, except for Lucy, of course, didn't seem to want to comment on it. And Lucy wasn't looking in that direction.

Lisanna and Anna looked at Natsu in shock from where they had been moving through the guild and taking orders from people, chorusing, "Wait, you do!?"

"You do?" Lucy asked, followed by Mirajane a second later, though her tone did not match the tones her little sisters' did. Rather, both of them sounded confused, and shocked in Lucy's case, and rather dismissive or suspicious in Mira's.

Across from the oldest Straus, Erza simply shook her head, knowing full well that was a lie.

Erza was proven correct a second later when Natsu nodded sagely. "Sure! You the same thing you do with boys. You fight them! Only you can't hit them in certain spots, and you can't pull their hair, because they get scary if you do."

Lisanna and Anna both shook their heads and turned away, muttering to themselves. "We're going to have to take desperate measures!"

"Desperate measures like tying him up or just kissing him out of the blue?" Lisanna muttered back. "I'm getting worried enough to try either! He's so perfect in every other way. Why can't he be even a slight bit more normal in this area!?"

"Hmm… Maybe if we take a page from my modeling job…" Anna murmured back. She was more outgoing and confident about her body than Lisanna and had stepped up to join Mira on her modeling jobs after the older girl had been approached by Sorcerer's Weekly. "If that doesn't work, then yeah, tying him up or drugging him."

Nearby, at the bar, Mira decided she really didn't want to hear her two younger siblings talking like this and turned away, looking down at Happy. "So? What would your answer to that one be, Happy?"

"Hold hands, hang out with one another, and fish!"

"That's a little better," Mirajane said, while Erza chuckled, muttering, 'like father, like son,' while Carla simply groaned.

Happy suddenly got a sly look on his face. "If you stay, you can live with Luigi! She's got a great place in town, and it's not like she's using it."

"I so am, you damn cat!" Lucy shouted. "And just because you and Natsu like to practice your breaking and entering on my apartment doesn't mean you have controlling interest on it! In fact, the last time I found you in my apartment you had slashed my drapes and the side of my sofa and had curled up in my underwear, of all things! What do you think about that, Carla?" Lucy said, suddenly smirking at Happy.

"Disgusting," Carla said, backing away from Happy. "And go put on some clothes for goodness sake!" she suddenly roared. Happy had stripped back to his normal lack of clothing at some point during the chase, much to Carla's chagrin.

"I don't understand why you have to have so many different colors of the same thing. And those clothes are irritating and itchy," Happy muttered, looking around then quickly and whipping out a fish from his magic knapsack, holding it out to Carla. "How about I give you my fish, and you promise to stay?" he asked, his mind still on trying to keep Carla from leaving again.

"I hate fish," Carla said bluntly. "It's disgusting."

Mira winced at that, watching Happy's eyes widen as he stared at Carla. She had been just about to say something along the lines of how Happy's fixation on Carla was like a little boy to his big sister or mother rather than a lover, but, after that remark, there didn't seem to be any need.

A split second later Happy turned away and leaped into the air, activating his Aera magic to fly away and dragging the fish behind him, shouting, "You monster!"

"Finally," Carla said, slumping and hopping up off of the bar to land on a stool in order to lean her head down against the bar itself. "Finally, some peace and quiet." She paused as Gray woke up behind them and immediately launched himself at Natsu, once again ignoring his own nakedness. "Relative peace and quiet, anyway, which I suppose is the best I'm going to see around here. Yet another reason why I want to go with Wendy and her idiotic older brother."

"That was rather harsh," Erza said. "Do you not think that was a bit too much?"

"Not at all," Lucy said with a shake of her head before Carla could speak. "With boys like Happy and Natsu, you have to be harsh, or you won't get through."

"Oh," Mira said, with a laugh, "and has that been working for you? I've heard about how often you have to give them your Lucy Kicks, and Natsu is still crawling through your windows or breaking your doors down to see you. It's enough to make me wonder about his interest in you," she finished slyly, her eyes glancing towards her younger siblings who had just returned to the bar for more orders. When Mira was behind the bar she routinely did the cooking and pouring, something she was better at than her younger siblings, which she was somewhat proud about, though she would never say it aloud.

The twins stiffened at the implication, looking torn between wanting to cry and to glare at Lucy, but Lucy quickly allayed their fears, waving her hand frantically in front of her face. "God, don't go there, Mirajane!" She then decided to throw the two younger girls a bone, seeing as they had been badly disappointed a few moments ago and looked as if they needed some encouragement. "Can you imagine what he'll be like if he ever does decide that girls are interesting? He'd go about it like a bull in a china shop, all full-speed ahead, battering away."

Both of the younger Strauss girls blushed at that, and even Erza got a thoughtful expression on her face, while Mira cackled, having said similar things numerous times before. Nearby, Elfman, who had also come to the bar to get a drink, blanched white and raced off, hurling himself into the fray growing slowly around Natsu and Gray. "A real man cares for naught but his fists and doesn't need such disturbing imagery!"

Lucy concluded her statement by saying, "Besides, he is so not my type."

"And what type would that be, exactly?" Cana asked, pushing herself against Lucy's back, her breasts squishing against Lucy while she reached around her to fondle Lucy's larger breasts. "What boy would you like to see get his hands on these beauties!?"

As Lucy turned, trying to get out of Cana's grip as the brunette began to fondle her rather expertly, the door banged open, interrupting their fun. Those who were not involved with the brawl between Natsu and Gray turned and saw a single Rune Knight standing there, looking a little winded. He gasped in the air for a second and then moved swiftly towards Erza. She stiffened, a feeling of dread filling her, but she did not move away, instead staring back at the man.

He was a tallish, trim man with short-cropped black hair and a slight tan to his features who wore the Rune Knight uniform like one born into it. "Erza Scarlet, I'm Sergeant Doranbolt of the Rune Knights. I was sent by the Council and by Ranma Oceana. We need you to come at once!"

"Of course," she said simply, standing up. "But may I ask what this is about? Is the guild as a whole in trouble for my and Ranma's bit of subterfuge?" It did not occur to her to have prevaricated or to have said that it was all Ranma's idea. That was just not how Erza thought.

"I cannot say much. They were still gathering details as I was ordered away, but Mr. Oceana discovered something that brought him to the Council by order of the king himself, and one of them, the young wizard, Saint Siegrain, attacked Mr. Oceana when he confronted them."

As a mere Rune Knight, and a low ranking one at that, Doranbolt had, of course, not been told about Ranma's special status. All he knew was that Ranma had been acting on the king's orders, delivering some kind of ultimatum. That ultimatum had been bad enough to force the traitor's hand.

"There was a battle, and he was forced to flee from the scene of the crime. We have no idea what why he attacked or what he was trying to cover up in doing so, but we will get to the bottom of this. Yet it was noted by a few of the other Council members that he seemed to take an inordinate interest in you, and Mr. Oceana decided he wanted to question you about it."

Fear coursed through Erza then, but it was not for herself or even for the guild as a whole now. No, this was fear for her old friends: boys and girls she had been forced to leave behind years ago, the boys and girls who she had lived through the torment of slavery with. The friends she had been forced to leave behind when their own friend, Jellal, changed into the very thing they'd been fighting in his madness. The same friends who Jellal had then held against her as hostages to force her to keep the tower secret.

"Oh, man! It really did come to a fight!" shouted a voice from nearby, breaking Erza out of her momentary stupor before anyone but Mira could notice it. She turned in that direction to see Natsu hop forward from the ruins of half their guildmates piled up behind him, a wild grin on his face that showed off his pointed canines, a sign of his Dragon Slayer heritage. "Hey, did he say anything about me! Ranma promised he'd call me in if there was going to be a fight! It was a promise between Dragon Slayers, man; he can't have forgotten!"

Natsu said this with conviction, Erza noticed, despite the fact that Wendy and Natsu had been the first 'real' Dragon Slayers he had ever met. He was also overlooking the fact he himself had broken a promise he had made with Wendy about not attacking her the other day.

"Um, actually," the Rune Knight muttered, staring at the pink haired boy in something approaching shock as Natsu seemed to breathe out little sparks of fire from between his sparkling, very pointed teeth. "He did mention you, and I am to take you along as well, though that will slow my speed down a lot. I use Teleportation magic, but the amount of weight I transport hinders how far I can go per jump."

"I take it we are to go and answer questions from Ranma and the Council?" Erza asked slowly, wondering, _what was going on here? Why had Siegrain run? Was the brother just as evil as his sibling had proven to be, only in a different way?_

A horrified part of Erza also wondered if the two brothers were actually in cahoots and what that would mean for her friends. But with the cat out of the bag, she didn't think that they would be executed, as they would have been if she had spoken out about the tower. _At least, not yet. But if I get involved in this, will they be used as hostages against me, held at gunpoint to force my actions in person? I have to get involved, but I also need to make certain they are safe. And what will the Guild think of me, keeping this a secret from them all, even the Master?_ She held back a shiver at that thought, coupled with the danger to her old friends.

"No, sir. Ranma and his young companion have already taken up the chase. They are heading to a port near where we believe that Siegrain will have left Fiore's shores." At the quizzical expression on Erza's face, Doranbolt elaborated. "The Magic Council's chairman has magic which can allow him to find anyone he has met personally, wherever they are in the country. It could be used to discover the man's location, and Siegrain, of course, knew about it, hence why he simply ran instead of trying to hide."

That made sense, but at his words even more foreboding entered Erza's mind. After all, the tower was on an island, and it certainly wasn't part of Fiore. _Could he have retreated to his brother's place? I thought that Siegrain's hatred of Jellal was legitimate, but I could have been duped. It wouldn't be the first time,_ she thought bitterly.

"Now, wait a minute! This sounds as if it's going to be an actual fight against a truly powerful dark mage, if he was able to gain the Wizard Saint appellations, anyway. I think you might need a bit more firepower if that's the case," Mira said, hopping up over the bar to land next to Erza, facing the Rune Knight.

"Hey! I've got plenty of firepower!" Natsu growled, only to wither slightly as Mira shot him a glare.

"If Wendy has gone along with one of Ranma's mad schemes once more, I certainly am not going to stay here and wait for them! That young man always seems to forget how fragile Wendy truly is," Carla said, hopping down from the barstool.

Remembering how Wendy had beaten him before, Natsu scoffed at that, but Happy piped up before he could speak up again. "Aye, sir!" That was Happy's way of saying he was coming along too.

"Now, wait a minute," Doranbolt said, holding up his hands placatingly. "I can't teleport you all like that, not and make any kind of time."

"We'll switch off, then," Carla said perfunctorily. "Myself and the tomcat will fly a few of them along. Both Mira and Erza can also fly under their own power, and they can take turns carrying you." Even so, Carla was somewhat worried about the idea.

"I think we can do better than that," Erza said, holding a hand up and looking over at a specific blue-haired girl sitting nearby. "Levy, we have need of you and your new technique…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Jellal had arrived safely back in the tower and had immediately begun to order his followers to ready themselves, including all of Erza's former friends. Simon, a large man several heads taller than Jellal, led them in. One of his eyes was covered by an eyepatch, and his jaw had been covered by metal. The others were equally odd looking, but Jellal had no time now to wonder about the why of such things.

"The Magic Council has discovered our plans and is terrified of losing their power in our perfect world," Jellal said without any preamble. "They are going to send some of their toadies after us, including possibly the great traitor herself!"

At that all of them looked, first worried, then eager, and he smiled grimly. "We have to be ready for them. Tell everyone else what's going on and prepare the tower. Simon, get me a copy of that magical circle you found a few months back. If push comes to shove, and we can't fight them off, we'll have to run. I'm not going to give up on our perfect world just because those in power rightfully fear what will happen to them when we achieve it!"

He was answered with a cheer from the four people in front of them, though he didn't notice that Simon's cheer was noticeably less enthusiastic than the others. One of them, Millianna, the only girl among the quartet, stepped forward and gestured to where Jellal was holding his ribs. "Are you hurt? Do you need some healing, nya?"

"That would be nice," Jellal said, leaning back in his chair. "The individual who outed our intentions broke two of my ribs when I had to flee. I gave as good as I got, else I wouldn't be here," he said, though he knew that was false. He had severely underestimated Ranma and had already been somewhat tired from using the emergency teleportation array. "But, even so…"

"Right," said the girl, turning away and racing out of the room. "I'll get one of the healing mages up here."

The others left quickly after that, and Jellal simply sat there in his chair. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes tiredly while the girl came back with a healer. His ribs had bothered him throughout his flight, and the exhaustion from both the fight and the flight itself was weighing heavily on him now. _Though we'll have a few days at least. No way could anyone walking keep up with me, and even with Crawford's magic, they won't find my trail any time soon._

 _Still, that doesn't mean I can't prepare more,_ he thought, standing up and thanking Millianna and the healer politely, getting smiles in turn.

That had been a masterstroke, Jellal reflected as he walked out the door. Convincing the old slaves to go along with things, to take part in the construction of the tower and everything else of their own free will rather than to force them at sword point. The work they had done had tripled, and they all thought they were working towards their own visions of the perfect world that each of them held in his or her head.

 _Fools. Only one being is worthy of calling forth the perfect world, and that is Zeref! And I very much doubt that his idea of the perfect world will match any of yours. But, then again, why should that matter? Why should the dreams of the weak matter when they themselves do not, in the great scheme of things?_

Soon enough he was up in his throne room, several levels above where most of his followers were allowed to go. There he found the three members of Trinity Raven, standing up from where they had been sitting around a table to one side of the room as he entered. These were a trio of mages banished from their guild, Death's Head Caucus of Pergrande.

Honestly, looking at the three of them, you would be hard pressed to think they were assassins at all, but that was what they were. The only one who actually looked dangerous was their leader, the Guild Master, a tall, fit, older man who wore an armored suit with glowing runes stamped into its metal plates here and there and a wide series of weapons hanging from his belt. Jellal, though, knew that those weapons were for show rather than where the man truly got his strength from.

He waved them off for a moment, moving past the throne room to a small hidden alcove where he pulled out a communication lacrima, its crystal a deep, blood red. This was a special lacrima, one that he had been given by his old ally and former teacher. He brought it up to his forehead and intoned, "Brain, we need to talk."

Guild Master Brain of the Oración Siete was currently hiding, if that was the proper term, with a few of his guildmates in a hotel in the capital of Joya. They were there so that Brain could use his magic, Archive, to access the royal library, ransacking it for knowledge. Of course, the magical locks on the library would have stopped that, but Angel and Racer had used their diverse skills to get in undetected the night before to unlock it. Since they had no wish to start a fight there, they had been subtle about it. Indeed, even Brain was somewhat undercover so that there would be no reason for anyone to suspect the theft had occurred at all. He was posing as an elderly academic from Minstrel; the others, his retinue.

The call from his old tool and current ally caught him as he was preparing for bed and was not, thankfully, in public. This meant that he could reply quickly, pulling out his own communication lacrima.

He listened to Jellal's recitation, then rolled his eyes. "You are arrogant, foolish, and possibly suicidal! I have heard of Oceana before. By the gods, I even met the boy briefly when he was much younger, before I met you, in fact. Those Rangers that specialize in magic tend to be incredible fighters, and he is no exception to that rule. And, while you may have fooled the Council into giving you that Wizard Saints label, we all know that that was so much hot air."

"I realize that now, but I didn't then," Jellal said, keeping his cool with difficulty. Actually, he thought his Wizard Saint title was well deserved, given his sheer power, but now wasn't the time to say that aloud. If the Ranger came against him again, though, then he could prove it on Oceana's dead corpse.

"I realize I made a mistake, but I was able to live through the experience and learn from it," he said aloud. "The Dragon Slayer's powers are formidable, as is his inherent durability as a Dragon Slayer. But I think I can overcome that and kill the bastard. But I doubt that he'll be coming after me alone. The rest of the Council will surely send forces after me, possibly including that traitorous trollop, Ultear."

"Our alliance with Grimoire Heart was just that, an alliance, and one of convenience. If the girl acted against you in such a manner, I have no doubt that the orders came from the old man, and that her purpose on the Council is yet to be filled, just like yours was," Brain remonstrated.

Jellal flinched at that. "I still have a communication crystal with her. If she can still convince the council to fire the canyon, we can salvage this…"

"But you would have to hold off a Ranger specializing in magical combat and whatever other forces the Council is sending against you. Hence why you are calling me, I assume."

"Yes," Jellal said, biting the word off as he was forced to do so. "I need help here, Brain. I have a lot of cannon fodder, but while I have faith in the strength of the Trinity Raven, there are only three of them. The others have a few little tricks up their sleeves, but nothing that couldn't be overcome by a powerful enough enemy, and I will not underestimate Oceana's power or abilities again, let alone whoever he brings with him. Hence, my calling you."

"Your goals were never ours. We two were only ever allied, Jellal. Closely, true, given how I helped train you years ago, and you repaid me by letting me have my pick of the children in the tower. But we are close to finding Nirvana. Any delay or dissipation of our forces could put off our own date with destiny," Brain said.

"But you would still need to unlock it, and for that you'll need me! The enchantment protecting Nirvana, wherever it is, has to be undone by a Council member, willingly, without duress in his mind or body. Or have you forgotten!?" Jellal shot back.

Brain was silent, scowling, and it was Jellal who once more filled the silence. "I am willing to do that for you later, but I need help now in turning aside whoever they will be sending after me. Is that too much to ask?"

It actually was, Brain reflected, and it was just like the brat to not recognize the real reason why. While Brain himself was relatively friendly with Jellal, seeing in his former tool a powerful, if deluded, colleague, the majority of his guild members could not separate the present from the past.

What not even Jellal knew was that the blue-haired young man had been Brain's tool long before they had met 'officially.' After the disaster at the Department of Magical Development in Iceberg, Brain had investigated numerous places for children whom he could connect to his Six Prayers magic. The Tower of Heaven had been a treasure trove for such, so, while Jellal was being tortured, Brain entered his mind via telepathy and removed some of his inhibitions, whispering to him as if Brain was Zeref.

 _What is truly amusing to consider is that that was all I did: just removed his inhibitions. Jellal's darkness was there all the time, just like it is in everyone. And my spell dissipated after a few months. After that, everything Jellal did is completely his own fault._

Besides Brain, their newest recruit, and Hoteye, the other four members of Oración Siete had originally come from the Tower of Heaven. All of them had been there under Jellal for a few years before Brain picked them out and knew the truth about his rule and his goals, which Brain had told them as part of his brainwashing them in turn. That meant that, while they would follow Brain's orders due to loyalty to Brain's cause, he knew they would not be happy about aiding Jellal.

Unfortunately, Brain knew he did still need Jellal if he was to open the magical lock keeping Nirvana from being found and accessed. The ancient Councilmembers were very good with enchantments like that, and this one was a particularly nasty one, which both hid Nirvana and would kill anyone who attempted to touch it without unlocking the enchantment first. Even millennia later, it was still powerful.

"Very well," Brain said with a sigh. "I will send you Cobra, Midnight, and our latest recruit." _Midnight and Cobra are the most rational of the brats and will be able to keep their anger at Jellal at bay._ "They are the only ones who can possibly reach you before any force from the Fiorian Mage Council can arrive."

"I'm also going to call in Ghoul Spirits and Naked Monkey to give me some more experienced cannon fodder," Jellal intoned.

"Very well. They should be able to get there in time, and neither guild is strong enough for their loss to bother me. But after this, Jellal, you had best be prepared to keep your end of the bargain. Or else I'll pull your precious tower down around your ears." At that Brain cut the connection on his end, pushing away from his hotel room's desk and moving to the door to give out what would no doubt be some very unwelcome orders.

Back in the tower, Jellal sighed with a scowl on his face. _Still, that went about as well as it could have I suppose. Old fool, once I have awoken Zeref, your Nirvana will be useless!_

Nearby the three members of Trinity Raven had heard all this. These were the former Guild Master of Death's Head Caucus, Narmenius, the odd owl/human hybrid Fukuro, and the Rocker of Succubus user, Vidaldus. They were all wanted men from Pergrande who had fled their former guild after backing the wrong side of the recent Pergrandian Civil War that occurred a few years back.

Following Narmenius's lead, the three of them had taken on an assassination job offered by one side of the civil war on General Roland, the king's younger brother and overall commander of his armies. As such, Roland was a legitimate target, but that wasn't why Narmenius had taken the job. He had taken it out of spite felt towards the man who had won his guildmate Ikaruga's heart, when he felt it should have been him who had done that. Fukuro followed Vidaldus into it, while Vidaldus owed Narmenius, so agreed to the job, despite reservations.

They had been unable to kill him, fleeing from his guards and their former guildmate, who was furious at their attempt on her husband's life. Returning to the guild they found that others who had taken assassination jobs from the disloyal noble side of the civil war had been arrested, and the rest of the guild was willing to turn on the three of them. They fled the country successfully and had plied their trade as best they could since. Jellal had hired them a bare week ago to be his agents in the rest of Fiore, for when he couldn't go himself.

Now, however, they all exchanged worried looks, having heard the name 'Oceana.' "Um, this Oceana fellow?" Vidaldus asked, his voice far more hesitant than it was normally. "What exactly would his first name be?"

"Ranma. Why? Have you heard of him?" Jellal asked, only to frown as all three of them looked at one another again.

"And, um, he's coming here, is he?" Vidaldus asked, now looking openly worried.

"Yes, as I've just been saying! What is the problem, Vidaldus? Surely you're not scared of the mere rumors you've heard of this Ranger?" Jellal asked.

"Rumors, no; reality, yes. I'm out of here," Vidaldus said, turning abruptly towards the stairwell down into the tower proper.

"Fwhooo! Indeed, no hero of justice can survive if someone rips out their heart and crushes it in front of their horrified eyes. I still remember watching Ranma do that," Fukuro said. Despite missing the vast majority of his marbles, there was nothing wrong with Fukuro's survival instincts, and some things did tend to stick in one's memory. "And he was only, what, twelve then? Fwhooo! He's no doubt become even stronger since then, Fwhooo!"

"Coming, Narmenius?" Vidaldus asked, pausing by the stairwell. Fukuro had instead moved to a nearby window ledge, and Vidaldus turned in that direction now too. Fukuro could easily carry both other members of Trinity Raven to the mainland if need be.

"Just, just wait a minute, all right?" Narmenius asked. He too looked worried at the idea of facing Ranma in a fight, but he also looked desperate, almost feverish. It wasn't just his money that had brought Trinity Raven to Jellal's service. No, Narmenius was interested in what else Jellal was offering: their wishes fulfilled by the Dark Wizard Zeref. "You, you're certain that Zeref would be able to make my dream come true? To make Ikaruga mine and erase Roland from her mind and body?"

"Yes, of course. Nothing is beyond Zeref's power. And you will be well rewarded for your service," Jellal said without a hint of hyperbole or doubt in his voice.

"Then I'm staying," Narmenius said, nodding his head sharply.

"I wish I could say it's been fun, then, Narmenius, but I can't. Sorry, old friend, but I prefer my skin in one piece too much to take on what I know is a losing proposition." With that Vidaldus hopped onto Fukuro, who activated his jet pack. An instant later the two semi-dark mages were out and away, heading for the horizon.

Watching them, Jellal scowled, irritated at the loss of the other two members of the well-known assassination team. _Still, the loss will be a minor one when the three Oración members get here. But I need to study that spell array that Simon foun_ _d,_ he thought, stand standing up and nodding to the remaining member of Trinity Raven to follow him to the stairs. _I can't simply abandon the tower. That would set us back decades! We are so close, so close to completion. Just another few months for the tower to be finished and ready. And then, and then Zeref would be resurrected! If we have to run, I need to prepare the entire tower to be moved if I can. On top of that, I can set up a charm to access the tower's Magical Drain enchantment and use that to drain enemies and allies alike. That could well prove the difference between victory and defeat._

Neither man noticed Simon sneak away from the doorway, his darkness spell covering him in a deeper than normal shadow. After they passed, he swiftly raced for a window, where he began to climb down several stories, entering another room soon after. The large youth had never been convinced of Jellal's story about Erza abandoning them, and even after that he had looked rather askance at how Jellal had twisted the former slaves around, making them think they were the bosses and that there was something noble about the tower's purpose; that it was only the methods the former owners used which had made it horrible.

What he had just heard confirmed some of Simon's worst fears. _Still, this attack Jellal's anticipating coming could be the opening I've been looking for. I hope that the time has finally come that we can break the chains in our minds like we did the chains on our bodies._

 **OOOOOOO**

At the same time that Jellal was preparing for Ranma's assault, Ultear sat with the Council going over everything they had found in Siegrain's chambers, trying to discover what he had been interested in, what he had researched, what orders he had given out as a Councilor, what jobs he had posted or backed, and everything about his past they could discover. But most of what they had discovered was…nothing.

There was nothing there, nothing substantial, anyway. All the paperwork was there, and he did have something of a paper trail, but once they actually sent people out to question individuals living where Siegrain was supposed to have come from, they didn't find anything. It looked as if they had all been completely and utterly fooled by someone who was, at best, a thought projection seventy percent of the time.

Worse for all of the Council members, King Toma had already been informed by Ranma about what had happened, Ranma having done so before setting off with Wendy. After which, the king had gotten in touch with them.

Normally an affable, laid-back, and, above all, hands-off sort of king who had a sense of childlike wonder about magic, King Toma had ripped the Council into pieces with his words and had come close to stripping the Council of some of its powers entirely. Instead, he had determined that he alone would be in charge of nominating new council members, something which the council had been doing among itself before.

Toma would be doing so immediately after Siegrain was either arrested or otherwise taken care of. The three most senior members of the Council, Crawford and two others, would all be relieved of their duties following this, though they had been given a final task by their king in order to save some face. If they could do it, he would let it be known that they were simply stepping down, rather than fired. This task was to create a spell or enchantment to detect Thought Projections.

"Of course, the rest of us aren't exactly getting off scot-free," Ultear said to herself, leaning back and stretching, thrusting out her chest in such a way as to make the two guards by the door gulp audibly. She smirked at that, keeping it hidden with difficulty before going back to her work.

 _Hopefully, this won't last long, but I wish I could've convinced the king that I should be sent after Ranma to help him against Jellal. But whatever can be said about his attitude towards magic and its administration, King Toma is a very shrewd little dwarf, much like a few others of similar height I could name. He's concerned about my background too and the fact that I joined the council only a very few months after Siegrain did, despite my having worked my way up the ranks, while he did not. Still, I can leave that in Mister Hades' hands._

Looking back at her work, she began to scribble some notes, even though her mind turned to Ranma. _Handsome, down to earth with a decent sense of humor, eyes that you could drown in, and he was fascinatingly powerful. He took on Siegrain as if he was enjoying it, too, which tells me a lot about his personality. Indeed, Ranma reminds me a little of…_

She shook that thought off violently, shaking her head so much that one of the other Council members at the table looked at her quizzically. But she didn't reply to his look, simply waving him off and staring down at the paper, unseeing. _No! No! Azuma and Ranma can never be allowed to meet! One combat junky is bad enough, but two?! Ugh! Think happy thoughts, Ultear. Maybe if things play out right you'll have a first row seat to Jellal getting his just deserts. And after, maybe I can contrive to get away from here for a bit to…get to know Ranma more deeply._

 **OOOOOOO**

It took about a day and a half to cover the distance between Magnolia and the port where Ranma and Wendy had gone to see if they could find a trail leading to Siegrain's location. They had traveled via a mix of the Rune Knight's teleportation spell and the adroit use of Levy's new skill with her Solid Script magic. While the Rune Knight rested, they would all sit on Levy's cloud formation. Happy and Mira or Carla and Erza would provide them direction, Natsu would provide them thrust. This way they kept going all the time, and they didn't even really tire themselves out, save for the Rune Knight, who had never transported so many people at once before.

After arriving in the port, it took them about an hour to find the two Dragon Slayers. The two of them were posing as wandering minstrels in one of the hostels. Indeed, as Erza and the others entered the inn where they had been told that a young blue haired girl and a red-haired woman—or a black-haired, young man; they had asked questions about both—were staying, the two of them were in the midst of putting on a play. Ranma was doing the singing, while Wendy had created dancing dolls and other imagery via Light magic to go along with the story that Ranma was telling. And, to the surprise of all save Carla, Ranma's singing voice was actually quite good.

Looking up from where she had been bowing and shaking hands, Ranma noted their arrival and nodded at them, though she looked a little confused when her eyes rested on Mira and Levy. Despite that, she smiled as she moved over to them. "Glad you lot could make it. And Natsu, I'm glad you finally decided to notice how great of a supporter Levy could be to a Dragon Slayer."

Levy flushed at that, while Wendy cocked her head from where she had moved behind her Onii-chan the moment the show was over. She didn't like being put on the spot like that, but Ranma had convinced Wendy to take part in order to build their cover. "I thought you said you were on a team called Shadow Year or something with those two other boys. Where are they?"

"We had to leave them behind. For a trip this long, adding more people would've only slowed us down," Erza said, while Levy winced, remembering the conversation, if it could be called that, which Erza had had with her two teammates to convince them to stay behind.

Natsu scoffed, reaching up to pat Happy where he was lying in his hair. "I've already got a support partner: Happy! I'll admit Levy's magic is kind of cool, but she's got her own team, and I've got mine. So, do we have any time to spar before we get on the business here?" he asked, changing subjects to something far more interesting to him. "I mean, you fought a Wizard Saint, man! How cool is that!?"

"It was rather disappointing rather than cool, in my opinion," Ranma replied with a giggle, causing Natsu to flinch and mutter about the curse and how weird it was while Ranma looked over at Erza. "What did the Rune Knight tell you all?"

"He told us what happened but not what caused it or any of the other background information. Can you tell us now?" Erza asked.

"Not here," Ranma replied, gesturing for them all to follow as she nodded at Mira. "Mira, good to see you, though I'm surprised you came along, really."

"I might not take that many jobs lately, but that doesn't mean I've lost the urge to fight. I'm still an S-class mage." Mira shot back.

"I can understand that, of course, and I wasn't commenting on your abilities." Ranma said with a wave of his hand. "You just didn't seem the type to be all that interested in sticking your nose in other people's troubles."

"Shows what you know," said every other Fairy Tail mage there, even Erza. Mira pouted at that, but Erza spoke up, overriding whatever she was about say. "You might not have realized this, but this silver haired witch is actually one of the most nosy and bossy people within the guild."

"Now, nosy I can take," Mira growled, thrusting her face into Erza's space. "But bossy? Coming from you!? That's worse than the pot calling the kettle black; that's like, like…a dwarf star calling Natsu dense!"

"None of that!" Ranma interjected, grabbing both their shoulders and pulling them along. "Come on, we've got to talk about more serious things."

Natsu and Levy both stared in shock, but the two girls actually subsided, following after Ranma quickly, letting Ranma pull them along as Wendy and Carla followed, talking to one another. "She/he interrupted their fight and didn't get whacked? Have we entered some weird alternate dimension or something like that stuff Lucy writes about?" Natsu whispered.

"I don't think so. There was no flash of light or anything. Maybe they're actually tired from the trip? Or maybe Erza is more worried about what's going on here than she lets on?" Levy surmised. With that they both nodded at one another, then raced after the others.

In Ranma's room, Wendy, Carla, and Happy sat to one side, with Carla continuing to fuss over the girl before being pulled into Wendy's lap. There the girl started scratching behind her ears at just the right spots, and Carla subsided while Happy looked on in shock. Carla had never let anyone in the guild do that to her bar Lisanna, and, even then, rarely. But Wendy had just done that without even any preamble, as if it was an everyday thing.

"Before we start," Ranma said, holding up with a hand and intoning a Requip spell. The armor she'd borrowed from Erza fell into her hands, and she held it out to Erza. "Here you go." After handing the armor over, Ranma then pulled out a bottle of water, which she heated before dumping it over her head, changing back to his normal body now that they were out of sight.

"Thank you, Ranma," Erza said, taking the armor from him with a smile. "This is one of my favorite sets. The armor I'm wearing currently is the older version of my everyday armor and is rather uncomfortable in certain areas." An instant later, she had once more placed the armor into Requip space before pulling it right back out, transforming from wearing what she had been wearing to her more normal set.

She didn't notice Ranma and his eyes flicking down to her chest. _Yep, she really does fill that a lot better than I do._ To one side Mira had noticed this bit of eye movement and scowled, but didn't say anything. There would be a time and place later to flirt with the Ranger.

Gesturing for the three girls to sit on the bed, Ranma sat on the floor, leaning back against the wall near where Wendy and the two cats were sitting. Natsu sat across from him, the group making a sort of triangle in the small, spartan room that Ranma had rented for his and Wendy's time here.

"Okay, since that transportation guy didn't give you all enough of the background, here it goes. Like I told you, I wanted to deliver a message to the Council, mainly from Toma and from the surrounding countries. They've all become a little irritated at how much, or how many, I should say, of your dark guilds tend to range over onto their own nations.

"After proving I was sent by the king, I demanded to speak to all the Council members in person. It turned out that a lot of them were using Thought Projection, including Siegrain, though none of the others realized he could use that magic. Later on, as I'm pushing for more and more information about how a lot or resources—gold, food, stone, lacrima crystals, wood—are going missing, Jellal attempts to kill me. After a short fight he runs away, and Wendy sees the direction he's running in."

"… That is a very short description, I feel," Mira said. Natsu was too busy staring at Ranma in something like hero worship. Telling the council what to do, then starting a fight with one of them? That was a dream for the rowdy Dragon Slayer.

For her part, however, Erza was in something like shock. _A thought Projection!? He was using a Thought Projection? For how long, for how many years? Why!?_ With that bit of information, the last clue Erza needed to realize that the two 'twins' were actually one and the same person occurred to her, and she now knew what to do. _I can't run anymore. I have to face my past, take a chance, and get my old friends out from under his thumb any way I can!_

"After Wendy and I arrived here, we asked if anyone had seen a shooting star in the sky of late, since that's what Siegrain looks like when he's flying. We had to be careful since I was afraid he might have agents here. But if he does, they haven't done anything to make me notice them. He went out to sea from nearby in a straight line. So, somewhere out there is his hideout."

There Ranma paused, looking at Erza. "I have no idea what his plan for those resources was, why he was on the council, or what could be out there. That bit of background is why I asked for you to be brought here, Erza. Everyone on the council agreed that Siegrain seemed to have taken an inordinate amount of interest in Fairy Tail and you personally. Do you two have some kind of history that could help us figure out his overall plan or where out there he's hiding? If he was just heading out to a ship out of sight of land, we'll never find him again without some clues."

"Oh, we will," Erza said with a cold look on her face. "We will, because I can lead you right to him, I think." Licking suddenly dry lips, she went on, looking around at her guildmates. "First, you and Mira have both heard some of this before, but not the entire thing. I have, I have kept my past secret before now, fearing what could happen if I did not. For that bit of distrust, I ask you to forgive me."

All three Fairy Tail mages' eyes narrowed at that, but they also all nodded instantly, forgiving her before she even told them about what she had been hiding or why.

"I met the individual known as Jellal—I think that is his real name, not Siegrain—when I was a slave at a place that its owners called the Tower of Heaven. I never realized they were one and the same until just now. The tattoo was on the wrong side and Siegrain seemed to care about appearances and power, while Jellal only cared about serving the dark mage Zeref as best he could.

"The two of us were leaders among the children who made up about a third of the slaves in the tower, and he and I were actually respected by the adult slaves too. While there, we learned magic from an old member of Fairy Tail, named Rob…"

From there she told the sad history of the Tower of Heaven and her part in it. How Erza and Jellal had attempted to lead a slave rebellion, only to be overcome. How they had both been tortured separately, during which Erza had lost her right eye. How she had somehow pushed through the pain to access her magic to a far greater degree than before, and how she had led a second rebellion on the heels of the first which succeeded, only to discover that her friend had changed. Instead of wishing to escape or tear down the tower, he had decided to keep the work going. He had come to worship Zeref, just like the cultists who had enslaved them all.

"At that, I tried to fight him, but was overcome. After that I tried to flee, to tell the others about the change that had come over him, but Jellal caught me. For some reason he didn't want to kill me. He said he wanted me as a tool, a sacrifice for later. But neither was he going to let our friends go. I have no idea what lies he's told them over the years, but I have no doubt that our friends are still there under his thumb, hostages to my keeping it a secret, and as workers for the tower, too. Yet, given how this has come about, their safety can no longer reside solely in me staying silent."

She fell silent for a moment, then continued. "When I first met Siegrain, I thought he was Jellal, of course, but he convinced me somehow, I can't remember how, that they were different people. I was suspicious of him, of course, and could tell Siegrain was just as ambitious, if not as evil, as his twin, but with his own plans. He dropped little hints that he was looking for his brother occasionally and even that some of our, our old friends had been seen here and there in Fiore. Or rather, that their bodies had shown up. Mostly the adults, but once or twice the bodies of former child slaves that I, that I recognized. These were signs that Jellal was still out there, but that my friends were still safe, yet in danger, so I, I could do nothing but continue to keep the secret."

After listening to Erza's history, Mira and Levy looked sad, putting their arms around their friend. Wendy also got in on the act, hopping up and over to wrap her arms around Erza's middle where she sat on the bed.

Natsu and Ranma on the other hand were just pissed off, incredibly furious. Natsu was furious because of the mental torment his guildmate had been going through and how evil this bastard must be to have done that to her. Ranma was pissed off about that on top of the fact that this group had been using slaves to do their dirty work. Slavery was one of a few buttons that would always set Ranma off, and this time it sounded even worse. It sounded as if Jellal had somehow persuaded the former slaves to remain.

"Your friends, they could've been lied to, of course," he said. "But the other prisoners, you mentioned some of their bodies being found, but not a lot of them. So how likely is it that Jellal was able to convince them all to stay, to work on this tower willingly instead of as prisoners?" he asked after letting the Fairy Tail mages have a few minutes to compose themselves.

"I would estimate it at quite high. Jellal was always persuasive, even before his personality twisted," Erza said, a wistful look on her face.

Mira noticed this and leaned in slightly. "There's a story behind that, isn't there?"

Erza rolled her eyes, but couldn't help a small blush coming to her cheeks. "I might've had a bit of a crush on him when we were young. He was the most handsome boy there and also the strongest one, willing to stand up both against me and the guards." She shook her head quickly, dispelling that memory. "But that feeling has long since faded."

Hesitantly, Levy asked, "Um, so you, um, you don't have feelings for him in that way any longer, not even friendship? If you did, we'd understand, but it might slow you down if you ever…"

She was interrupted by Erza patting her on the knee, the wistful look gone from the redhead's grim face. "No, I have no feelings for Jellal any longer beyond loathing. What idiot would still have feelings for someone after so long, and after he threatened to torture and murder all our other friends if I betrayed the fact that the tower where we were all enslaved and brutally tortured was still in one piece, and he was working on it?"

"Right," Levy said, scooting away from the other girl a little at the look in Erza's eyes as she recited that. "Forget I asked."

"Good," Mira muttered, counting points on her fingers. "So, we know there's an island somewhere out there. We know Jellal's arrogant enough to think he got away clean once he hit the ocean, so he might not have deviated from his course. We know some of what we'll face and something of his long-term goal. What we still don't know is why he was on the Council in the first place and how that furthered his goal of finishing this tower. I mean, becoming a Council member actually put the limelight on him. Why take that chance when he could have kept out of sight and gathered the resources he needed through other means?"

"I don't know," Erza replied, "but whatever it was, it would not have been good."

"True," Ranma said with a nod, staring out the window where the night sky was pitch black. "It's getting a little late now," he said. "I will approach the local port commander and convince him to loan us a ship and a crew of Rune Knights. We'll set out first thing tomorrow."

He stood up, looking around at the others. "Look, this isn't going to be a mission like what you might be used to, so I'll say it plain. Any former prisoners we run into out there can be captured if possible. But any Dark mages, and this includes Jellal, can and indeed should be put down permanently. By which I mean you need to be prepared to kill them." He watched as Natsu and Levy both shifted uncomfortably, and even Mira winced. Erza didn't. She simply nodded grim agreement. "If you can't handle it, you're free to stay here and wait for us to come back."

Wincing at Natsu's roar of, "FUCK that!" which hurt his ears, Ranma sighed. "All right, I'm sorry I said anything now."

 **OOOOOOO**

By breakfast the next day, Ranma had commandeered a local war galley, complete with crew, earlier that morning. Indeed, the locals had been warned to expect him and several accompanying mages, and, though the commander of the ship was not happy to work with Fairy Tail, a guild known to be destructive in the extreme, he was willing to bow to both law and need in this case. The man had also been told about Jellal's defection, and the idea of fighting someone who had claimed both a Council seat and the title of Wizard Saint was beyond worrying and heading into the realm of terrifying.

Under various disguises, so that if Jellal did have agents in the port they wouldn't notice what was happening, the group moved through the city in small groups, coming together onboard the ship. Once they left port, they all came out from their various hiding places, meeting up below the mainmast. The ship didn't technically need masts since it rarely moved under sailing power, instead using a magical steam engine, but the backup was a good idea. And the extra height could help any lookout up there.

Natsu, who, like Ranma and Wendy, had been hit by Wendy's Troia before they set out, whipped off a long coat and a black scarf he had been using to cover his hair, grinning at Ranma. "Damn, Ranma, that was so awesome! Are you a ninja too on top of being a Dragon Slayer!? That's so awesome! And you, Wendy, this spell, where have you been all my life? It's so awesome!"

"Heh, nah, nothing like that. I'm just me. I've learned how to hide myself in a lot of different ways over the years," Ranma replied, helping to pull a wig off Wendy's head so as to not pull her long hair.

She, in turn, hopped off a pair of long stilts as she threw off an equally long coat, looking a little bashful as Carla let go of her stomach, where she had been imitating a small belly. "T, thank you, Natsu-san, but I should warn you that if you use Troia too much your body will develop an immunity to it."

As Natsu slumped, looking like a child who had just been told his birthday gift had been canceled, Wendy craned her head upwards, smiling widely at the crow's nest high above them.

"None of that," Ranma admonished. "Let's start making some specific plans, then you can go exploring." Wendy pouted, but Ranma had already turned away, looking at Erza. "Erza? I asked ya last night to try and make up a basic map. Did you finish?"

She nodded and pulled out a very, very makeshift map that she had created from the memory of what she could remember from the island.

They all stared at Erza's map in silence for a moment as her face became redder and redder, then Ranma chuckled, followed instantly by Natsu. "What!?" Erza exclaimed, flushing hotly. "It's the best I could make!"

"I'm not doubting your memory…" Ranma began, only to be interrupted by Mira.

"What we're doubting is your ability to draw! My God, Erza, it looks like a five-year-old drew it!"

"All right, then, you do better, I dare you!" Erza shot back.

Mira flushed at that. The only time she ever drew anything was with Reedus's magic pen. It allowed her to draw somewhat decently, but even so, she wasn't exactly good at it either.

"I can try," Wendy piped up, moving over to stand by the redhead, pulling out another piece of paper and putting it down by the drawing. "Does the actual shape of the island matter at all, Ranma-nii?"

"Not particularly," Ranma said with a shake of his head. "Only the size of it in comparison to people, the size of the tower and any other important bits, and where they are in relation to one another."

Patting Wendy on the head in thanks, Erza looked down at the map thoughtfully. "It isn't a large island. We won't have to worry about any long march or being attacked for any length of time before we reach the tower. It is just large enough from one end to the other, I think, to make a ship at the end be unable to fire on the tower, but since you can simply sail along the other edges, as I said, that won't matter. The entire island is rocky. Nothing can grow there; there's no soil, no real dirt even, and the weather was so bad any attempt to make farms would have failed. Everything we ate when we were slaves had to be brought in or grown within the tower itself. I imagine that is still the case.

"The tower itself was around fifteen stories tall when I was there. I have no idea whether that remains the case. It's large, though. I would say around half a mile in diameter? Something like that. It dominates the island, is my point," Erza said, sighing at the memories that thinking about that cursed tower evoked.

Wendy dutifully colored in the island, looking as if she was having fun doing so, and finishing by making up a large circle that covered half the island, the back of it, from her own perspective.

"Here is where the ports were," Erza went on as the child finished, gesturing to the leftmost portion of the island to one side of the tower. "It's a little cove, barely big enough for two regular sized ships at once, with a series of steps that lead directly up into the tower itself. To one side of it there used to be an old quarry, but we stopped using stone from there within my first year as a slave. The stone of the island just wasn't suitable for anything beyond the base of the tower, and we were in danger of destabilizing the island, somehow."

"Do you think that any prisoners or slaves would be kept within the tower itself, or would they be in this old quarry of yours?" Ranma asked.

"Within the tower itself," she replied without even taking a second to think about it. "That's where we were, in the dungeons underneath it. That is where my old friends have been kept, if Jellal kept his word on not harming them for my silence, anyway."

"I don't think we're going to be able to sneak up on him, right?" Mira asked. "Even if he isn't using magic, a person with a spyglass on top of a tower fifteen stories tall is going to see us coming a long time before we come in sight of the island ourselves.

"Agreed. So here's what we're going to do. I think we should split into groups of three. One team will be the attack team. Natsu, Erza, that'll be you and Happy, I suppose."

"Heck, yes!" Natsu shouted, throwing his arms into the air as they lit on fire. "Full speed ahead, smashing our way in! That's the Fairy Tail way!"

Rolling his eyes good-naturedly at the younger Dragon Slayer while Mira and Erza laughed but didn't argue with him, Ranma turned to his little sister. "Wendy, I'll want you and Carla to remain with our ship. Commander, you'll take your ship around the island a few times. See if you can take the tower itself under fire once the fighting on the island gets going. Until then, just stay out to sea and be big and obvious."

"Oh, you're going to make us bait, then?" Carla growled. "I do not like the idea of putting Wendy in danger like that."

"I am the Water Dragon Slayer, and this ship's going to be on the ocean. If Wendy is in danger, I'll do something about it pretty damn quick, you can better believe that," Ranma said with a sigh at Carla's overprotection.

Despite the fact that Wendy didn't like fighting, she was more than willing to do her part. So she nodded resolutely before saying shrewdly, "You're not making us bait, Onii-chan, you're making us support, right?"

"Yep," Ranma said with a smile, reaching over and ruffling her hair. "We're going to have prisoners, ex-slaves, and possibly hostages that we'll need to remove from the tower before we can really take the fight to them. The ship will be where we store them."

"Wait a minute; then why are we going at all?" Natsu asked, pointing at himself and Erza.

"You two are the bait Carla just mentioned," Ranma said bluntly. "You'll be grabbing everyone's attention and stuffing it right down their throats while I sneak in and free the prisoners. _If there are any,_ he thought, looking at Erza who was also looking thoughtful and worried as he mentioned her friends.

"What about us, then?" Levy asked, gesturing to Mira and herself.

"You'll be up high," Ranma said, "able to come to either Wendy's help or Erza's. The key will be to keep pushing; keep the defenders off-balance and concentrating on you so they don't even notice what I'm doing until I have the prisoners."

A few hours later, the ship finally began to sight the island in question, which was, as Ranma had predicted, exactly on a straight line following the direction Jellal had been seen from the port. Either he was just arrogant or simply assumed that he had lost anyone following him by that point. Regardless, Ranma was grateful for his lack of foresight.

From ahead of the ship the 'whump' of cannons began to sound from the tower, the sight of which caused Erza to gasp in horror. The tower looked nearly complete! It was far larger than it had been, at least thirty to forty stories now, instead of the fifteen it had been. "Jellal, what have you done!"

"Doesn't matter; we're here to stop him, remember?" Ranma said. "Assault team, go!"

Erza nodded, then glared ahead of her and roared out, "Requip: Soaring Eagle Armor!" This was a specially made armor that she had designed for herself which could let her move in the air for long distances without draining much in the way of her magical reserves, the cost of using it being barely a tenth of what it would have cost to use her other flight capable armors over the same distance. It lacked much in the way of offensive power, but made her almost as agile as Happy or Carla in the air.

Its look matched the austerity in terms of magical power, consisting of a simple, skintight uniform from head to toe with armor only covering her chest and stomach, leaving her legs bare beyond a set of boots that ended in talons. And, of course, the large wings, each of which were made of equal parts metal and feathers and were the same size as Erza was standing up.

She nodded at Ranma, not noticing his blush at how formfitting this set of armor was. He had blushed earlier too when Mira and Levy had left to head up into the clouds and he had seen Mira's Satan Soul Takeover form this time with attention to spare on appreciating it. _Damn, these Fairy girls. What the hell do they feed them in this guild?_

"I bet I get there first," Natsu shouted, followed by a quick, "Aye, sir!" from Happy as they raced to the prow of the ship.

"This isn't a race, Natsu!" Erza barked back angrily, the sight of the tower having put her in a very dark frame of mind. "Remember what we're here to do." So saying, she launched herself into the air after her guildmate, skimming over the deck for a moment, intending to fly nape of the earth—or ocean, in this case—to reach the island. She felt that that would make her a harder target to hit.

The two of them had just reached the prow when Ranma zoomed past them, running faster than either of them was moving. The instant he was between them and under one of Erza's wings, he pulled the Umi-Sen-Ken around himself, disappearing from sight. To one side of him Natsu and Happy blinked, staring at where he had just been and whispering, "Ninja," in awed tones to themselves.

Erza simply shook her head. "Despite the fact that I have seen it before, that is still disconcerting." She could tell it wasn't quite a magical move; there was no warning, and it was too complete, really, to be any true invisibility technique she had ever heard of. It was like he had simply slipped out of her ability to perceive, somehow.

Shaking her head, she launched herself into the sky, following after Natsu and Happy, who had leaped into the air an instant before her. "Here we go, little buddy! Karyu no Afutaabaanaa (Fire Dragon's Afterburner)!" Natsu roared, flinging them forward like a rocket.

Ahead of the Rune Knight vessel, three ships moved into view over the horizon between them and the island. Erza banked quickly to one side, dodging both those ships and several incoming cannon balls, a few of the cannons attempting to range on her, though the majority were firing at the Rune Knight vessel. It, in turn, was protected by Wendy and its own cannons, which it could use in defense mode to disrupt the incoming blasts of magical energy.

Erza was just attempting to get to land. Not so, Natsu. One of the ships learned this to its cost when it maneuvered to be directly in front of Natsu and Happy's course to the island. But, mindful of Ranma's orders to close with the island as quickly as possible, Natsu didn't bother with his normal niceties of fighting everyone aboard. Instead he simply barreled through it like a flaming asteroid. "Karyu no Hishou Keika (Fire Dragon's Soaring Passage)!" he shouted, slamming into and through the ship from one side to the other, his entire body on fire.

Then he was quickly picked up by Happy on the other side. The Exceed had dropped him an instant before as Natsu ordered him to when his aura began to be too hot for the Exceed to handle. "Awesome, Happy!" he shouted, grinning as he pumped his fist in the air. "Our teamwork is impeccable."

"Aye, sir! Just don't do any more moving or I'll be forced to drop you to feed the fishies!" Happy replied.

Shaking her head at her friend's, honestly, rather predictable actions, Erza winged her way around the ships, swiftly landing next to Natsu on the shores of the island.

"Hah!" Natsu bawled out, pointing at her. "I win! A straight line's always the fastest way to anything." So saying, he looked around, shivering a little at something he couldn't quite feel or sense. "This place gives me the heebie-jeebies for some reason."

"Oh, this place will pull every heebie out of you, Natsu, believe me," Erza said caustically. She banished her Soaring Eagle armor to pull out her normal suit, a sword popped into one hand followed rapidly by another in her second. "Let's get a move on."

 **OOOOOOO**

Above them, Jellal scowled as he tried to find where the Ranger was. His scrying lacrima was far more powerful here on its own turf than any blocking spell that could have been set up on the Rune Knight ship. He had seen them coming long before even a lookout in his throne room could have. But he still couldn't see where the Ranger had gone!

"Where is he!" Pulling back the view to see more of the growing sea battle, he neglected to actually pull his view higher than the tower itself and so missed the fact that Levy and Mira were actually flying above the island now, staring down at it and waiting to get involved with any fight that occurred there. "He has to be on the ship. He can't just have disappeared."

With that in mind, he gave orders to the two remaining, ships both of which had the majority of the Ghoul Spirit Guild on them. "Attack the ship. Keep it away from the island as much as possible. The rest of us will handle the two mages who got by you."

With that he stood up, looking at his three new allies for this fight. "I trust that you can be trusted to find your own way to fight the invaders? You don't need me to hold your hands?"

One of his guests, the largest one, simply huffed and turned away, making for the stairs leading down. Of the other two, one was feigning sleep, and the other simply glared at Jellal. He smirked, but said nothing, turning his attention back to his lacrima.

 **OOOOOOO**

Erza's description of the island had been spot on. It was small, incredibly rocky, had no flat place in which to grow crops, and had no soil to do that in the first place. In many ways it was a dead island, like many Ranma had seen before elsewhere, utterly without life. And almost as soon as Natsu and Erza had landed, they began to come under long-range fire accompanied by loud monkey noises, for some reason, in the distance.

Natsu simply ignored the solid musket balls for the most part. They hit his body and then just sort of bounced off, his Dragon Slayer durability well up to the task of ignoring any musket ball sent his way. The magical bullets he knocked out of the air with a lightly flaming hand. Those, he knew from previous experience, would sting if they hit.

On the other hand. Erza didn't even bother letting them touch her. She simply slashed both types of bullets out of the air with her swords as the two of them charged towards where the shots were coming from.

"Dark Guild Naked Monkey," Erza yelled to Natsu as she spotted one of the shooters where they were hiding in among the rocks. "They use Guns magic exclusively. I overheard Bisca and Alzack mention at one point wanting to hunt them down if the Council would let them."

"Too bad they won't get that chance, then, because we're going to kick their asses right here!" Natsu shouted gleefully, as he uses a Fire magic assisted boost to leap forward and up into the air. He landed in among some of the Naked Monkey Guild members. Fists flashed this way and that, Natsu not even bothering to use his magic for a moment. Happy even leaped off of his head, getting in one of the villains' faces, his tiny claws slashing at them, though doing nowhere near the damage that Carla would have in a similar case. But even so, for these weaklings, it was enough.

Erza was then in among them too, and the Naked Monkey's members tried to fall back, break contact, and run, only to find out that these mages were several dozen steps above the kind they were used to fighting.

The only reason none of them died was because the two Fairy Tail mages were holding back just enough to not kill them. Natsu did this automatically. Despite his combative nature, Natsu had never killed anyone and wasn't even certain he could if he had to. Erza, on the other hand, had killed, not only in the slave rebellions she had led but also on missions occasionally when she ran into rapists or slavers. Pirates, too, occasionally, since they were normally also slavers and rapists, while bandits, in Fiore, at least, were simple robbers, knowing that doing more would bring the guilds down on their necks.

These Naked Monkey Guild members, however, were so pathetic she saw no need to kill them. But bruised and, in many cases, broken, none of them were in any position to realize their good fortune. Even as they were dealing with the Naked Monkeys, however, they were still taking shots from further inland where there were more of the guild along with robe wearing cultists, the sight of which caused Erza's eyes to widen in shock and horror.

Above them, Mira took that as her cue to get involved. Hopping off of the cloud she and Levy were flying on, high above the tower, she raced downwards, summoning her Satan Soul Takeover magic around her as she did. Above her Levy twisted away, having no wish to get in close. She instead started to fly around the tower, shooting out iron spears made up of the words 'iron spears' at the few remaining cannons there. The ungainly weapons were too slow to use against actual people but still did damage, knocking the cannons off their mountings.

"Devil Spark!" Mira shouted, lashing out with her magic just before she impacted the group herself. The dark purple and black blast of magical energies slammed into the gathered mages, hurling them every which way just before she arrived, then she moved close in, hard punches and kicks sending men and women flying. "Pathetic! These punks better not be the best this Jellal guy has to offer, or else this is going to be boring."

Looking up, she scowled and twisted her head to one side to dodge a glowing magical knife, then leaped aside as a scimitar with a blade larger than her own body slammed into where she had just been standing. A shield, thrown sideways, smacked into her shoulder, sending her spinning, but she recovered quickly, using her tail to lash out and smack an incoming sword away, which dissipated in midair.

Then a blast of magical power impacted her, but she took it on her forearm, barely even moving as she returned fire with her other hand. "Soul Extinctor!" This spell gathered magic into her clawed hand and then lanced out in a beam of purple and black energy.

Purple and black was the color for all of Mirajane's magic spells. It was a sign of the soul, in this case, Satan's, that she had Taken Over.

As the two blasts of magic faded, she stared at the man who had attacked her from the entranceway leading into the tower. He, in turn, dispelled a massive spiked shield from in front of him, wincing as he did so.

Mira stared at the man then smirked, straightening out and cracking her knuckles, an odd sound, given the fact her hands had changed into something that wouldn't have seemed out of place on a demon, complete with scales. "I recognize you from a wanted poster," she said conversationally, her devilish face giving her smirk a certain dangerous air. "Former Guild Master of Death's Head Caucus, wanted for the near assassination of several people in Pergrande. I thought you had lost your life against your former guildmate, some kind of the swordswoman, I heard?"

"Nearly," the man growled. "I **nearly** lost my life against Ikaruga. Stupid bitch, never understood where her place in the world was. Ikaruga was mine, damn it, and that prince came in, flashing his gold and his castle, and she bent over and licked his feet!"

"Really, you're going to say that kind of shit to me, of all people?" Mira growled, her eyes twitching as her devil soul magic flared around her hands and eyes. "You know, I never fought a guild master before. This could be fun!"

With that she charged forward, her wings flaring out behind her as the man quickly conjured up another weapon, this time a massive spear, and charged in turn.

Meanwhile, as the last Naked Monkey mage in front of her fell, Erza turned to address Natsu, only to see that he had leaped over a series of rocks, moving after some of the other enemy mages who had attempted to retreat. She made to move after him, thinking it best to they stay together, but she was interrupted by a voice she had hoped not to hear on the other side of a battle. "Long time no see, Erzy, nya."

A young woman stood there, looking a few years or so younger than Erza, with oddly catlike features and red marks on her face that looked like some kind of whiskers. Even her hair was done up to look like cat ears. She wore a yellow jacket over an orange and white tube top and a short skirt. On her face, at present, was a small, sardonic smirk, her catlike eyes narrowed and dangerous as she stared at Erza.

"Mi, Millianna, you're alive! Thank goodness," Erza stuttered, staring at her old friend in mixed joy and horror. Joy that Millianna, one of her best friends from her time as a slave, was still alive. Horror because of the look on her face and the fact that she was free rather than in prison on the island, which could only mean that she had been brainwashed by Jellal to believe whatever tale Jellal had sold her old friends.

"Heheh. Yep, just like the others, all alive. No thanks to you," Millianna replied, her almost friendly look fading instantly as she glared at her friend. "You coming back like this, though, makes things easier, traitor!"

"No! I never betrayed you, never! It was all Jellal! He, he changed, Millianna, afteRRargh!…"

Erza's protest was interrupted by the feel of several dozen small blocks slamming into her side, sending her sideways to slam into a boulder to one side of where she had been standing. "There are two types of men in the world," a new voice intoned. "Ones who allow their enemies to talk and attempt to undermine them, and those who interrupt them and get the ball rolling like a dandy should."

Pushing her head from the rock, Erza was able to twist her head around enough to stare at the newcomer. He was a man who looked middle-aged, with some kind of five-o'clock shadow on his face in blue, a chin that looked almost like an 'L,' thick lips, and narrow sunglasses along with a hat and a suit. His entire body seemed to be made of blocks or hard angles. Indeed, if Ranma was there, he would have said that the man looked like he had hopped out of the screen of an old Virtua Fighter game.

But the appearance wasn't what shocked Erza. No, what shocked and, further, appalled her was that she recognized his voice, if not the body around it. "W, Wally?"

"I suppose it is a dandy's fate to be recognized, not that it matters," the man said, sighing. "Erza the Betrayer, we were ordered to capture you and bring you to the top of the tower. And that's exactly what we'll do."

"No, wait! Please, you have to listen to me!" Erza said, struggling against the large block like objects that had somehow stuck her sideways to the rock. Normally she would have been able to break out easily, but one arm and leg were pinned against the rock and her other arm was stuck to her body. She couldn't get enough leverage to actually use any of her strength. "I never betrayed you! It was Jellal! He wanted us to complete the tower, but I refused. I…"

"We know all about it!" Millianna shouted. "How you two found out the real purpose of the tower, how Jellal figured out a way to twist it to make our own ideal world, how you disagreed with him, wanting to turn it over to the Council, the same Council who authorized the project in the first place! And then, when he refused to go along with you, you destroyed the ship which could have carried us all away! We went months without enough food or water to go around because of you before we could rebuild a ship large enough to bring in some! We've lost friends, nya, but we're nearly done, nearly finished creating our own perfect world with the same system the Magic Council had thought to use to enslave the world. Ironic, huh?"

By the end of her diatribe Millianna had calmed down, and she gestured with one hand. "Nekosoku Tube!" From her hand came a glow of sparkly pink magic, and from within the glow a tube of some kind shot out that looked like a cat's tail complete with fur. It flew through the air in a spiral towards Erza, presumably to tie her up.

But it never reached her. Instead Happy arrived, grabbing the tube out of the air as Natsu thumped down between the two mages attacking Erza. "Never fear; Natsu and Happy are here!" Natsu shouted, slamming his fists out to either side. "Karyu no Kagizume (Fire Dragon's Claw)!"

Millianna yelped, dodging the flaming claws coming towards her with difficulty, but Wally activated some kind of teleportation magic, disappearing from where he had been standing to land nearby. "What the heck!" Millianna yelped, glaring at the interlopers. "Where the heck did you two come from?!" Then she spotted Happy, and her eyes widened, turning sparkly as she stared. "Kitty!"

"What's wrong, Erza? It's not like you to be so weak," Natsu said, laughing and ecstatic that he had been able to help his friend. Erza, even more so than Mira or Laxus, was the benchmark that Natsu wished to surpass, and being able to help her even a little bit was a great sign to him.

"Natsu…" Erza said in relief, then summoned a small knife into the hand trapped against the rock. "Explosive Knife: Little Boomer!" The knife detonated, causing the rock to explode away from her and freeing that arm, the knife shattering at the same time. _Calistraxus Armorers always put too much magic into their weapons, but their 'free samples' can still be useful sometimes_. "They are my old friends, Natsu. They've been brainwashed, so don't hurt them. Just knock them out if you can."

"Right. And you don't want to fight them because they're your old friends," Natsu said with a nod. He frowned as Millianna seemed to be staring at his little buddy almost hungrily now and jumped between them. "Hey, you can't eat Happy!"

"Eat him?" the odd-looking girl squeaked, looking horrified at the very idea. "I never! No, kitties are for petting and pampering, never eating!" With that she shot forward, two more of the magical tubes popping out of her hands in a swirl of pink magic. "Kitty needs to be mine! Cat Tail Tube!"

"Gah!" Happy shouted, racing away from the cat lover.

At the same time Wally reconstituted himself, pulling his body back together from his use of polygon teleportation. "Polygon Rifle. It isn't very dandy to interrupt a reunion between friends, boy." So saying, he began to fire at Natsu, who began to dodge around, a little worried about the odd looking, square bullets the other man fired at him.

Even so, Natsu was able to lash out to one side, slicing one of the tubes apart with another Karyu no Kagizume (Fire Dragon's Claw). But one of them wrapped around his arm, and suddenly the fiery claw in that hand disappeared. "What the heck!?"

"My Cat Tail tubes can negate magic, nya!"

Seeing that Erza had freed herself of the odd blocks that had been impairing her movement, Natsu rushed forward, ripping the tube of his arm with main strength rather than magic, getting into the weird looking guy's face and landing a kick. The man had stepped back enough to avoid much damage, but the impact still sent him flying backwards. "Go on, Erza! I've got these jokers!"

Erza looked pained for a moment, then nodded. "Don't hurt them too badly, Natsu! They're being brainwashed!" With that she rushed off, dodging around a few more of Wally's strange square bullets before Natsu closed the distance between them. As she reached the entrance to the tower she chanced a glance back at her former friends, then turned and, without another word, raced into the tower.

 **OOOOOOO**

Out to sea, the Rune Knight vessel was now within range to fire its own guns at the two enemy ships remaining. As Wendy watched, the knights began to fire on the other ships, twisting their own vessel back and forth to bring its broadsides to bear, one side after another. The accuracy and rate of their fire wasn't all that impressive, but Wendy didn't know that, and she simply watched for a few minutes from her position in the crow's nest.

Then the attacking ships began to spawn creatures. Sharks which flew through the air, whales who swam through the ocean and raptors and birds began to attack the ship. Carla and Wendy instantly went to work dispelling them. With Carla using her Neko-ken claws to slice the first few birds that tried to attack the deck of the ship, Wendy concentrated on using a long-range attack she had been practicing for several years to destroy the larger summons. "Tenryu no Hishou Kiba (Sky Dragon's Soaring Fang)!" she shouted, bringing her clenched fists to her chest and then thrusting them out as she raced along the mast and hopped into the air, bouncing there for a moment to launch her attack before flipping back to the nearest spar.

This attack lashed out with a tiny condensed ball of what Wendy insisted on calling 'squeezed air,' condensed air that would then explode with violent force when it impacted its target, the size depending on how much magic Wendy put into it. It did a lot of damage for an attack that didn't need all that much buildup, but it was both very visible in the air and easy to dodge, as it moved kind of slowly. The summons, however, had no idea they needed to get out of its way, and they all were blown out of existence before they could get within grappling range of the ship.

With each such attack she dissipated a summoned creature, frowning as she did so. "I've seen a few traveling minstrels summon up animals as part of their acts; those were cute. These are **so** not cute!" Wendy shouted.

Down below Carla actually chortled, knowing exactly what Wendy was commenting on, while a few of the Rune Knights around her looked up in confusion at that before going about their business. Some of the crew was now armed with their staffs, which created the null magic fields that allowed Rune Knights to fight stronger mages in a group. They targeted the flocks of smaller summons that Carla was also fighting against, though they weren't doing as good a job of it, in Carla's opinion.

The rest of the crew, though, were performing far better at their job. Many manned the ships cannons, five guns to a side on limited pintle mounts. The others worked the magical steam engine that drove the ship. It gave the ship quite a bit more speed and maneuverability than any ship that relied solely on sails, and they were now basically sailing around their opponents.

The main threat during this time was the cannons from the tower. But as the battle continued, those started to fall silent for some reason that the Rune Knights couldn't explain. Still, eventually a few of them got the proper range, and four blasts of fire dropped directly towards the ship.

Wendy saw them coming and hopped up to the crow's nest again, breathing in deeply. The air around her shimmered white with magic as she concentrated, and then she thrust her hands up and to the side, shouting, "Tenryu no Shahei no Uroko (Sky Dragon's Shielding Scale)!"

Above the ship a shield of condensed air thrummed into being, taking the magical cannonballs' impact on its outer side. Ranma had taught Wendy the technique of creating a large-scale shield of her element over a series of months. It was one of the hardest things she had ever tried to do with her power, and she could feel its impact on her reserves, but she had eventually gotten it down pat.

This, however, had allowed the enemy summoners on one of the enemy ships time to pool their summoning powers, somehow. The earlier un-cute factor of their summons was multiplied now by fifty, as a giant, dangerous looking squid creature reared out of the ocean, its tentacles flashing towards the ship. Those tentacles were a lot thinner and more disturbing looking than a normal squid's and also had what looked like spikes on them. Worse, the creature simply appeared, rearing out of the water right in front of the Rune Knight ship. Dozens of its tentacles slammed into the ship, halting it, while dozens more lashed out at Wendy and Carla.

Carla screamed and dodged, her normal poise in sharp abeyance for some reason as the tentacles lashed at her. In contrast, Wendy dodged around and through the tentacles, moving ever closer to the main body of the squid, barely shuddering. "Ugh, tentacles. Still, Ranma-nii gave me training for this kind of situation."

This was accurate. Ranma had indeed put both Wendy and Carla through training specifically against tentacle-using opponents. Wendy didn't understand why he did, but she was grateful for it now as she closed with the thing's mouth, throwing her head back as she leaped into the air above the thing. "Tenryu no Hoko (Sky Dragon's Roar)!"

The blast of Air magic slammed into the creature, then through it, dissipating it as Wendy pulled herself to a halt, hopping in the air and then back to the ship and landing next to Carla. As she did, she groaned as she saw more summoned creatures coming through towards them. "Oh, dear. This is going to be a long fight."

She looked sharply to her side, however, as she heard teeth gnashing over the sounds of the fight. Carla was literally quivering in rage next to her, glaring out over the ocean towards the ship that had summoned up the tentacle thing. "How dare they? To use such a, such a thing on ladies! Rarrgghh!"

With that final wordless growl of feminine fury, Carla launched herself into the air, her Aera wings appearing swiftly as she zoomed forward. Carla wasn't very fast in the air, but her rage seemed to lend her speed, and she closed the distance at only about half the speed of a magical cannon blast.

When she closed she twisted her course to the side as ki, not magic, began to gather in her hands. Not that anyone but Ranma and Wendy would have been able to tell the difference. "Neko Claws Attack: A Lady's Fury!" Carla shouted, making up the name on the spot as her neko-claws, which were normally rather short, grew to several yards in length.

The claws, insanely sharp blades of pure ki, slashed through the side of the steel plated enemy ship like a hot knife through butter, right above the water line. They kept on slicing from one end of the ship to another, and instantly water began to flood in, the ship swiftly starting to sink as its crew shouted in shock and fear.

Carla, however, felt the impact of the move at once and wavered in the air. If it wasn't for the fact that ki and Ethernano reserves were different, she would have fallen instantly into the ocean as her wings disappeared. But they were different, and Carla was able to wobble back to the ship unscathed. She collapsed next to Wendy, who promptly picked her up and moved her inside the ship before rejoining the battle.

 **OOOOOOO**

At the time that Erza and Natsu were dealing with the impotent monkeys, Ranma had already stolen his way into the tower, heading upwards quickly. _This is not good; they still have a lot of jail cells, but none of them look as if they've been used in a while. And a lot of rooms on this tower seem to have been converted into living quarters. Dammit, Jellal really did convince all of the slaves to stay here, then, rather than to try to escape. I suppose it makes sense, considering how much more of the tower's been built since Erza left. Is that some kind of magic? The gift of gab? Ah, I know. Silver tongue, that's a better name._

 _That means they're all being duped, including Erza's old friends. Well, other than the Dark Guild members, anyway. I doubt Jellal left any of the original cultists alive._ He wondered if he should report that to the rest of the attacking group but then shook his head. Not only did he not have any way to do so other than sticking his head out a window and shouting, but he knew that with Erza down there, they'd figure it out soon enough.

With that Ranma's mission changed. Instead of looking for the hostages and getting them out, Ranma moved around the tower, taking out the various cannons and making Wendy's part of the battle much easier as he went. Luckily, there weren't many of those, but they were well spaced out, and it took a bit to travel between them.

After destroying one such, Ranma paused as a large man with a strange looking jaw made of metal came down the corridor, frowning as he looked around. "I thought I heard something. Dark Moment!" he bellowed, and from magical runes around his hand, darkness spread, swiftly covering the entire area. Behind him several hood wearing cultists moved around the large man into the now entirely darkened corridor. "Take him!"

Ranma, however, didn't need to see. He could smell the incoming people easily and rocketed forward. He was among them before they could blink.

A series of punches later and Ranma was behind the large man before he could even turn around. An arm went under one arm and around the large man's neck, and then, even as the large man struggled, he was bent over backward.

"Sorry," Ranma said conversationally, nothing in his tone indicating he was straining at all from holding the larger man at his current unnatural angle, "but I don't need to see to kick your butt. Now you're going to answer some questions for me, my friend. Or else things will they go very, very poorly for you very, very quickly."

"You won't get me to talk!"

"Was that a challenge? Anyway, save yer bluster until you actually listen to my questions. What's up with this tower? Why is Jellal so adamant on it being built? I've heard some of what went on here before from Erza, but I'd like to know what line that ass fed you lot to get you all to agree to stay here," Ranma said.

"Wait, you're with Erza? She's here?" the larger man asked, trying to twist his head around to stare at Ranma.

"Hey, man, I'm the one with the chokehold here. That means I'm the one asking the questions, you're the one answering them. That's how this kind of thing works," Ranma said, pulling the man backward to the point of real pain to make his point.

"She returned," the man choked out, actual tears coming to his eyes, and not from the pain he was now feeling in his back. "That's amazing! Can, can you take me to her?"

"Why?" Ranma asked, loosening his hold slightly. Something in the man's tone told Ranma that he had more reason than someone who had been brainwashed should have.

"I'm Simon," the man said. "I'm her friend. I've never really trusted Jellal, not since he convinced us all to continue working on the tower. It all sounded too fishy to be believed. After all, why would Erza suddenly betray us!? But none of the others seemed to be able to think that way for some reason.

"So you just stayed here because the others did?" Ranma asked skeptically.

"No. We've all opportunities to leave the island if we wanted to. I mean, we have to bring in food and other resources. But Jellal, he convinced us that the tower, despite the cultist's actions, should be built. That they were really trying to do something for the betterment of all mankind, the perfect world. It was just the ruthless way they went about it that was wrong. The others lapped it up."

"And you're the only one who questioned that?"

"You weren't there!" Simon said, now angry and once more trying to get out of Ranma's grip. "You didn't hear him. It was like…"

"Like magic?" Ranma suggested dryly, now sincerely wondering if Jellal had some power to influence other people's minds.

"No, it was just the utter conviction he spoke with. That and he was our leader! He tried to lead us in our first rebellion; he took the blame for it; he was tortured for us. Him and Erza. She lost her right eye because of us. Jellal, well, no one knows how they tortured him, but his screaming was even worse than Erza's."

Ranma nodded at that. "I am no stranger to life-changing events, but that doesn't excuse what he's done since."

"I know," Simon whispered. "He… Jellal, he killed some of the ex-slaves who wanted to leave, when we, when the cultists under his command brought back ships, after he executed those cultists. No one else knows, but I followed him. I saw Jellal killing them so word couldn't get out that the tower was still being built. But the others all hold him in such high regard. No one else could ever manage to convince the others. I didn't even try," Simon said with a sigh. "There was no proof of my accusations, and he was just so certain all the time!"

That didn't make any sense to Ranma, but then he looked at the man. "Simon, when did you get that injury your eye? I mean, before or after Jellal took over?"

"During. I lost my eye during the rebellion when we took over. I was going to joke with Erza about it, how we were a matching set, but I never got the chance," Simon replied with a weak chuckle. "Why?"

"Then that might be why you're immune to whatever magic Jellal was using. It could have been based on sight. Anyway, that's beside the point now," Ranma said, releasing Simon at last. "Come on. Show me where Jellal is hiding. The sooner I take the fight to him, the sooner this can all be over."

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma was not the only one thinking like that. Having left Natsu behind to deal with her old friends, Erza had raced into the tower, smashing aside several men and women dressed similarly to the cultists who had enslaved them all for so long on the second floor. Thankfully, she had pulled her attacks, fearing that these men and women too had been brainwashed. This turned out to have been a good idea, because when she kneeled down to pull back their hoods, Erza revealed faces she vaguely recognized. The man on the ground before her hadn't been one of Erza's friends, but he had been among the older slaves. She shook her head sadly as she leaned over the unconscious body of another old friend, an older ex-slave who had at one point attempted to show Erza how to cut her hair so it wouldn't get in her way as they worked. _How many more of our old friends am I going to have to fight before reaching you, Jellal?!_

"Erza?"

Turning, Erza saw Levy running up the stairs towards her. "A, are you all right?" Levy asked hesitantly, a little worried at the look on the taller woman's face.

"I… We've seen both Dark Mages and old friends here. I'm just having trouble understanding how Jellal could have convinced my old friends to work with them and even dress like our old captors too." Erza shook her head resignedly, then straightened her shoulders and gestured for Levy to join her. "How is the rest of the battle going, and where is Mira?"

"Mira's fighting a Dark Mage outside. I think he's a wanted murderer or something; Mira recognized him from a wanted poster, anyway, from what I overheard. Natsu's still fighting two other mages, and Carla, um… Carla just lost her temper on one of the ships they were fighting. I decided I could do better work by taking out the few remaining cannons in the tower. But beyond that, what should we do?" Levy asked.

"We look for Jellal," Erza said grimly. "He's the key here. No one else really matters so long as we can take him out of the equation. Once that's done, we can decide what to do about the tower and the rest of the people here."

"Right!" Levy said grimly. "We should also smash the cannons they have on the fifth and tenth floors. That'll make it easier for Wendy and the others."

"Good thinking. Let's go," Erza said, and with that she raced ahead of the short, blue-haired girl.

They ran into two more fights, men and women clothed like the old cultists, racing down to try and get in their way. Erza smashed through them with little help from Levy, who broke off on the tenth floor to destroy more cannons.

The redhead was a little worried about letting Levy go off on her own like that, but Levy was adamant that Erza keep on heading up. "After all, if Jellal knows he's beaten, he might escape if we give him time, no matter how invested in this tower he is."

On the fifteenth level the stairwell ended, and Erza had to fight through another group of cultists. A second after the last cultist went down, Levy rejoined her, having used her floating cloud to catch up. "The last of the cannons are gone, and Wendy and the Rune Knights seem to be running rings around the last ship out there," she reported. "I also think Natsu might be nearly done with his opponents too. I saw him knock out one of them when I looked out a window."

Nodding brusquely, Erza didn't slow down, racing along the corridor. The hallway then opened up into a larger area, which looked almost like some kind of pool area. There was a single wooden bridge across the water and what looked like freshwater fish swimming around it, with scaffolds leading off the bridge toward the far walls at set points along its length. That changed the look of the place from a pool area to something like a fishery.

But none of that mattered to Erza. What did was the young man standing halfway along the length of the bridge. He was a thin-shouldered, younger man, somewhere around or possibly below Natsu's age. He had a very dark tan, blond hair, a tattoo on one side of his jaw, and earrings, though he dressed more like a butler than the bad boy image the rest of his look portrayed.

And Erza recognized him, just like she had Wally and Millianna. "Sho…" she whispered.

"Yep. It's me, nee-san," the young man replied, smirking at her. "Where else did you think I'd be after leaving us all behind!" At the last word, the almost friendly smirk on his face morphed into a sneer of rage and anger, and he pulled out five cards in each hand, the cards sticking out from between his fingers. "You left us behind; you betrayed us to the very people who enslaved us! But Jellal will make you pay, and them too!"

So saying, Sho launched the cards forward in a wide arc. Several of them went off immediately, flashing into a bright blast of light that temporarily blinded Erza and Levy. Erza went down to one knee automatically to provide a smaller target, her sword flashing out in front of her in a series or arcs that she had developed after fighting Cana in the last S-class exam. The blade cut through the card sent her way and deflected a series of metallic projectiles that had popped out of two more cards.

Levy fared worse. She was blinded by the flashbang cards and then was nailed right in the chest by another card, disappearing in a flash of bright light. The card fell to float on the water to one side of the bridge, and inside it was a tiny image of Levy, who began to shout and curse irritably at having been captured so easily. "Oh, come on, darn it! And I was doing so well, too!" A second later her hands flew to her mouth as her skin began to turn green, the rocking of the card on the water bothering her for some reason. "Oh, I think I'm going to be sick. Now I know how Natsu feels…"

"I don't want to hurt you, Sho!" Erza said, leaping to the side and dodging more of Sho's cards. She leaped from one gantry to another, cards flashing around her into the water. Between one jump and the next she placed her normal sword into her Requip space, pulling out a short hafted spear with a wide head shaped like a lightning bolt. "But I will knock you out if I have to! Shocking Volt!"

Hurling the lightning bolt spear forward, Erza sent it crashing into the surface of the bridge right in front of Sho. Before he could blink, the spear flashed out lightning in every direction, small bolts in a wide arc. Two of them caught Sho, and he twitched spasmodically before collapsing to the bridge.

Sighing faintly, Erza leaped from her present gantry back to the bridge, moving to kneel by Sho. Erza remembered Sho even better than she did Wally and Millianna. Sho had been a younger child who was barely able to survive the horror of their captivity. He had needed more food and had also needed to be shielded on a daily basis from the whips of their captors, though Sho hadn't been the only one who had of course. Erza had taken him under her wing, the two of them, like her other friends, sharing a cell, and he had called her, 'nee-san.'

To see him like this, hating her so utterly , the loathing and fury on his face, was even worse than seeing Wally and Millianna's state of mind. "What lies has Jellal fed you? What did he do to you all to convince you to continue the work on this cursed tower?"

Shaking her head, Erza pushed to her feet, moving towards Levy's card. She picked it up off the water, noticing idly that Levy was now sitting on a wooden boat made of the word 'wood,' the water of the fishery having somehow seeped into the card's pocket plane. "Levy, duck."

Squeaking, Levy did just that and watched as Erza used her sword to cut off a corner of the card. There was a poof, and she found herself in midair in front of Erza, who caught her with a firm grip on her belt, setting her down on the bridge before looking down at Sho. "Levy, I want you to take Sho and start evacuating people from the tower. Whatever happens, this tower is going to be destroyed if I have any say about it. We need to get Sho and the other brainwashed people out of here before that. And if we remove them from the tower, we also remove them from Jellal's immediate clutches."

"Now, now, that's against the rules, Erza-chan," said a voice, causing Erza and Levy to turn.

There at the far end of the bridge stood Jellal, though Erza knew he hadn't been there a moment ago. _Some kind of teleportation magic?_ Erza thought, taking in the appearance of her old friend.

He stood a little taller than her, his blue hair just as messy and spiky as Erza remembered, the tattoo on his face standing out violently against his skin. He wore a long robe of some kind with gold highlights along the hood, which was pulled back, and black pants. On his face was a sneer, though it was only partially directed at Erza. The rest was directed at Sho. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected anymore from Sho, Wally, and the rest of these pawns. They barely even slowed you Fairy mages down. That's the power of Fiore's most destructive guild for you. Though I have to wonder where that damn Ranger who began all this is."

"Ranma will no doubt make his presence felt when you least expect it," Erza said, pushing Levy behind her and placing herself between the younger girl and the unconscious Sho. "Jellal… Why? Why all this? Why the tower? Why have you given yourself over to the worship of Zeref, the very thing that made all those cultists enslave us in the first place!? **WHY!**? Tell me why!"

"Why? Hmm…hahahahah!" Jellal laughed maniacally, covering his eyes with one hand, and, when he took away his hand, his face had contorted just as Sho's had earlier. "Zeref is everything! Everything! This tower, with it completed, I will resurrect Zeref! With his power we will remake the world. All those who wronged us all those years ago, all those who oppose me now, I'll, he'll wipe them all out! No more kings, no more council. Just magic, just power! A perfect world!"

"How is that a perfect world!?" Erza bellowed, throwing herself forward, her sword extended.

Jellal met her with his bare hands, his body glowing yellow. Deflecting the blade, his hand slammed out faster than most would have been able to follow. But Erza was an S-class mage for a reason, known as one of the strongest women in the country. She pulled another blade out of her Requip space in less time than a heartbeat, blocking his hand and then sliding it upwards towards Jellal's face. He flinched back, kicking off the ground as he flung yellow magical bolts at her like shooting stars. She blocked or evaded them, but he was able to put some distance between them.

"Heh. You've become strong over the years, Erza-chan. But I wonder how often you thought about this place, how often you thought of your friends and me?" Jellal taunted, rising into the air as he threw off his cloak, revealing that he wore a black, skintight shirt underneath. "When you were safe and sound, and your friends were under my power?"

"Not a day went by when I didn't think of them! Not a night went by without a nightmare of what you'd became!" Erza shouted. "Black Wing Armor!" she shouted, pulling a new set of armor out of Requip space.

This armor was black with silver crosses and some trimming in places, including the somewhat revealing breastplate. It had plates on either side of her, reaching down to her nonexistent waist guard, leaving her stomach and most of her thighs bare, her groin barely covered by what looked like black panties, of all things. This suit also had two wings and was far more combat capable than the Soaring Eagle armor.

She used that ability now, hurling herself into the air. In her hands her swords were swiftly replaced by two short spears, each of which looked different from both one another and the armor. She whirled them around her in a series of arcs as she closed. "But that nightmare ends now! I'm taking back my friends, and I am putting you down, Jellal!"

Jellal had a bit of a speed advantage, and his Heavenly Bodymagic gave him immense durability almost equal to that of a Dragon Slayer. But he lacked the range Erza's weapons gave her, and she had far more combat experience. One spear nearly caught him in the chest. The butt end of the other struck him in the shoulder, and as he winced and pulled back, the first one sliced his cheek open, cutting through his magic. A blast from Jellal's palm hurled Erza away once more, and Jellal cursed. _How is she so strong!? I know I need her as a sacrifice, but did she really become this strong with that pathetic guild with its emphasis on friendship and family while I wasn't looking?_

Jellal shook his head. _No, she's still not my match. I just have to use my speed and take out that flight armor of hers._ With that thought, he activated his Grand Chariot and hurled himself forward like an asteroid. Before Erza could set herself he was on her, slamming her down into the bridge, which shattered under the impact. "You, Erza, you're strong! That's good! Your sacrifice will complete the tower's circuits, and with your soul's absorption I'll be able to bring back Zeref!"

Erza gasped as her armor began to buckle under the continual pressure of Jellal's assault. She Requipped her two spears, replacing them with short swords and slashing at Jellal. But Jellal dodged away, landing near Levy, who had been trying to drag Sho away. "Levy, get away from him!"

Just as Levy could begin to move, Jellal had her by the throat and began to squeeze, holding the short girl between him and a horrified Erza. "Won't you ever learn, Erza? Friends are a weakness. The woman I've chosen as my sacrifice needs no such."

He began to squeeze, but before he could apply more than a tiny bit of pressure there was a large crashing sound from above them. This caused him to look up, and in that instant Erza struck. Her spears disappeared in her hands, replaced by a staff, and she closed before Jellal could back away. The staff cracked down on his wrist, causing his grip to twitch open, and Levy fell to the ground. An instant later the staff flashed towards his face, causing him to raise a hand to block it, but Erza simply let go of the staff as he caught the end, twisting around and bringing up a fan, of all things, from her Requip space. "Tempest's Wind!"

The attack blew both Jellal and Levy away from her, with Levy squeaking in shock as she was hurled directly backwards back into the downward leading stairwell behind her.

Jellal however simply used the momentum the attack granted him to fly backwards towards the wall behind him, then launched himself forward, crashing into Erza with a punch that shattered her armor and sent her reeling backwards. She quickly Requipped another set, but this one didn't have flight capable magic, and she backed away as Jellal angrily pressed her hard, Requipping two more swords.

Levy wasn't a fighter. This close brush with death was one of the worst she'd had on any mission. This forced Levy to understand that there was little she could add to the fight in front of her without making Erza's position worse. But she was also a Fairy Tail mage, and, because of that, instead of running away like her mind was telling her to, she instead turned around and raced down into the tower to search out her guildmates and help as much as she could.

If she had stayed put, she would have seen Jellal laughing as he threw up an arm to block Erza's swords, which cut down towards him as one. Though laughing, he was having some trouble not falling into the water all around them. "Ah, but this isn't the proper venue for this fight anyway! Let us take this to someplace more worthy of your final minutes!"

A second later there was a thrum in the air, and Erza, Jellal, and the still unconscious Sho were teleported from the fishery up to the throne room. Though having had no luck in figuring out a way to power the ancient enchantment that would have made the island mobile, Jellal had figured out a few other tricks he could pull inside the tower.

But Erza was undaunted by the change of scenery. She brought up a knee into his stomach, and Jellal had to jerk aside to avoid a cut that would have taken him in the neck. Pushing off the ground, he again brought up his hands, blocking Erza's weapons and glaring into her furious face. "If you think that you can throw me off by such simple means, think again!" Erza snarled.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma had gotten about halfway up the tower before running into Simon, and the two of them had nearly made it all of the way up the tower. But as they went, the tower, of course, grew thinner. Eventually they came out of a stairwell into another level where the next staircase up was at the far end. And, just like a few other levels they had seen, this one was composed of a single room. And in the center of that room squatted a giant of a man, wearing what looked like Shinto robes, open on the right. He stood a few inches taller than Simon and was even wider in the shoulders, his muscles even more pronounced. He had white hair stuck up in a rooster cut and deep-set glowing eyes, while around his neck were this world's equivalent of Buddhist beads, which were several times the size they would have been in Ranma's original universe.

He sat there as Ranma exiting the stairwell, laughing low in his throat, though it sounded more like a cackle than anything else. "Hahahah! When I heard the name of the Ranger who so messed up that brat Jellal's plans, I knew it had to be you. I've been longing for this rematch for a long, long time, boy. Ever since the day you humiliated me."

Shrugging, Ranma moved forward, waving Simon back and to one side. "Meh. I've humiliated a lot of people over the years, possibly as many as four a week if you don't count bandits and small fry. You're going to have to be more specific."

Growling, the man surged to his feet, glaring at Ranma. "You know me well enough! Or is it so often you steal daughters and apprentices away from people that you cannot remember the name of Jiemma Orland."

Smacking one fist into his other palm, Ranma nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember you. The asshole child abuser who was beating his daughter? What was it for again? Oh yeah, trying to get back to the village rather than stay and kill all the dangerous animals in the forest."

 ***Flashback***

Ranma and Wendy had been traveling overland for once rather than following the roads. Ranma had decided to do that because there was supposedly some old magic-wielding hermit around the borders between Seven and Iceberg in this area, an area too heavily wooded and poor in any kind of resources for the trains which connected Iceberg's western lowlands and Seven to bother with. Since the man was supposed to be a healer of some repute, Wendy had hoped to learn something from him. It turned out, though, that those rumors were just that: rumors. The hermit in question had died years ago. Ranma had buried the man while Wendy had ransacked his, admittedly, semi-impressive library.

Now they were on their way back to the town they would be spending this winter in, a little place down in Bosco, which had grown since the slavers in that country had been dealt with. It was a nice little place with a river nearby and a view from the top of a nearby butte that Wendy loved, though the local environment reminded him of the Dark Mage guild he'd dealt with. Carla was there, having wished to stay behind to oversee the renovations to the house Ranma had bought and fixed up on the sly. But the interior needed some renovation, and Carla didn't trust Ranma's fashion sense.

The two Dragon Slayers had taken shelter in their tent for a time that morning when a sudden rainstorm had come up, and now both were pushing on with their cloaks up, the Song Silk keeping the water off Ranma, the only thing keeping Ranma from transforming. And, thankfully, Wendy had outgrown the need to make Ranma's life miserable by splashing in every puddle they passed.

Racing along through the woodland foliage, they were making good time until Ranma called a halt, holding up his hand in a fist. Wendy instantly halted, sniffing the air. Almost instantly she smelled it, human blood on the wind, coming from a little off their course through the woods.

The two of them turned in that direction and raced on, wondering what someone else was doing this far away from normal human habitation. Seven wasn't very populated in this area, and even the ready availability of water wasn't enough to convince settlers to gather nearby on the Bosco side of the border.

Soon enough they both could hear something too, a girl crying and a man's booming voice echoing through the woods. "Stop it with those cursed tears! No daughter of mine can be weak, and tears are the height of weakness. Now get out there and… What is this?"

By that point Ranma and Wendy had reached the source of the disturbance, a small cleaning the woods. To one side was a very makeshift camp with an overhanging cloth protecting a fire and little else. No blankets or anything else could be seen beyond the two people there. One was a young girl around Wendy's age, maybe slightly older, with long black hair trailing down her back and a thin, but powerful body, which was covered with numerous cuts and bruises from head to bare shoulders. Her clothing was also torn and ragged, though might once have been of decent quality.

Across from her was a huge man, towering over her, his white eyes blazing in anger now at Ranma and Wendy's arrival. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"That's my line," Ranma began before Wendy pushed past him and raced to the girl, putting her own petite body between her and her tormentor. Ranma simply strode forward, allowing his hood to slip just enough to show the sneer on his face as he stared at the big man. "It looks as if you're either a child kidnapper or some kind of slaver left over after I smashed the slaving bands in Bosco. Which is it?"

"Bah!" the man boomed, his voice a barely controlled roar. "I am Jiemma, and that pathetic weakling is my daughter, Minerva! Whatever I do to train her to become less than the weak thing she is now is up to me! I will make her someone whose very shout can shake the world, just like mine!"

"Funny, for a world shaker, I ain't ever heard of your name before, and, frankly, to me you just look like a weakling whose bark is way worse than his bite. Still, I'll humor you," Ranma said coldly. He had moved forward by this point to where he was standing directly in front of the larger man, pulling his attention to the side from where Wendy had begun to heal Minerva, who was looking at her and then over Wendy's shoulder in shock.

"So here's what we're going to do. You care about strength, right? Well then, how about a test of our strength? One punch to one punch. If you win, Wendy and I will go our separate ways and never speak of this to anyone. I'll even throw in our Song Silk cloaks and all the money I have on me. If I win, I take your daughter and deliver her to Queen Rose along with the tales of your child abuse." Ranma held up a hand, slowly clenching it into a fist. "And if you think you can just defeat me, recall we're in the middle of the woods, and I bet I could leave you behind easily if I have to."

Ranma actually just wanted to beat the living shit out of this asshole, whose way with his daughter, what little Ranma had seen of it so far, mirrored what Genma had put Ranma through when he was younger, with even less in the way of breaks between sessions or reason. Beating a child for crying wasn't something Genma would have done, though he had very often threatened Ranma's food, taking some for himself for infractions like that, perhaps punch him in the head and mock him for crying like a weak girl. _But I can't just kick his ass, not with his daughter right there. Even if the man's an asshole and she hates him, that kind of thing when she's so young would be a bad idea._

"Hah! You may be a fool, but at least you understand what it means to be right. If you wish to prove yourself right, do it through force!" Jiemma bellowed, his muscles swelling even more. "Very well, fool, I'll humor you." He raised his fist over his shoulder, a light purple magical light appearing around it. "Ready?"

Ranma replied by doing the same, his magic barely a flicker. "Ready."

The two men flung their fists forward, slamming into one another. There was a booming noise, and Wendy shielded Minerva with her body, actually snatching up the other girl and leaping towards the nearby trees.

Jiemma's fist was larger than the person he believed a fool in front of him, and the magic around it was powerful. It should have blown anyone Ranma's size away easily.

But Ranma was many, many times stronger than his muscles' size would indicate, and his magic was far more potent than Jiemma's. Even with his own magic barely covering his fist, Ranma was the stronger man. And he was a martial arts expert well above the norm for this world. He could punch in just such a way that the power of the impact went well beyond the initial point and did not turn into simple impetus. He did so now.

Thus, instead of being blown backwards from Ranma's punch overpowering his own, Jiemma's arm took the full brunt of the punch. The bones in his arm shattered in multiple places ,and his wrist practically exploded, numerous bone shards shooting out in a welter of blood.

"GRahhhhh!" Jiemma bellowed in agony, clutching his ruined arm with his one remaining good one, the pain so much that he couldn't even concentrate on his magic any longer. "Y, you, what did you do!?"

"One punch, I said, asshole," Ranma said with a sneer. "Not my fault you don't know how to recognize when your enemy is beyond you." He turned away, leaping over to the two girls and going to one knee in front of Minerva. "Sorry ya had to see that, Minnie, but I figure this way he won't be coming after us anytime soon. Erm, that is, if you do want to come with us?"

Minerva had been looking shocked, but now her eyes narrowed, and she kicked out, her tiny foot catching Ranma in the face with surprising force. Now, Ranma could have just taken it and ignored the hit like he would have one of Wendy's. But Ranma knew the girl needed a bit of a laugh. She had been out here in the woods with her father for who knew how long and had just seen him near crippled, so whatever their previous relationship had been like, she needed to see that Ranma wasn't anything like her father.

So he took it, then rolled on the ground, whimpering as he held his eye. Luckily the tree's leaves kept the rain off his face for the brief moment his face was facing upwards. "Ow! You little, gah!"

"Don't call me Minnie, hmph!" Minerva replied, turning around to look at Wendy, who giggled.

"Grr… Duly noted, I suppose. But that doesn't answer my question. Are you fine with coming with us and leaving this a...um, your father behind?" Ranma honestly didn't know how he would have answered that question if anyone had asked him when he was younger and traveling around with his old man. Yes, he had not liked a lot of the stuff his old man had done to him, and a lot of it was painful. But it was also all he had known, and a lot of it was also fun. Ranma's love of the martial arts was something he had been practically born with, and, say what you would about Genma, the man had been an amazing teacher.

Thankfully, Minerva's feelings toward her father were not nearly as ambivalent. She teared up again before quickly wiping them away with the back of her hand, then looked over at her father. Though still kneeling on the ground and holding his useless arm, he was now glaring hatefully at all three of them.

As he did, his magical power began to build up around him in a violent looking light purple aura. His eyes also flared in his face as he pushed himself to his feet. "Never! You may have gotten lucky, but I will prove that my strength is greater than yours, that strength is everything!"

"Please take me away from here!" Minerva shouted at the top of her lungs, terror crossing her face as her father pushed to his feet and charged them.

Thrusting out his hand, a wave of some kind of magical power flashed out towards the trio.

"Right!" Ranma said with a laugh, throwing up a watery shield. By the time Jiemma's attack had finished dissipating the shield, the three of them were long gone.

 ***End Flashback***

After that Minerva had stayed with Ranma, Wendy, and Carla for the winter before Ranma took her to see Queen Rose. Ranma had made it clear from the outset that he couldn't look after another young girl, given his nomadic lifestyle, and Minerva hated camping or traveling, since it brought back bad memories of her time with her father. So she had willingly gone along with the idea of becoming a ward of the crown for a time. Though, from what Wendy and Ranma had found out when they stopped in to see Rose before their job to hunt down Eisenwald, she had apparently moved to Fiore to join a guild there since then.

"Y'know, I would've thought having your arm ruined for life would've been enough of a sign that maybe ya should be thinking about a career change or how you treat other people, not go full on Dark Mage," Ranma said, scowling slightly. _Damn it, and here I hoped he'd have the decency to bleed out or be eaten back then. Goes to show, never do your enemy a small injury._

"Hah! No, I merely found other people who agree with my own philosophy. Dark, Light, legal, illegal. These are just labels, labels put in place by those who wish to curtail those with **power**!" Jiemma bellowed in reply. "And you, fools like you who believe they know true strength, will never understand until you throw off the shackles of those like the idiotic Council and their lackeys. But enough of this. I came here to prove my power on your corpse and that of that girl you traveled with back then."

Ranma cracked his neck to one side, then lunged forward, crossing the intervening distance faster than Simon could follow. One second he was standing at the far end of the room, the next, Ranma was right on top of Jiemma, his fist flashing out. "Enough talking, asshole! I won't even let you near Wendy! Soryu no Tetsu Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Iron Claw)!"

Jiemma brought up his own hand, blocking the blow, the same purple colored magic appearing on his hand. This time both the power behind the magic and the speed with which he brought it out were different, and the light purple magic fought against the dark blue of Ranma's water claw, blasting some of it away. In return, Jiemma brought up his knee towards Ranma's lower body.

But Ranma used this as a steppingstone to launch himself further into the air, coming down with an axe kick that quickly turned into a roundhouse followed by several dozen more punches. Only one of them got through, but that was enough to rock Jiemma's head back.

"Enough!" he roared, sending out a full body blast of energy that threw Ranma away, but didn't do him any real harm. This was followed, however, by a wave of focused, condensed magic. "Disappear Burst Magic: Blast!"

Ranma grunted as the magic impacted him, hurling him backwards into the wall, but he bounced off the wall and onto the ceiling, his head ringing a little but otherwise unhurt. "Gonna have to do better than that!" he shouted, coming in on the attack again. This time he flipped under the first punch that Jiemma threw his way, which was just as well, since the attack blasted a hole in the side of the tower behind where he had been.

Ranma landed under where Jiemma had just stretched out to attack and, with a sudden surge of magic, hammered a blow up into Jiemma's chest. The man's aura blocked some of it, pushing against Ranma's attack, but instead of deflecting, this simply propelled Jiemma backwards. He slammed upwards, crashing into the ceiling with enough force to shatter it, disappearing through the falling rubble.

"Get out of here, Simon. If Jellal's anywhere above us, I'll find him. Link up with Erza and the others. Try to convince your friends about what's really going on. I've got this!" Ranma shouted, leaping upwards through the hole he had just created. From above the sound of renewed combat filtered down, and the whole tower started to shake.

"…Monsters. They're both monsters. I didn't even get a chance to use my Darkness magic," Simon muttered, staring around him at the ruined room. Every time Ranma and Jiemma's fists or feet had connected there had been a shockwave, and every time Jiemma's blows went wild or were deflected, his assault has simply continued, smashing the ground, walls, or anything else they touched, which had almost included Simon, but he had ducked back into the stairwell just in time. Staring at the large hole the explosion had rent in the lacrima covered stone of the tower, Simon shuddered. "Right, down it is, then. I might wish us all to be truly free of this place, but more than that, I wish to be alive to see it!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Though surprised by Erza's speed and strength, Jellal was still the man who had been skilled enough to convince Fiore's Magic Council to give him the title of Wizard Saint when only using about fifty percent of his power through a Thought Projection. As such, he quickly began to adapt to his opponent's skill. The number of blows Erza was landing went down, his Heavenly Body magic's aura strengthening to block her swords. His speed swiftly came up, and he began to use his mobility more, dodging and ducking around her.

That wasn't to say that she was completely helpless. Jellal was working for the fight. Even stuck on the ground she remained moving, her swords flashing and stabbing. One of them would occasionally shift to a different weapon, a spear or a different sword, allowing her to throw out longer-range attacks. Lightning, ice, water, fire, and more made appearances as she and Jellal exchanged blows, but his Heavenly Body magic's aura served him well as armor against all of her attacks.

Several minutes after they began, the entire tower shook again as if from a great blow. Scowling, Jellal gestured forward with both hands, shooting out another magical attack with each hand. From one came the, "Jiu Leixing!" which formed several dozen lightning spears, launching them forwards. From his other hand came, "Dark Mass!" This assault shot out a multi-tentacled mass of darkness that spread out in every direction.

The two spells, together, forced Erza to back away and focus solely on defense. This allowed Jellal to pull out a crystal ball. These were specially treated lacrima, which could allow an individual to scry an image of the area around him or any specific area he wished within that territory or around a paired lacrima. They were expensive as hell, even more so then the teleportation array that Jellal had set up in his office in the Magic Council's tower. Thankfully, he hadn't had to buy this one. The former owners of the Tower of Heaven had created it instead.

After a brief moment of fiddling with it, Jellal found an image of the older mage, Jiemma, that Brain had sent him to help fight off the Council's assault. Currently he was fighting Oceana, but the place they were fighting was a mere five floors below Jellal's throne room. _"How!? How did he get that far without anyone seeing him! S_ canning further away from the fight, Jellal saw Simon racing down the stairs and scowled angrily. "Simon. So you've turned traitor. I've always wondered if you were free of the hypnotism I used on everyone else. You too will make a fine sacrifice later."

"Never!" shouted Erza, who had heard his muttering from where she had just finished dissipating the last of the Dark Mass. "You're never going to hurt another one of my friends!" So saying, she began to cross the distance between them, smashing aside the last of his latest magical attack, her sword out but quickly flashing away in a blast of Requip magic to be replaced by a different weapon. "Shoot to Kill: Snipe Blade!"

The sword she was now holding was short with a very long handle almost as long as the blade itself, which had a very wide, almost spear-like point. As she thrust it forward, the blade extended, shooting forward. At the same time, she hefted her other hand behind her head and Requipped a weapon into that too, the De-Malevo-Lance, her armor changing into the matching set, the Giant armor.

Rather than being large, as its name would suggest, this mostly yellow armor didn't add to Erza's bulk over much save in her shoulders, which were built up, the cross-sections forming curved horns to go with the oni-like horns she wore on her head to go with the armor. Each joint was marked by fur, and the yellow armor was marked by blue stripes, crosses, and a layer below that. The armor had a built in skirt made of intricate yellow colored plates to cover her thighs paired with high boots and diamond shaped knee guards.

Jellal dodged the extending sword's point, but the spear slammed into him, hurling him backward into and through the wall as it exploded with electrical energy. "GRaaah!" he roared in agony, but batted it aside, showing that the spear hadn't been able to penetrate his magical aura. Hovering in midair, Jellal threw himself back into the tower, destroying the extending sword blade before it could return to Erza, then closing before she could dodge, his body lit up like a falling star. "Meteor!"

Again Erza was blasted backwards, her Giant armor shattering under the impact. Despite that, she rolled with the blow and Requipped a new set of armor, her Lightning Empress armor. This armor was created after her training with Jellal had finished and was golden and light bluish in color. The breastplate was decorated by golden trimmings and was, in many ways, more armor-like than her previous armor, covering more of her body, including a long, armored skirt around her legs which opened at the front to both reveal her thighs and to allow her ease of movement. Like the name suggested, this armor specialized in dealing with lightning wielders, having speed enchantments and being able to absorb lightning attacks.

Allowing Jellal to push past her, Erza closed from above with him, who had bounced off nothing in midair, coming back towards her while twisting to face Erza. Once again, the two of them exchanged blows so fast that even Mirajane would've had trouble keeping up with them now. "What's wrong, Jellal!?" Erza taunted. "Things not going well for you?"

"Bah! I was simply astonished that Oceana was able to get that far, but a traitor within the ranks explains that away. I'll deal with him and with Simon later! No one—not you, not that Ranger, not that decrepit bunch of geezers you people kowtow to—will stop me! I will revive Zeref and, with his magic, change the world!"

Nearby, Sho had recovered himself from when Erza had knocked him out, and, like any good survivor, he had stayed put as the battle between the two juggernauts nearby went on. From where he clung to one of the gantries he had heard everything they said to one another, and now his face was contorted in an expression of horror and self-ridicule. _He lied to us. He's lied to us all along! The Jellal I know would never talk about killing Simon! He would never talk so about Zeref, the same evil bastard that the cultists worshiped!_

With the truth laid bare before him, Sho could only cry, his tears falling down his face to land unnoticed in the water of the fishery as he thought about the years spent under Jellal's rule. All that time during which they'd been lied to, all that time he had assumed the worst of a girl that he had looked up to as his role model for so long along with Jellal. A girl who had protected him from the slaver's whips. Who'd given him food, going hungry herself so that he would have enough energy to keep going. To know that Jellal, who had done much the same thing, had instead been lying to them all and was in fact the real traitor, was a blow to his worldview.

But Sho knew this was no time for self-recrimination. So he pushed through his horror as quickly as he could, slowly moving one hand down his side towards the pouch where he kept all of his Magic Cards.

 **OOOOOOO**

In a waiting area on the third highest level of the Tower, Cobra sighed, shaking his head as he absentmindedly petted his giant serpent friend. He was a young man built along much the same lines as Natsu. A little bit taller and slightly thinner, but that was about all the difference in their builds. He had long, maroon colored hair spiked in every direction, tan skin, and slit-pupils set in purple eyes along with prominent canines, which gave him a slight reptilian appearance. This fit Cobra perfectly, considering he was the Poison Dragon Slayer. Though the crystal embedded in him with poison properties wasn't the only thing that set him apart. What had set him apart since he was very young, before he was even a slave here in the Tower of Heaven, was his sense of hearing. It was so acute now that he could use it to predict opponents or, as he was doing now, to take stock of all the battles occurring on and around the island.

The last Ghoul Spirit's ship had just been struck amidships by several cannon blasts from its enemy, shattering its port side and causing it to list badly. The Rune Knight vessel closed in rapidly, firing as it came, and the last of the summoned animals disappeared as the Ghoul Knights tried to save their ship from sinking to join its fellow. How that ship had been sunk was something Cobra was still shaking his head over. _A little cat could throw out that kind of power?_

As he concentrated his hearing on that portion of the battle, he heard the sound of the Rune Knights using their enchanted armor to fly the short distance between the two ships. There was a noticeable hum as they activated their staffs, creating magic cancellation bubbles as their owners directed. That meant that the battle at sea was over. The Rune Knights, the strangely deadly cat, and the Air magic user with them would soon be able to land and aid their fellows.

 _Not that they'll need much help,_ he thought angrily. _We severely underestimated the power of these mages and that ranger! Damn it, he crippled the tower's defense by taking out those cannons._

The Naked Monkey Guild had been practically wiped out, their members dead or unconscious. Cobra didn't care enough try and listen for their heartbeats. The slaves who had been talked into staying on the island—and, **oh boy** , did Cobra have mixed feelings about that and being back here—were all either taken care of or being taken care of currently. The Fairy Tail Dragon Slayer had just dealt with both of the other former child slaves, Wally and Millianna. They had given him a tough fight using Wally's polygon-based teleportation abilities to stay out of Natsu's immediate range and Millianna's cattail tubes to try to negate his magic. But in the end he was simply too strong and too fast for them to beat.

"That, and Millianna was distracted at the end there by that damn blue flying cat. Stupid girl," Cobra muttered, shaking his head as he moved over to the other inhabitant of the room. His best friend, Cubellios, followed him, slithering after him, obedient to his desires even though he hadn't spoken aloud.

The only other inhabitant of waiting area was a similarly built young man with black colored hair spiked up wildly along with bangs of white hanging down his back to go with the overall appearance of a punk rocker, complete with torn off vest, black pants, and black shirt. The look was finished with a line of beads in his hair, dark black lipstick, and a belt-like choker. Though sitting upright on his magic carpet, he was currently asleep.

With a roll of his eyes, Cobra tapped the magic carpet, making it move this way and that. "Get up," Cobra ordered. "It's time for us to get involved in this, Midnight."

The so named Midnight scowled, opening his eyes to glare at Cobra. "I thought I told you not to wake me up. Besides, I don't see anything."

At that point the tower shook below them, and Cobra snorted. "That would be Jiemma and the Ranger who began this mess…or that fucker Jellal and Erza Scarlett. And while Jellal might eventually win his match with Scarlett, Satan Girl Strauss is toying with Narmenius. Once she joins Scarlet, I doubt that Jellal will be able to face them both."

Scowling, Midnight shook his head, cracking. "So much for the vaunted Trinity Raven. Two of them fly the coop, and the one left is worthless. Remind me to hunt those two down. Traitors deserve death."

"Don't underestimate these Fairy Tail mages," Cobra cautioned. "They're not called S-class mages for no reason. I know I wouldn't look forward to fighting them one-on-one. And that's not even counting the fact that the Ranger's fighting Jiemma."

"How's that battle going?" Midnight asked, now fully awake and staring at his fellow guild member.

"I can't tell," Cobra replied honestly. "I think the Ranger's winning, if only because his heart doesn't seem to be straining as much as Jiemma's, and he's so freaking fast! I can sometimes hear his punches suddenly go close to supersonic. The sound is loud even here," Cobra said, shaking his head. "But Brain ordered us here, and we need to get involved."

Midnight nodded, moving toward the tower's windows and staring out. "All right, it looks like the Rune Knights won't be landing for a bit. I'll deal with Scarlett and Strauss then Jellal and I will join Jiemma. That'll make it three on one against the Ranger. I don't care how good he is, he can't beat those odds. You keep Natsu out of the tower. Poison him and then meet up with us inside, just in case. We'll finish their main fighters off, then wipe out the Rune Knights."

"That Air mage and that deadly little cat might have something to say about that, but I suppose that makes sense. Still can't believe we're fighting for Jellal and this fucking tower, though," Cobra growled, shaking his head as Cubellios hissed in unison next to him.

Both Midnight and Cobra had originally been slaves here in the Tower of Heaven. They, like the others of their guild bar Jiemma and Brain himself, had been sent to Brain as payment for his training Jellal. Brain had then trained all of them too and given them a goal: to find an ancient magical creation called Nirvana that could make all their dreams come true. They willingly followed him after that, plus they all enjoyed the sense of power and freedom being Dark Mages gave them. Angel and Cobra, in particular, saw breaking the law and killing any government flunkies they came across as a way to strike back against those who had caused their years of slavery.

"I know, but we have our orders. And if Jellal dies, didn't Brain just say we needed his head to find Nirvana? Not anything else?" Midnight asked, smiling sadistically.

"Heh, I like that image," Cobra snickered. "Still, let's go. Just remember, head to the western shoreline if things go south. Your magic carpet would never survive the trip to shore."

Midnight scoffed at that, waving Cobra way. "Please. You know my magic; none of them are even going to touch me."

 **OOOOOOO**

Natsu huffed irritably, shaking his head as he finally came within sight of the entrance to the tower. "Darn it, I spent more time running after those two than actually fighting them! If I get up there and all the fighting's done, I swear I'm going to challenge Erza right then and there!"

"Aye, she'll just beat you again, this time in record time!" Happy said from where he was sitting on top of Natsu's head, staring up at the tower.

"Hey!" Natsu growled. "I'm a lot stronger than I used to be! I bet I could beat her now!"

Rather than reply to that, Happy shook his head as an explosion burst out of one side of the tower. "I wouldn't bother thinking that, Natsu. If the towa is rockin', they're still afightin'," he said, trying to imitate either Alzack or Bisca's accent when they got excited and failing miserably.

"You know one of them would kick your ass if they heard you say something like that, right? And I wouldn't help you either, not unless you got me some flaming fish," Natsu said with a smirk, racing toward the entrance to the tower.

"Deal!" Happy said, then gasped. "Natsu, incoming!"

Natsu looked up toward where Happy was pointing and saw someone exit the tower really high up its length before zooming down towards him on what looked like a flying snake of some kind. The snake was huge, easily twice the length of Natsu, and Happy began to shiver at the sight of it, hopping off Natsu's head and winging away to hide among some nearby rocks. Riding the snake was a man with a long white coat and a feral grin on his face.

"Awesome! It looks as if the fight's coming to us, Happy!" Natsu shouted, his hands lighting up with his magic fueled fire. Throwing his head back, he pointed his head upwards, bringing up his hands to either side of his mouth as he shouted, "Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragon's Roar)!"

Above Natsu, Cobra smirked. "He'll go for a roar first." Twitching to one side, he sent Cubellios down, to the left and then leaped down, landing lightly on his feet before launching himself forward towards Natsu and Happy. "Dokuryu no Sairi no Kaku (Poison Dragon's Sharp Horn)

Natsu was barely able to cancel out his attack in time to bring up his hand and fist as Cobra's hand slammed into his forearm, imbuing it with some kind of tactile poison and burning his skin. But Natsu shook that off, kicking out and forcing Cobra to leap backwards.

"What the hell! Another Dragon Slayer?" Natsu growled. "I go for years without meeting any other Dragon Slayer but that ass Laxus, and now I've met three in less than a week!?"

"I'm nothing like you, freak! I don't go around telling people I was raised by an extinct species! I bet the other so-called Dragon Slayers are like me and your guildmate, with lacrima embedded in them," Cobra said with a smirk, taking a combat stance.

"Hah, shows what you know!" Natsu said with a grin, extending his hands to either side and launching himself forward, his hands and feet covered with fire magic. "I'm a real Dragon Slayer, and I'll kick your ass for saying I lie about my being raised by Igneel!"

"You mean you'll try," Cobra sneered, dodging this way and that. "I can hear your thoughts, fool! You'll never land a single hit on me!"

Figuring that the upcoming fight with Mirajane, Erza, and Ranma would be a lot tougher than facing the pink-haired Dragon Slayer, Cobra was unwilling to exhaust himself against Natsu through overusing his own magical attacks. Instead he used his aural abilities to hear his opponent's thoughts, which allowed him to simply dance around Natsu's fists, lashing out as he could. But Natsu in turn dodged so wildly, so instinctively, that most of Cobra's own attacks missed.

Worse, despite the fact that he could see the attacks coming, that didn't mean he could always dodge them. This was proven an instant after he had just gotten in a good hit on Natsu, making the younger man double up. But instead of trying to launch a headbutt as Cobra had 'heard,' Natsu's entire body lit up with magical fire, and he twisted around on his feet, flinging his hands out to either side as he did so.

 _Crap! Have to dodge!_ Cobra thought wildly, but too late.

"Karyu no Yokugeki (Fire Dragon's Wing Attack)!" Natsu shouted, fire flaring out from his arms in the shape of a dragon's wings.

Having dodged away at the last instant, Cobra was out of range of the majority of Natsu's attack, but his long coat flared behind him as he rolled, and the tips of the fiery wings caught it, setting the coat alight. Growling, Cobra pulled off his now smoldering white coat and tossed it to the side. "All right, now you've irritated me."

"Oh?" Natsu said, smirking as he stood upright, his hands still flaring with magical fire. "You're going to get serious now?"

"You don't even know what serious is, brat," Cobra growled, ignoring the fact that he was only a few years, if that, older than Natsu. Natsu was part of a legal guild and had been sheltered all of his life, or so Cobra believed, anyway, from the hardships of life. Concentrating briefly, he put his hands together, then thrust them out to the sides, and Natsu watched in astonishment as scales began to appear from Cobra's elbows down, his fingers changing into claws.

A second later the transformation was finished, and Cobra stood there with the forearms of a dragon, his claws dripping red, the drops sizzling as they reached the ground beneath him. "Dokuryu no Uroko Amuzu (Poison Dragon's Scale Arms)," Cobra intoned, grinning evilly. "Let's see if you can survive this!"

"That…that's so cool!" Natsu shouted, sparks flying from his mouth as his eyes sparkled, causing Cobra to skid to a halt as was about to charge forward, gaping at the younger man. "That is so awesome! How can you do that? I wanna have scales like a real dragon like that too!"

Cobra blinked, then blinked again before shaking his head. "You were hit a little too often upside the head as a child, weren't you."

"Hey! Those were all love taps! Dad said so!" Natsu shot back.

"That's even worse!" Cobra shouted in response before shaking his head again and charging forward.

The two of them closed once more, throwing punches and kicks, and again Cobra was using his ability to 'hear his opponent.' But Natsu was slowly getting better at dodging and trying to see a pattern in Cobra's own attacks, and Cobra wasn't nearly as good at anticipating his opponent's ability to dodge, as he was his opponent's attacks thanks to how instinctually Natsu fought. At one point his magic told him that Natsu was going to try and grab him, but he could see his own attack nicking Natsu's chin and neck with his poison claws, and, since his dragon scales still covering his forearms were almost as poisonous as his actual nails, he didn't think that even this idiot would go through with the idea in his mind.

This showed that Cobra did not yet understand Natsu's sheer stubbornness. Even as his hands began to smoke, Natsu still clung on to Cobra's forearm and twisted, throwing Cobra over his should to land with a crash on the ground. Despite his eyes widening in shock, Cobra kicked out quickly, catching Natsu on the forehead when Natsu went for a follow on blow. He flipped onto his hands and pushed himself up and away while Natsu growled and came after him.

Then Natsu made the mistake of looking away as Happy raced between them, screaming, "No, you can't! Cat isn't tasty at all! Go get some fish or something!"

The snake had not joined the battle just yet, instead having caught sight of Happy. Staring at the small furry creature, it slithered towards Happy, who had been slow in noticing the danger. Happy had still been able to get away, being rather agile and very fast on his little feet. But his screaming cost his friend.

"Looking away in a fight? Dokuryu no Hoko (Poison Dragon's Roar)!" Natsu turned back around and caught a face full of the poison-charged attack, which enveloped him from head to toe.

Natsu was flung backwards several yards, rolling over the rocky ground as he clutched at his neck, gasping in agony and having no choice but to breathe in the assault as he tried to push himself to his feet. His skin almost immediately began to turn green, his legs going wobbly under him.

Giving Natsu no chance to breathe, Cobra immediately launched another attack, throwing one hand forward. A miasma of red and black Poison magic gathered around his hand in the shape of a snake's head, its maw open. The attack flashed forward towards Natsu. **"** Dokuryu no Hitotsuki no Kiba (Poison Dragon's Fang Thrust)!"

The attack slammed into the wobbling Natsu's chest, hurling him backwards once more to land on his back on the ground. Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet, only to meet a punch in the face, sending him back down. A stomp kick was barely dodged, but he couldn't could get away from the Poison Dragon Slayer, and when he tried to get off of the ground another kick caught him in the face.

Growling, Natsu roared, "Karyu no Afutaabaanaa (Fire Dragon's Afterburner)!" From his feet Natsu thrust out his fire magic and as if he was a rocket, Natsu flew backwards across the ground. Then he twisted, flipping himself forwards, and shot his hands forward and out. Magic flared away from him in a wave of fire that dissipated Cobra's next attack. The two of them stared at one another, Natsu now wobbling on his feet, his whole body trembling from the poison. His arm and his chest also burnt like he had been struck by acid.

By this time, Happy had taken to the air in an effort to escape the giant snake. Then he screamed as the snake sprouted its own wings, which looked like something from a wyvern rather than a bird or angel. With those wings it swiftly chased after the tasty little morsel, more agile in the air than Happy, but not quite as fast.

Happy banked this way and that, trying to dodge, heading back down towards the ground for a second, then rising quickly, but always the snake was there. Seeing the snake's partner standing still for a moment, he shifted his flight in that direction, a cunning plan coming to him.

He raced down towards Cobra, who turned lazily, staring up at him. "Really? You think you'll surprise me with an attack like that?"

"Aye, sir!" Happy shouted, and then he canceled his Aera magic, trying to aim to land on Cobras face, with Cubellios right behind him.

Or that was his intent. Instead, Cobra simply hopped to one side and lashed out, catching Happy with a chop that sent him flying to the side to slam into a nearby rock. Staring between the now unconscious Happy and the very poisoned Natsu who had just fallen to his knees, Cobra snorted. "Let's go, Cubellios. We're done here. You can come back for a snack later after we've dealt with the rest of these Fairy flies."

Hissing sibilantly, Cubellios moved towards her master, allowing him to affectionately pat her on the head for a moment before Cobra stepped onto her back, and the snake once more conjured up its wings, flying into the air. "If this was all a so-called 'real' Dragon Slayer could do, I'll take being a fake any day," he said dryly, waving goodbye to Natsu as Cubellios ascended further up the tower. "Enjoy the next few moments of agony. They'll be the last moments you'll ever have with that much poison in you."

Natsu growled, but could do nothing but watch as Cobra disappeared from sight upwards. He pounded the ground ineffectually. Then, gritting his teeth, he laboriously turned over and pushed up off the ground with all fours until he stood upright again. The world wavered around him, and he could feel his body shaking from head to toe now, but Natsu would be damned if he let some poison stop him like this.

"Besides, my Dragon Slayer durability will deal with it. Maybe. Hopefully," he muttered, growling. "Anytime now…"

Moving slowly, Natsu moved over to Happy, kneeling down, picking him up, and moving him to a nearby rock in the sunlight. "You'll be safe here, little buddy. I'll be right back…" Ignoring a second wave of dizziness and weakness, he pushed on, glaring at up at the tower. Slowly, with great deal of pain, he entered the tower and began to look for the stairs.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma couldn't dodge a punch in time, the blow catching him square on the side of his head, rattling his jaw and sending him skidding back. But he used that intervening distance to bring up his leg in a roundhouse kick that caught Jiemma in the side just under his guard, and he pushed off of that hit to once more leap into the air.

A series of blows rained down on the giant's head, but Jiemma raised his hands and blocked most, then grabbed Ranma as he was just a second too slow pulling back on a punch. Pulling him in, Jiemma hammered another blow into Ranma and then held on grimly, trying to pound Ranma into the dirt.

In turn Ranma blocked most of Jiemma's punches, redirecting the force of them even as explosions went off all around them from those blows. The force of those explosions also carried into Ranma's body, but, despite his issues with his Dragon Slayer given durability and his ki durability fighting and weakening one another, he could shrug off explosive blows like this just like he could take a blow from a devil.

Between one blow and the next Ranma redirected Jiemma's fist upwards, pulled his own fist back, and thrust it forward into the giant's unprotected shoulder, shouting, "Soryu no Saiga (Water Dragon's Crushing Fang)!"

Jiemma gasped in pain, but his body's durability was up to this attack, the water claw instead flinging him backwards. He skidded to a halt slowly, then brought his hands together in an almighty clap, pointing them towards Ranma. "Explosive Trial!"

"Soryu no Taitan Panchi! (Water Dragon's Titan Punch)!" Ranma shouted in return, and from his own forward thrust fist flashed the watery fist of a giant. It caught Jiemma's magic, shattering it, then moved on, crashing into Jiemma and hurling him back through the wall of the tower.

For all his magic, Jiemma couldn't fly from this far above solid ground. He roared in panic as he was launched out past the island and over the ocean.

Wiping at some blood that had accumulated on his lip from the blow which had caught him in the head, Ranma felt his ki healing go to the work on a broken rib of his own and a badly twisted knee. Gritting his teeth, he set it again, wincing at the pain of it, then smirked as he stared out over and through the hole he made. "Towers. They just don't make them like they used to."

Suddenly Ranma saw something within the stone of the tower and crouched down to stare at it, not noticing a magic carpet racing down towards where Jiemma had started to fall through the air. "What the heck? Is that lacrima embedded there?" He punched at the edge of the hole, and the rocks there came away, revealing a thin inner wall of crystal. It had been sandwiched between an outer layer of stone and a much thinner inner one of concrete or brick. "What in the hell is going on with this tower?"

Sixth sense blaring at him, Ranma threw himself sideways as something wide and sharp cut into the ground where he had just been standing. Twisting, Ranma glared at his new attacker.

Behind him stood another mage, younger than Ranma, maybe, looking more like a punk rocker than anyone Ranma had seen since the Death's Head Caucus mage in Pergrande. "You giving out tickets to a show or something? I'm not exactly a fan of heavy metal."

"Funny," the man said with a sneer. "It will be even funnier when I'm standing over your corpse."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Right, like I haven't heard that one before." Without another word he leaped forward, his hands glowing with magic as he threw them in front of his charge. "Soryu no Doriru Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!"

The other young man simply raised a hand lazily. "Distort Shield."

To Ranma's astonishment, his attack reflected back towards him, slamming into him with none of its force having dissipated, turning Ranma into his female form. She grunted in pain as she was thrown back into another portion of the tower's wall hard enough to crater it, coming away with much of the inner wall lining falling around behind her to reveal more lacrima. "What the hell?"

"The name is Midnight Ranger. Remember it as you die," Midnight said, swiping his hand forward and pointing with his outstretched index finger. He completely ignored Ranma's sex-change, having been warned about it by Jellal. "Spiral Pain!"

The air around Ranma's body distorted and hurled her away, crashing backwards once more into another portion of the wall. But, beyond that momentum, this magical attack, nearly invisible, hit every part of her body like she had just been hit by even more powerful blows than Jiemma's Explosive Magic. Ranma could feel bruises appear all over her skin, and she fell to her knees, dazed for a moment.

Then Jiemma was back, leaping down from the magic carpet that Midnight had sent to save him before engaging the Ranger. "I don't need your help. whelp," Jiemma growled.

Midnight smirked. "Not from where I was standing. Or was that someone else I just sent my magic carpet to save?"

Roaring in rage, Jiemma turned away from Midnight and leaped up into the air, his entire body glowing with Explosive Magic before accumulating it in his hands as he brought them down in an overhead hammer blow as Ranma tried to get to her feet. She barely had time for her eyes to widen before Jiemma's bunched fists smashed into the back of her head. "Explosive Hurricane!"

The blow smashed Ranma into the floor head first, shattering the ground all around her as Ranma grimaced in agony. _Thank God, I've got a hard head! s_ he thought as the explosive magic continued to blast into the back of her head, hurling the redhead through the shattered ground and downwards.

Mid-air in a room in the next floor down, Ranma twisted around, pulling out her guns and firing them a few times up into the hole, making Jiemma back away. But Midnight kept on coming, the bullets simply bouncing away from him as he held up a hand and hopped through the hole Ranma's body had created.

Landing on her feet easily, Ranma pushed herself up off the ground with a "Soryu no Takameru Ho (Water Dragon's Boosted Step)!" hurling her upwards. Midnight again threw out his hand, but to his astonishment Ranma didn't cover her hand with magic.

No, while Ranma's upward leap was being fueled by her magic, the attack wasn't. Midnight's magic, Reflector, could twist, warp, or simply block any magic or object he wished, but not living things. The geyser under Ranma twisted, attempting to rear up and hit her, but too slowly. By the time it did, sending Ranma sideways through the air of the tower, her punch had already smashed into Midnight's chest.

Midnight gasped in agony as the blow hammered into his chest, hurling him backwards up towards Jiemma, who was forced to duck out of the way. But, thanks to her attack having been twisted underneath her, Ranma's blow was barely more than a tap for him. This allowed Midnight to recover rather than be broken in half, as he might have been otherwise.

He did so, his eyes wide and his breath coming in gasps as he stared at Ranma in fearful rage before shouting at Jiemma. "You fucking oldie, help me out here!"

Jiemma and Midnight then both began long-range attacks, Jiemma's Explosive Trial and Midnight shrieking, "Invisible Scythe!"

The blunt force of the Explosive Trial hit Ranma as she was recovering from her own magic, once more smashing her out of the air. But she felt the shift in the air of Midnight's attack coming and desperately thrust herself sideways, rolling away through the dust and debris of the level of the tower she was currently fighting on. It was a relatively normal looking area, with numerous rooms and one long hallway connecting the ascending and descending stairs.

That was all gone now, utterly destroyed by the attacks from the two Dark Mages. Ranma's own replying attacks were blocked or deflected, even hurled back at her, and Ranma growled. _FUCK, this has suddenly become a lot tougher. What the hell is with that monochrome bastard?! Okay, so that one punch I threw got through whatever magic he's using to bend my assault back at me, but then… Is it that simple? He can only do that to magic? Only one way to find out…_

Ducking behind one internal wall that had already been struck by the attacks coming from on high, Ranma looked around, beginning to memorize the layout of the area while also waiting for a break in the attacks to make a run for the far stairs leading up. _Or should I just go for one of the holes in the ceiling? Nah, too risky. Going to have to try for the stairs…_

 **OOOOOOO**

" _We've been betrayed!"_ Sho said telepathically as he held the communication card to his forehead, sending his thoughts out through it towards his friends all over the tower. Indeed, his mental voice was reaching everyone he knew in the tower, both the friends close to his own age and the other ex-slaves who had remained on the island with them to finish the tower. _"Jellal has been lying to us all this time! He never intended to let us all build our own paradise with the magic accumulated in the tower! No, he wants to bring back the same Dark Mage that the cultists worshipped! He's been using us all along!"_

Though he wasn't part of the communication, Jellal could still see Sho with the communication card on his forehead and growled angrily, hurling Erza away for a moment from where the two of them had slammed into one another once more. Raising his hand he thrust out his magic. "That's enough out of you, Sho!"

Rolling from where she had been hurled, Erza could only watch in horror as the magic slammed into and then through her old friend, bursting out his back and leaving a gaping hole where his chest should've been. "No!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma looked up from where she had been looking forward to see Natsu coming up the stairs in the other direction. He looked a little out of it, too, and very battered. There was a small fire in one hand made of the word 'fire' in one hand, but he wasn't eating it, just staring straight ahead of him with a thousand mile stare.

He was also not looking around him at all as he stepped into Jiemma and Midnight's impromptu killing zone. "God damn shit!" Ranma roared, leaping out of her hiding place and racing towards Natsu. She barely covered the distance in time to knock the pinkette out of the way of the near invisible air slash attacks that Midnight was continually launching down at him. They rolled away through the debris, with Ranma pulling Natsu along until they were hidden again, the two Dark Mages halting their attack for the moment.

"What the fuck, Natsu!" Ranma whispered harshly. "Come on, man, you need to be aware of your surroundings."

"Erza? No, she's bigger and not as squishy when she tackles you," Natsu groaned. He tried to push himself to his feet, but Ranma pushed him back down. "Ugh, get off; need to go; need to find that snaky bastard…"

"Natsu!" Ranma shouted, then rolled them both away as the lacrima wall they had been hiding behind dissipated. They fell through a hole in the floor, but Ranma grabbed the side of it and flipped them both away. "You're in no fucking shape to fight anyone! Fuck, you nearly got yourself killed twice now, and me with it!"

The two of them landed in what looked like a bathroom, while the two Dark Mages began to try to bring the floor above them down. This was a sound move on their part, since both of them knew by this point that Ranma was at his (at present, her) most dangerous in close combat, and the more range they had to play with, the better.

The fact that Midnight was terrified under his angry exterior thanks to the one blow Ranma had already landed on him was also a reason for their desire to keep Ranma away from them. Even now he was only just starting to bring himself under control from his earlier scare.

"Gotta, gotta go! Fairy Tail mages don't give up! I ain't si, sick; I'm just hungry, that's all!" Natsu growled back, trying to push Ranma away.

Ranma frowned, staring into Natsu's eyes. As weak as his body was, there was nothing weak about the glare Natsu was giving him. _Huh, this kid's will is something else. Really, what do they feed their mages in Fairy Tail? R_ anma thought for the second time, if for an entirely different reason.

"In that case, maybe you should eat that fire in your hand before you keel over, huh?" Ranma said, pushing to her feet. "You said something about a snaky bastard?"

Natsu blinked, looking down at his hand, which still held the word fire that was made of fire. He had run into Levy earlier, who had first tried to help him, but they had, in turn, run into someone else: a huge guy whose name Natsu hadn't registered. There had been something else, the big guy looking up at nothing and then words were exchanged as Natsu moved off deeper into the tower. Then Levy had run up to him, pressed the fire word into his hand, and raced off, moving back to the big guy.

"Hmm, his name's Cobra, I think. He attacked me and Happy outside. Knocked out Happy and poisoned me, then ran off before we could finish the fight," Natsu said, growling the words as he chomped down on the fire, eating it all in one gulp. "Mmm, tasty."

Looking up, Ranma scowled as the noise of shattering masonry came closer. Her scowl turned into a full on frown as something began to drain her magical reserves into the crystals all around them. Then Ranma looked on in shock as Natsu, who had also felt the drain, only worse than Ranma, grabbed up the nearest bit of crystal and bit into it. "Natsu, what're you…"

"Dragon Slayers can eat other elements sometimes if they need a quick power up," Natsu growled, now finally pushing himself to his feet. "And I need it now." He nearly stumbled, scales began to appear on his face and hands, pressing through his skin, almost, or maybe his skin was just morphing. Ranma couldn't tell.

Ranma, of course, knew that, since she had experimented with eating both Laxus' and Wendy's power. Eating Wendy's hadn't made Ranma as wiped as Laxus' had after the initial power up, but it hadn't been fun either, and his/her ki—she had been male when she tried it with Laxus and female when she tried it with Wendy—had not liked the infusion of draconic magic **at all**. _Still, that's for later. And maybe eating the lacrima won't be as bad as eating another element raw?_

"Fine," she snarled, making Natsu back up rapidly, as she sounded more than a bit like an angry dragon just then. "But that means we need to get you past these assholes. Fuck." Ranma looked around, then shook her head. "I'm going to draw their fire, Natsu. You sneak over to those staircases; use them to get past these assholes. Don't try to engage them; just get past them, understand?"

Gulping, Natsu nodded, staring across at the distant stairwell.

This was why he missed the moment when Ranma hopped out of their hiding space to the rapidly widening hole in the ceiling Jiemma and Midnight were making. "Moko Takabisha!" she shouted, a cerulean and gold sphere around the size of her torso shooting upwards. An instant later four more spheres followed, then they were joined an instant later by a Soryu no Tachi Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Cutting Claw).

Midnight waved his hand only to scowl as the attack didn't bend away nearly as much as it should have. The attack still missed, but not by as much as it should have. On the heels of that attack were others. Midnight tried to twist them away, but, while the water one bent away as it should have, the others again fought his control, causing Midnight to panic and wave his hand this way and that, trying to force his magic to work and twisting the attacks wildly around.

Seeing this, Jiemma backed away from their vantage point to get out of the way of any errant attacks. This helped him, but also meant that he, like the panicking Nightmare, missed Natsu racing across the lower floor to the stairs leading up.

However, Natsu's troubles didn't end after he was past the two Dark Mages. The stairwell ended abruptly in a wall of rubble, forcing him to figure out his own way up. And as anyone who knew Natsu also knew all too well, he didn't do subtle…

 **OOOOOOO**

Erza attacked wildly, faster and stronger than she had before, but her fury at Sho's death had caused her to go berserk. More and more holes were appearing in her defense, and Jellal began to beat her back, hard.

A blow caught Erza on the nose, shattering it and spraying half her face with blood. As she tried to stab Jellal through the chest, he dodged and lashed out again, hitting her on the shoulder. Her armored pauldron cracked, but Erza remained unhurt. Her return attacks were so wildly telegraphed that Jellal had no problems dodging them, even though he was still having a bit of trouble with the fact that Erza kept on changing weapons on him. The number of different speeds, different ranges, and blade types threw him off something fierce, yet, as she was now, Era could no longer truly use that to her advantage.

A kick caught Erza in the center of her chest, doubling her over, and another kick flashed around, catching her in the head. She stumbled to her knees, wincing in pain as she attempted to rise, but Jellal stomped on her back, slamming her back down to the ground. "Ha! If I knew that killing off a friend of yours in front of you would've made you this predictable, I would've made a far greater effort to kill that blue haired girl at the beginning of our fight."

Erza growled angrily at that, trying to push upwards, but Jellal pushed her back down, his magic enhancing his strength. He reached down with his free hand to grab her hair.

"Get away from her!" A blow Jellal never saw coming caught him in the side of his face, smashing through his magical armor and nearly breaking his jaw. It did succeed in shattering several of his teeth and hurling him backwards, despite the magical aura around his body.

"W,fhat, whgho…" Jellal gasped through his ruined mouth. He then put one hand on his jaw and swiftly backed away, scowling angrily as Mirajane stood there.

Fighting the former guild master had been irritating, more than anything else. He had been very experienced and could teleport around the place thanks to some spells embedded in his armor. But despite his ability to create weapons on the fly and manipulate them telekinetically, to Mira it had simply been a matter of time before he was dealt with. After that she had flown to the tower and entered it at the topmost level, figuring to start at the top.

"Aw, look at that. Sorry I ruined your pretty boy looks, there," the Devilish woman said with a wicked smirk on her face. She turned slightly, glaring down at Erza. "Heh, that's a good look for ya, ginger. But being beaten up by the pretty boy? That's not like my old rival at all. Not that I can't understand why you're angry," she said, her eyes flicking over to Sho's dead body. "But if you keep on acting all wild like this you'll never get anywhere, iron princess."

Erza glared up at her, but slowly brought herself under control, pushing to her feet, wincing at her injuries and dabbing at her nose. She then straightened it with a snap, causing Mirajane to wince at the sound, before wiping away the blood on her face. She then Requipped a new set of armor. This time she wasn't pulling any punches. She summoned up her Heaven's Wheel armor, and swords began to flash all around her for a moment before disappearing once more, now cocked and loaded in her Requip space, ready to be launched as she willed them. In either hand was a sword with wings on it, matching the wings covering her back. "You're right, Mirajane, and I apologize for my loss of control. But now let us finish this!"

Jellal backed away further, looking between the two S-class mages, very, very worried for a moment. Luckily for him, help arrived in the form of Cobra flying in on Cubellios before the two S-class women could charge. At his command, Cubellios flew towards Mirajane, who turned quickly, fist lashing out at the snake, which pulled up abruptly.

At the same time, Cobra launched an attack at Erza. "Dokuryu no Hoko (Poison Dragon's Roar)!"

Erza adroitly brought up her sword, flashing out a wind strike that cut through Cobra's attack, and then began to launch more swords both at him and Jellal, causing both of them to dodge backwards. Those first few were joined by hundreds more in an instant. Each of them flew forward as fast as a bullet, the entire wave of them under the control of Erza's mind and each moving separately from its fellows. This caused merry hell for Cobra, since it was like trying to hear a single voice in a crowd to pick out which sword was going to attack him or Jellal, and he was forced to fall back on his instincts.

"Finish off that snake! I'll hold these two off!"

"Don't order me around, Red! Devil Spark!" Mirajane shouted, and a ball of purple and black magical energy blasted out from her hand, nearly catching Cubellios in the face. The snake dodged to one side, hissing, as the blast of Satan magic flashed past its face close enough to sear her scales a little. Then it had to wildly flail around, trying desperately to stay away from the punches and kicks that Mirajane was throwing at it with her clawed and scaled hands.

Despite its surprising amount of agility, the snake couldn't dodge a kick to the chest and then with a shout of, "Soul Extinctor!" a large black and purple beam of power caught Cubellios in the center of her back, hurling her away.

Cobra had been forced to concentrate on Erza, though he had believed this a good idea too, believing that Erza was exhausting herself further after a hard battle. But once more under control and with her favorite combat armor on, Erza quickly proved that to be wishful thinking. The blades she sent at them continued to flash, appearing and disappearing, hurling themselves at Cobra and Jellal from every direction, their edges sharp enough to mark even a Dragon Slayer's body or Jellal's aura of magical armor. Indeed, it was Jellal who was slowly succumbing to exhaustion. Cobra could hear that in his hated ally, loud and clear, whereas Erza's mind was still as sharp and deadly as her blades, even if her feelings were obscured by the number of blades she was moving around.

Luckily for the two Dark Mages, Cobra was almost fresh despite having fought Natsu earlier. He quickly began to take center stage in the fight, allowing Jellal to back away, hurling out his own long-range attacks in an effort to defend against the vast swarm of blades. "Dokuryu no Uroko (Poison Dragon's Scales)!" This forced Erza to use her swords to absorb or redirect the poison scales coming towards her and Mira.

This in turn allowed Mira to go on the offense, now that Cubellios was down. "Evil Explosion!"

An enraged Cobra was still able to correctly sense the first attack coming and dodge, but even though he sensed the next one coming he was too slow to avoid the blow that followed, though his claws also caught Mira on the side, the two of them blasting one another apart in a duel of "Dokuryu no Tsuinkiba (Poison Dragon's Twin Fang)!" and "Satan Blast!"

As the Poison Dragon Slayer fought Erza and Mira, Jellal backed away with alacrity, racing backwards towards his throne, which had remained untouched during the battle. There he slammed his hands down on the armrests, activating an enchantment that he had added to the tower for just this purpose.

Cobra grunted as another Darkness Stream got through his defense, causing him to be hurled backwards once more. He was about to turn and shout at Jellal for help when he suddenly began to feel a drain on his magical reserves. He watched as both of the attackers also felt it, Mirajane stumbling to one side, and Erza actually gasping, nearly going to one knee and having to use one of her winged swords to stay on her feet. At the same time, the stones all around them began to shiver and quake, the covering rocks sloughing off to reveal the lacrima underneath.

Jellal laughed wildly, twisting himself around and launched himself forward into a Meteor assault. He caught both Mirajane and Erza, hurling them into the center of the room before skidding to a halt himself and bounding away, shouting, "Activate!"

Cobra watched in something approaching shock as a magical circle appeared in the center of the room, all around Mirajane and Erza. The draining effect he was still feeling must've been multiplied in that circle several times as both women began to gasp in pain, before pushing themselves up and out of the field with difficulty.

"You bastard!" Cobra growled, staring at Jellal. "That was some of my power you drained! Midnight's and Jiemma's too!"

"Worry about that later. We have to win this fight first!" Jellal barked back, racing forward once more to engage Erza. Having absorbed the magic of those within the tower, he was almost back to being fresh again, and now Erza was the one getting tired.

Grimacing, Cobra understood the inherent logic of Jellal's position and even understood why Jellal had set something like that up. That didn't mean he had to like it, and it was just one more thing about Jellal that made him think longingly about betraying the bastard and sticking a knife in his back. _Still, he's right. We have to concentrate on the fight right in front of us._

By this time Mira had pushed up and out of the central draining array and was closing swiftly, firing off an "Evil Spark!" that caught Cobra in the side, him being too busy glaring at Jellal to use his Sound Magic. He could feel his skin searing and a few ribs going. _Dammit, even drained she is so strong!_ he thought, glaring first at Mirajane then at Erza. _Is this the strength of an S-class mage of Fairy Tail?_

Concentrating on Mira now, Cobra activated his Sound magic, which made dodging easier but not always certain. Mira was much stronger and faster than Natsu and seemed to compensate for his ability to hear her attacks coming within a few seconds of their exchanging blows. Worse, her forearms were covered by heavy scales that seemed to ignore his poison powers.

But then Cobra saw Cubellios slowly lifting her head from where she had been hurled by Mira's earlier idea came to Cobra's mind then, and he began to give ground, moving around in a circle until Mirajane's back was towards Cubellios. He took a few more hits than he might have otherwise, his forearm scales searing off in places and his shoulder getting heavily bruised, but it worked.

Mirajane didn't feel her danger until it was too late. Behind her Cubellios reared up, thrusting her head forward and biting deeply into Mirajane's thigh right above where her thigh high bootsended. This opened her up for a blast of Cobra's magic, and he capitalized instantly. "Dokuryu no Saiga (Poison Dragon's Crushing Fang)!"

Even with Cubellios's venom now doing its dirty work in her body, she was able to throw up her forearm, taking his attack on it before returning a wide angle blast that would have caught him from below if he hadn't heard it coming. The "Darkness Stream!" acted more as a defense, forcing them apart.

Still, the damage was done. Cubellios's venom was much, **much** more powerful than Cobra's poison, and Mirajane staggered backwards. She kicked Cubellios away, sending the snake flying, but her vision blurred as she did. Mira then slid to one knee, her thigh now red and green, pulsing with the poison.

With Cubellios once more returned to his side, Cobra nodded at his snake, and both of them breathe in, preparing a dual attack. Just as Cobra was about to launch his attack he heard a sound, and he pushed off of the ground. "Cubellios, fly!"

The floor underneath him shattered from some kind of pressure below. From out from the hole Natsu pulled himself up slowly, growling as he glared daggers at Cobra. But something was different from the last time Cobra had seen him. Natsu looked almost feral now, crouching there on the ground, his eyes smoldering, and little scales were appearing on his face as Cobra watched in thunderstruck amazement. "You, you should be dead by now! What the hell!? I pumped you full of enough poison to down an entire town!"

Growling, Natsu reached down and grabbed up a chunk of the Lacrima of the tower, chomping down on it. A second later the scales on his face expanded, and one of his eyes turned almost reptilian, even more so than Cobra's.

From nearby where he had crossed blades with Erza again, Jellal gasped. "He is taking in some of the power from the tower! Dragon Slayers can eat elements and other things like that, but I've never heard of one being able to eat lacrima!""

Erza spared her friend a glance of concern, noting how feral and wild his appearance was. But then Natsu almost disappeared from her senses, crossing the distance between himself and Cobra in a single flashing bound. A howl that made Erza's ears ring accompanied the move. "Karyu no Hougou (Fire Dragon's Howl)!"

It was much worse for the target of that howl. Cobra reeled, his hands flying up to his ears as he screamed in pain. "GAAHHHH!"

Despite the poison affecting his body, despite the fact that his mind was being affected by the exertion of his taking in the magic of the lacrima he had been chomping on, Natsu had devised an actual plan to deal with Cobra. Cobra had boasted during their fight that he could hear his opponent's thoughts and had, indeed, seemed to dodge Natsu's attacks before he even launched them a lot of the time. This told Natsu that his hearing was even more acute than a normal Dragon Slayer's. It then stood to reason that a loud noise would work on him even better than it would have on Natsu.

Natsu's howl completely flooded Cobra's ability to see his opponents' attacks coming and almost entirely paralyzed him. He couldn't dodge as Natsu finally slammed into him, roaring out, "Karyu no Reijingu Tosshin (Fire Dragon's Raging Charge)! Round two, bastard!" His charge slammed Cobra back through the wall of the tower and out into the air, now grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pummeling his free hand into Cobra's face.

Flying towards the tower, Wendy and Carla saw them plummeting out of the tower, Natsu's pink hair distinctive as they closed. The Rune Knight ship had finally docked with the island, and Wendy had decided to make her way towards the tower, thinking the others might need her healing ability, if nothing else.

Now seeing Natsu and another man plummeting down followed by a giant snake, she decided to interfere. "Tenryu no Yokugeki (Sky Dragon's Wing Attack)!" she shouted, flashing her hands forward and sending blades of air towards the snake. It saw them coming and dodged wildly, showing an agility in the air that Wendy could scarcely credit.

Meanwhile, Cobra had regained the upper hand. His face was bleeding from numerous cut, his jaw was swollen, and his nose was a smashed and shattered mess along with a long gash from his hairline down his chin, which had nearly cost him his eye. But he had replied to all this by nearly gouging Natsu's eyes out with the claws of one hand, and he had sunk the claws of his other hand into Natsu's side, Natsu's feral mindset messing with his ability to defend himself.

And while the odd infusion of magic he had taken from the lacrima had allowed his Dragon Slayer durability to beat off the poison, it hadn't spread throughout his skin yet. Now Cobra pulsed his magic through that contact. "Dokuryu no Akugeki (Poison Dragon's Grip Strike)!"

This blew Natsu away from him. Now apart, they continued to plummet downwards, with Natsu slowly losing consciousness, his draconic scales disappearing as his consciousness faded.

Seeing this, Wendy shouted, "Carla, go help Natsu-san!" With that she unlatched the series of buckles that connected Carla to her back, dropping free and racing down through the air, her hands spread out to either side as she used one spell to slow her descent before launching her breath attack at Cobra. "Tenryu no Hoko!"

The blast of hurricane force, magically infused air crashed into Cobra, whose ears were still bleeding from Natsu's earlier assault. He cried out in pain as he was slammed into the side of the tower, thrusting out his hands desperately. But like Natsu, Cobra had no spell designed for defense beyond his passive Sound magic. He was still a Dragon Slayer, though, so instead of ripping his arms apart as the attack might well have for most mages, it simply opened up a few gashes in a few places from finger to shoulder, then did the same to his bruised chest. But the attack continued as Cobra continued to fall.

An instant after the attack began he came down on one of the openings that had housed a cannon before Ranma had destroyed it. Desperately, Cobra pushed himself off the top of the mangled cannon and back into the tower, rolling away.

Huffing, Wendy began to hop down through the air, wondering if she should go after whoever that was. _And did I hear him use a Dragon Slayer's attack earlier?_

Her attention was pulled away from that idea by Carla's shrill cry. "Wendy, Natsu's been poisoned, **badly**! He needs your help right away!"

With that Wendy immediately turned around, hopping towards her falling friend and Natsu. As she did, she noticed out of the corner of her eye, Happy flying up towards them. Even the blue-furred Exceed looked wrung out from the fighting.

Gasping as he lay on his side inside the tower somewhere, Cobra shook his head wearily, staring down at his battered body. While his attacks were dangerous, even deadly, Cobra's Poison Dragon Slayer powers hadn't elevated his durability to anywhere near the level the two other Dragon Slayers in this fight seemed to have. _Maybe that girl won't be as durable, but I'm in no shape to find out._ On top of the thin, bleeding lacerations that marked him in various places from the waist up, Cobra had felt at least one rib go during his battle with Natsu just now, and his face was throbbing from chin to hairline.

That was enough, Cobra decided. _No way in hell am I going to fight to the death here for this fucking tower!_

He whistled audibly through his teeth to call for Cubellios, then limped away, moving through the tower towards the side facing the open ocean past the island. _Time for us to get out of here, whatever that bastard Jellal wants!_

 **OOOOOOO**

Elsewhere, Midnight would have questioned that decision, considering that he believed he and Jiemma were winning right now. They continued to randomly throw attacks down from their vantage point through one of the many holes that had been created in this section of the tower every time they saw a glimmer of movement in the floor below, thinking it was the Ranger. And though rather worried about the one blow Oceana had landed on him, Midnight was still confident that his magic, Reflector, would keep him safe.

But Ranma had long since disappeared under the Umi-Sen-Ken once again and was actually now moving up behind them after having covered for Natsu earlier. _With the way my body's feeling, I need to make this attack count. My ki healing's kicking in, but I've already been pushing it against Jiemma._ Whatever magic Midnight had been throwing around had felt to Ranma like she had been pressed down by the crushing depths he had trained in with Typhon without any of the defenses she had built up to it. Even Jiemma's explosive powers didn't hurt nearly as much, because most of the time those powers were concentrated and able to be slightly redirected or dodged. Ranma hadn't been able to dodge this and had barely been able to see it coming at all. That made it deadly, and she needed to do something about it.

Because of that, Midnight was her target.

For his part, Midnight was still dealing with the terror of someone being able to actually hit him as Ranma padded up behind him. "Where is he!? Does he have some kind of invisibility spell?"

"He wasn't using it against me, brat," Jiemma growled, irritated both by Midnight's mere presence and the fact that earlier they had both felt some of their magic being drained by the lacrima structure of the tower. "Just keep looking; he's down there somewhere. We have to crush them before meeting up with Cobra and the blue-haired psychopath!"

"This whole job is fucking with my head," Midnight muttered, shaking his head while voicing some of his fears. "What the hell was that attack he used earlier? And, more importantly, how did he get that hit on me before?" That was still freaking Midnight out, frankly.

"Like this," Ranma said, coming out from behind, the Umi-Sen-Ken disappearing as she took the final step between her and Midnight, that opening having just been too good for Ranma to ignore.

Midnight turned with desperate speed, taking the blow that would've caught him in the back on his forearm, not that this was the soft option. Unlike Jiemma or Cobra, Midnight had no real defense against Ranma's sheer physical strength even when it wasn't coupled with his magic or ki. Midnight's forearm shattered like a dry twig, and he was hurled backwards into the hole between that floor and the one below, screaming in pain.

But Jiemma turned, showing speed that was unusual for such a large man, catching Ranma hard in the side with an Explosion-Magic aided punch, hurling her backwards. She grunted in pain, that blow having hurt a lot more than anything else she had felt during this fight due to her accumulated injuries from the hits she'd taken covering Natsu. Her durability was now slowly giving way as was her ki's ability to heal her wounds. _I will seriously need to figure out a solution to that issue!_

This momentary weakness allowed Jiemma to get in another uppercut, and he empowered it with as much of his magic as he could, like he had the double overhand blow that he used to slam Ranma through the floor in the first place. "Explosive Uppercut!"

The blow landed on Ranma's chin and threw her through the air, slamming her into and through the ceiling, and then it kept pushing her upwards. Ranma shook her head angrily. _Dammit, that'll teach me. In a serious fight I have to ignore verbal openings like that._

As Jiemma closed in, Ranma twisted, her legs flashing out to grab Jiemma's head between them. She then flipped them around and, grabbing at Jiemma with her hands, broke the grip of her legs as she flipped them both around until Jiemma was above Ranma with her legs facing downwards. There was a large flash of blue magic around her legs, and Ranma shouted, "Soryu no Buusuto Suuho (Sky Dragon's Boosted Steps)!" From her feet flashed a geyser of water, thrusting both of them up, crashing through over a dozen floors.

Jiemma tried to break free, tried to bring his fists to bear, tried to use his explosive aura to push Ranma off. But Ranma clung to him like grim death with one arm, using the other to ward off his blows and ignoring the damage Jiemma was doing to her with his explosive aura, because she was more concerned with removing Jiemma from where Midnight had fallen than trying to finish Jiemma off at the moment. The older man's durability was no joke, and Ranma knew that if she stopped and tried to pound Jiemma under, it would take too long and would give Midnight time to recover and rejoin the fight.

As they ascended, Ranma was able to look ahead of them where the ground of the next few floors had already been shattered. She smiled grimly, then, as she saw something coming down towards them.

 **OOOOOOO**

Despite the initial draining on her reserves, Erza was still going strong, pushing Jellal hard, never more thankful for her training with Laxus than she was at that moment. Further, Erza had spent practically every day of her life since leaving the Tower of Heaven fighting in one form or another. Jellal had not. He might have earned the Wizard Saint appellation due to his magical strength, but in sheer experience and combat ability, Erza the Titania was his better by far. And once again as the fight wound on this began to tell. Further, Jellal could also understand this and feel it happening, her blows slowly beginning to wear him under, his reserves of magic slowly dissipating with every slash and cut.

However, Jellal still had a slight edge in speed, agility, and magic power. He used this to his advantage, getting in between Mirajane's collapsed form and Erza. With a sudden twist he turned, racing towards Mira, seemingly eager to finish her off where she lay, overcome from Cubellios's poison. This caused Erza to react, quickly donning her Flight Armor to zoom around Jellal and get in front of him again. Jellal smirked, then shifted his stance just slightly, bringing his arms up to smash into her again via Meteor.

The cheetah armor, after all, didn't have any real armor to speak of, being simply a breastplate that was more of a barely armored cheetah-patterned top and some fur lining the lower edges, which exposed her stomach and some cleavage. There was no waist guard, the armor's top instead being paired with short, black shorts and a belt holding a cloth hanging behind and somewhat over Erza's left leg.

"HA! Who would have imagined that Erza Scarlet would have an exhibitionist streak! Still, if you want to die in that bikini of yours, who am I do deny you!" Jellal shouted, closing quickly.

But Erza knew that, and brought out a heavy axe made of stone, of all things, to offset her armor's lack of actual armor. She slammed it into the ground of the tower right before Jellal could crash into her. Jellal skidded to a halt and glared angrily as more of the tower's floor collapsed. "By Zeref, what is it with you fucking Fairy Tail mages and destroying my goddamned tower?!"

Erza didn't reply, instead hopping down through the hole with Mirajane in her arms, intent on removing her friend and rival from the battlefield for a moment.

As she did she looked downwards and saw Ranma and a giant middle-aged man in her arms being thrust upwards. Somewhere along the way Ranma had been transformed into her female body, but that hardly mattered at this point. Ranma saw her too, as well as Mirajane in her arms, and winked over the giant man's shoulder. "Switch off!" she shouted, confusing Jiemma, who couldn't turn his head far enough to see above him as Ranma continued to propel them upwards.

Erza grinned evilly and without another thought tossed Mirajane to one side, ignoring the girl's groaning protest at being tossed around like a piece of luggage and switching out her armor once more. "Purgatory armor!" she shouted, her entire form flaring in Requip light once more.

A bare heartbeat later the Requip light faded and Erza was revealed once more. She now wore a black and gray metal dress with shoulder guards the same color as the rest with large spikes protruding out of them. The arm guards had three large spikes jutting out, each smaller than the last. The leg greaves started just below her hips with three more progressively smaller spikes protruding, starting at the knees. Around her neck was a small necklace of black, diamond shaped jewels, dropping into her cleavage, which was revealed somewhat more in this outfit than most. A single horn, for some reason, also poked out of a headband from under her hair.

She hefted a massive mace as Ranma flipped Jiemma to one side, passing by Erza and grabbing Mirajane out of the air, then propelling herself sideways with a blast of water from one hand to land in a ruined doorway on that floor. The room beyond was relatively intact, though, somewhat surprising Ranma. She took a look inside and blanched at the odd looking room, which looked like a cat lover with really bad taste had been allowed to run wild within. "Can't say much for the decor, but I suppose you'll be safe here anyway, Mira-chan," she muttered, racing forward to lay her gently on the bed, shaking her head at how oddly good the other girl smelled and felt in her arms.

With that done Ranma took a brief second to pull out a bottle of water, heat it, and douse herself, changing back to his male form. _Probably going to need more reach for this fight from now on._ With that accomplished, Ranma twisted around and launched himself upwards, scaling the interior of the now open tower by bouncing off of the inside of the tower here and there at the wrecked sides of the hole, which had basically grown now to be made out of each and every hole that had been made in the tower up to this point.

Jiemma, for his part, had barely a second to wonder why Ranma had let him go just then before Erza's giant mace slammed into him and shattered through his durability, which had been reinforced over the years by his Explosion Magic, his body needing to toughen up against his own magic's sudden pounding. Despite that, this blow nearly pulped one of his arms and shoulders. He roared aloud in agony as he was hurled downwards through the tower once more.

After that blow Erza ignored the large man, assuming the blow would finish him. Instead, she Requipped her Heaven's Wheel armor and flew back towards Jellal, who had been grateful for the breather. He had attempted to reactivate the draining enchantment, but unfortunately that spell had been rather slapdash and had faded instantly after the first use. Even the magical absorbing circle in the center of his throne room was now inoperative, much of its surface having been damaged.

By the time she arrived, Ranma and Jellal were already going at it hammer and tongs. Jellal had no agility or speed advantage against Ranma, and Ranma, though exhausted, sore, and with his ki healing no longer working as quickly, was still slightly fresher than Jellal was. "Ya'know, you could have made this a lot easier for all concerned if ya had just stuck around after trying to kill me. Not that I'd have let this place stand, but at least ya would have been spending a nice few days in jail living off the government's dollar. Now you've gotten that pretty boy face ruined, and, are you missing some teeth?"

"Silence, Oceana!" Jellal roared. "You will never beat me! My ambition, my dream, Zeref will be resurrected no matter what you do!"

A Soryu no Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Claw) caught Jellal in the center of his chest, hurling him back and to the side. "Yeah, I don't think so."

Jellal tried to zoom up into the air, but Ranma turned with him, leaping up to reengage him, their fists flying, and suddenly Jellal found his arm gripped, Ranma turning into his reach, and an elbow seeking his face. He ripped his arm out of Ranma's grip just in time to get his own arm up to block, wincing at the blow and replying with a point-blank Shooting Star (Jiu Leixing) attack into Ranma's face.

This attack was supposed to be nine lightning-like swords, which was the way Jellal had used it before against Erza to try to offset the sheer number of weapons she was using. But this time it came out as just a near-formless mass of lightning magic.

Ranma, however, dodged it, flipping in midair and bringing his foot down in a way that only a true master of the Aerial Style of Anything Goes could've done. Jellal barely saw the blow in time, only just twisting out of the way to take the blow on his shoulder rather than the top of his head. But he moved with it, slamming down onto the ground and then kicking off and away.

In return he shouted out, "Pleiades!" Six rays of light flashed out from above him at Ranma, who dodged them all as Erza arrived on the scene.

"And now your days going to get even worse!" Ranma said with a laugh.

For her part Erza had no breath to waste on banter. She simply waved her hands, first in front of her and then to the side. "Dance, my blades!" she shouted once more, hurling them forward. The swords followed her movement as they appeared from her Requip space, shooting forward as if from out of a shotgun. This attack wasn't nearly as random as the assault she'd used before against both Jellal and Cobra, but its stopping power was even higher.

For a moment, watching that, Ranma was reminded of an anime he had seen once. _But Erza's a lot prettier than the blonde asshole who was using that technique._

Grunting, Jellal threw up a shield of magic in front of him, twitching as each sword embedded itself in the shield. With each blow the magical power of the shield dissipated. _How?! How is she still going?!_

"Explosive Trial!" shouted Jiemma, as he and Midnight rose from behind Ranma and Erza. Both of them leaped to the side, with Erza halting her assault as the two newcomers arrived. For a moment the three of them looked at one another, then Ranma pointed at the two newcomers. "I'll get those two. Can you handle Jellal?"

Erza snorted. "I would have it no other way," she said, glaring at Jellal. There were no remaining feelings of guilt or anxiety in that look, simply hard, cold resolve, and that irritated Jellal for some reason he couldn't fathom. He charged forward with a roar, and she did the same, the two of them clashing in midair as Ranma turned in the opposite direction towards Jiemma and Midnight.

As he charged, Ranma's magic disappeared from around his hands and feet, and he smirked at Midnight. "You can't bend my power against me if I don't use it!"

"I don't need to use your magic alone, Ranger!" Midnight shrieked. Jiemma had forced him to come along, since Jiemma had needed Midnight's magic carpet, and it wouldn't respond to the older man. If it had been up to him, Midnight would have already run away. But now that he was once more forced to face Ranma, he did so wildly and as forcefully as possible.

He slashed one hand forward, trying to grasp the air around Ranma, and Ranma grunted as he was again seized by a grip of air and crushed. But he sent out a Soryu no Hoko (Water Dragon's Roar), and Midnight, with only one arm left to direct his spells, quickly used his magic to divert it, breaking the hold or whatever it was that he had used on Ranma a second ago.

Midnight had simply sent the attack to one side, nearly smashing it into Jiemma beside him, but the old man took a step backwards just enough to dodge. Midnight desperately turned his attention back to Ranma, lashing out with the same attack as before. "Spiral Pain!"

But Ranma had finally begun to see the trails through the air of that particular spell and rolled to the side, diving both away from that attack and towards Jiemma. Jiemma, by this point, was barely on his feet, all his willpower being used just to keep himself from collapsing. Half of his body was a ruined mess from the blow Erza had dealt him to go with the ribs Ranma had broken earlier. One of his eyes was just gone, having exploded from the impact, and he was missing most of his teeth on that side thanks to the mace of the Purgatory armor breaking through his already weakened defense.

But he was an immensely powerful man as well as a prideful and wrathful one. A man who, further, was fixated on making Ranma pay for his humiliation years ago. Which he stated now. "I've trained my body for years, pushed my magic beyond the breaking point, and joined with that madman Brain and his coterie of children all for the sake of finding and killing you, Ranger! You will pay! **You will pay!** Pay for my humiliation; pay for taking my legacy from me!"

Ranma hurled out a water attack towards Jiemma, but was not surprised to see Midnight thrust his hand that way, then backwards towards Ranma. He ducked under the watery assault, flipping through the air and landing on the side of the tower before kicking off and closing with Midnight.

Midnight saw Ranma and quickly bent the air around him, hopping backwards and disappearing. Now, covered like that, Midnight began to hurl out his barely visible scythe attacks at both Ranma's current position and at Erza.

This took some of Erza's attention away from Jellal, costing her as he closed. A blow got into her side, but she rolled with it, dissipating much of the force behind the blow.

The goth-looking mage blinked, however, as Ranma did the same thing, disappearing behind the Umi-Sen-Ken just as he ducked under a blow from Jiemma. "Where did you go, you little rat!"

Now wrapped in his invisibility, Midnight moved around, continuing to throw out his scythe assaults. _If Ranma attacks anyone, it will be one of the visible opponents, since he can't see me regardless of his own invisibility._ _This way I can win this fight without taking any more hits! How, how dare he? How dare he hurt me like this!? But he'll get his! Yes, now that I'm invisible, now that he can't hurt me, but I can hurt him!_

"I can still smell ya," a voice said from directly in front of him, disabusing Midnight of that notion. Midnight's instincts caused him to twitch wildly away from that voice, which was the only thing that saved him from having his head pulped. Instead Ranma's blow simply shattered his jaw, and the next blow came in before he could recover, catching him in the chest and hurling him backwards. He had moved just enough to negate much of the force of that, but it still left him bruised.

The next blow caught Midnight on the side of the head, hurling him away to hammer against one of the few sections of wall still upright in the throne room after having crashed through Jellal's throne. He slumped there, unconscious.

But Ranma's attention on Midnight had allowed Jiemma to close, and he grabbed Ranma from behind around the chest with his one working arm. "Explosive Crush!" he roared, his Explosion Magic blasting out from his arm and chest into Ranma's body from both directions. The Blast Magic's vibrations damaged Ranma more than it ever had before this, given how exhausted he was, and the fact that it was coming from two directions simultaneously caused the impact to multiply the longer it went on. Ranma could feel more of his ribs go and coughed blood as something else inside popped. Despite that Ranma concentrated through the pain and summoned up his strength once more, ripping an arm free as he twisted as best he could in Jiemma's grip. If Jiemma had been able to use both hands for this, he might have been able to hold Ranma still. As it was, he could not, as he just wasn't strong enough.

Ranma thrust his hand upwards, the magic in it blasting out into a small, extremely concentrated magical blast. "Soryu no Tsukisasu Shita (Water Dragon's Piercing Tongue)!"

Jiemma had concentrated all his remaining magical power into crushing Ranma, and his body's natural durability had been overcome utterly by this point. Because of this Ranma's magic crossed the few inches separating Ranma's actual hand from his throat and crushed Jiemma's larynx before going on to shatter his neck. The dead man fell forwards, his head flopping at an unnatural angle, dead before his body hit the ground and burying Ranma underneath him.

Pushing the giant off with a grumble, Ranma turned to look at where Erza and Jellal were still fighting before pushing himself to his feet and moving in that direction. Jellal had just gotten in another blow, which had shattered some of the sword blades on Erza's back, and another blow to her side, which had crushed the armor there, the damage making its ability to fly useless. In return her sword had cut off one of his ears in a welter of blood, and her other blade had nearly gutted him, instead opening up a slash across his lower chest. As Ranma saw this, he once more gathered water around his hands.

The blue-haired man had barely a moment to look up before a hammer blow of water crashed down on top of him, shattering the floor and hurling him down into the hole which now dominated the tower's interior for seven stories. "Damn it!" Jellal roared, halting his fall and rushing back towards Erza. _Where are those damn Oración mages!? Curse their incompetence!_ Jellal didn't know that Midnight was unconscious and Jiemma was dead, having had to concentrate solely on keeping Erza from his throat for the past few minutes.

Erza stared down at Jellal as he slowly rose towards her, staring back at her. When he was in range enough to see her entire body, Jellal oddly began to cackle, seeing her armor's badly battered form, unmindful of the blood flowing from the stump of his ear or his chest. "You have no more armor, Erza, and what is a knight without armor! What is a fairy that cannot fly?!"

"A Fairy Tail mage still, a knight still," Erza said, making no move to correct Jellal's assumption. Erza actually did have a few more sets of armor, though they were more prototypes rather than completed sets. Regardless, she had no need to use them here.

Requipping out of her shattered armor, she replaced it with another set of clothing which none of her friends in Fairy Tail had ever seen before. It wasn't even armor, really, just being a regular sort of outfit consisting of a long red colored skirt with a gold flame design on the sides and the breast bands she wore underneath her armor. She called it her Clear Heart clothing, but even that was more a made up name than anything. The blade in her hand, on the other hand, was very special indeed.

The hilt of the blade was composed of a long handle, the pommel of which was covered in gold, a short dark blue rope adorned with three big red pearls coming out of it. The sword's blade was shaped like a standard katana, but the blade was a bit thicker than a traditional katana. Shaped with flower-like edges, the hilt was guarded by a square guard. This was the demon blade Crimson Sakura, one of the three deadliest weapons in Erza's collection.

But even more deadly was the cold, purposeful stare with which she returned Jellal's mad glare. "I don't need my armor anymore, Jellal. I have friends, a family who accepts me. I don't need to hide myself from anyone. I don't need to defend myself from anyone, certainly not you, not anymore. You are a shade of the past, Jellal, and it is time to exorcise you."

Once more seeing this woman who he had tortured, who he had tried to break beyond all others, even the ones in the tower, standing there unbroken and strong, something in Jellal snapped. He roared incoherently, gathering all of his remaining magic and thrusting himself upwards through the hole towards her, charging wildly with his final attack. "Grand Chariot!"

In reply, Erza leaped down towards where Jellal was flying towards her, raising her sword above one shoulder. She focused all her remaining magic into it, creating a visible wake of golden magic behind her as she fell, before bringing it down as they intersected.

There was a spurt of blood, and her side lit up in agony, her elbow mangled along with her ribs on that side and her hip bone, so badly bone shards could actually be seen sticking out of her skin. Yet at the same time her blow struck true at the weakened Jellal. Where her side and arm were now in agony, Jellal gaped as his guts spilled out, his body sliced nearly in two.

The light in his eyes swiftly began to fade as he fell. "Zer, Zeref. No, this…no. Not what I was…"

At Cobra's order, Cubellios flew from where they had been hiding in a ruined room nearby. A second later he stared down at Jellal's dying face impassively, then behind him at the unconscious Midnight, who he had grabbed a moment ago to be placed further down his friend's coiled length. _Brain isn't going to like this,_ he thought, before swiftly beheading the dying man than gesturing for Cubellios to turn and retreat out a nearby hole into the open air beyond. _Then again, we still have Jellal's head, so it's not a total loss, kekeke…_

From the ruined throne room, Ranma stared out after them, a scowl appearing as he watched the surviving Dark Mages flee. A second later Wendy alighted next to him. With Wendy once more out of her harness, Carla was able to aid Happy in grabbing Erza out of the hole in the tower before she could fall very much further.

Wendy stood next to her brother for a second, staring at Jiemma's body, recognizing the large, mean man before turning her attention to the rather pretty flying snake in the distance carrying the two Dark Mages. "Do you want to follow them, Ranma-nii?" she asked.

"No," Ranma said after a moment, feeling his various wounds and his mental and physical exhaustion. "Let them go. Besides, you've got healing to do, imouto."

The two Exceeds landed nearby with Erza, who Wendy quickly began to heal. Once the process was over she thanked the trio before gently asking them to help Mira. As they did she moved over to where Ranma was still standing, staring out after the two retreating Dark Mages who were just about over the horizon by that point.

She didn't spare them a glance, instead touching Ranma's shoulder and gently turning him around. "Let them go. They are a problem for another day. Today, we have to finish what we began here."

She gestured down towards the bottom of the tower where many of the once more freed slaves were gathering, moving slowly away from the massive construction towards the Rune Knights from the ship. "We need to help my friends and the others get relocated, then we need to do something about this place. I, I'm not certain what. The tower's so large it would take hours to destroy it even if I used my remaining armors, which I don't have many of."

"Leave it to me," Ranma said grimly. "I'll take care of it."

"By yourself?" Erza said skeptically, a small smile appearing on her face. It was a weak, watery thing, that smile, but it was real, too. "Far be it from me to say a Dragon Slayer wouldn't be able to break something, but this seems rather beyond you at present."

"Erza, I'm the Water Dragon Slayer, and we're on an island in the middle of the ocean. My body might feel like one big ass bruise right now, but once I touch the ocean, I'll have power to spare," Ranma said with a low laugh. "This place needs destroying, and I'll see to it."

Several minutes later Erza carried the body of Sho out, trying not to look at Wally, Millianna, or Simon's face as she did so. Killing Jellal did not make up for not being able to protect Sho from him, and it would haunt her for the rest of her days.

She nodded solemnly at Ranma, then over at the crowd of ex-slaves who were gathered around the port, slowly boarding the Rune Knight's ship. It would be very crowded, but it would get them back to port. Ranma nodded back, then asked Simon, "Is everyone out?"

Simon looked away from Erza and the body of Sho, sighing sadly. "Everyone's out. I still don't know what you're going to do, though. The tower is just too damn large."

"Hah, no it isn't," Ranma said with a deep, exhausted sigh. This fight had pushed him more than any fight since his bout with the demon in Iceberg. "Now get on the ship and get out of here."

He waited there as it pulled out of the small cove, heading out to sea, before hopping out onto the ocean himself. Once there he knelt down, touching the top of the ocean waves, concentrating and reaching down, down into the depths. As he did, he leaned down, slurping at the water of the ocean, feeling it invigorate him, filling his magical reserves even as he continued to make demands on it.

Moving away from the island, Wendy, the weary Erza, and the rest of her friends along with a few other ex-slaves gathered at the back of the ship, staring at the island. It was Wendy who noticed first. "Look, is that water moving weirdly?"

Erza blinked, and then looked at Wally, who was the only one of them who knew anything about the ocean. He in turn called for the ship's captain, who took one look and then shouted orders for the magical engine to be powered to full speed. "That's not a current, that's some kind of, of abyss…"

It took Ranma about five minutes before he was able to spread his control through the water around the island enough for his attack to work. It began far below where any watcher could see and then spread as he powered it: a massive whirlpool that soon sped up far beyond anything found in nature. "

"Metsuryu Ogi! Kagirinai Kuufuku no Fuchi no Daiyon'i (Dragon Slayer's Secret Art! Maw of the Endless Hungry Depths)!" Ranma howled, somehow still floating on the water.

The onlookers looked on in shock as they saw the whirlpool slowly change shape into a Dragon's maw. This maw's open gullet became a hole in the ocean which the island slowly dropped into, the maw closing over it, shattering the island as it was pulling it down, down into the depths of the ocean.

The Rune Knight vessel, the name of which none of the mages had bothered to learn, were just out of range, but they were still rocked badly from the resulting wave as the island disappeared. Not that any of its passengers noticed, too busy staring at the utter destruction of the place that had been the cause of such sorrow for them all.

Moments later Ranma, now in her female body, hopped up onto the deck of the ship, groaning as she landed. She moved over to join Erza and the other mages, including Erza's friends. "Well, that should do it. Now, who's up for a vacation? I think there's some kind of vacation resort near that port we stayed at, right?

Erza nodded, looking over at her still gawking friends. "Akane Resort, yes. It would be a nice place to unwind, reconnect, and, and mourn, I think."

After a brief consultation they all nodded, but Mira looked at Ranma quizzically. She was awake now thanks to Wendy but still felt as if someone had run over her with a train several times, as did Natsu, who was even worse, since Wendy couldn't do anything about Ethernano poisoning. "What about seeing to questioning the survivors? In fact, won't these people also have to be questioned?" she asked, jerking a thumb toward Simon and his friends.

"Meh, that kind of thing is best done by peons, look, we have a whole ship full of them, and we're going to land in a port with even more," Ranma said dryly. "I deal with the Dark Mages, the direct threat, as it were. Unless the cleanup is going to mean more combat, I leave it to other people. Besides, brainwashed is brainwashed. It's a perfectly acceptable defense."

"Especially considering that the individual who tricked them all also tricked the Council, possibly without using any mind altering magic," Carla said caustically to Ranma's weary chuckle.

 **OOOOOOO**

Shock. Pure shock was the reaction felt by Ultear and the rest of the watching Council. Thanks to their scrying crystals connected to every Rune Knight Ship and garrison, they had seen the action around the ship throughout the battle. But they hadn't been able to see much occurring on the island until the ship came close enough. Now they watched the ship moving off and away, still in shock about what little they had seen.

"Not only did Siegrain build the R-system," Yajima said, spitting the words, "But he also worked with one of the Balam Alliance! This is horrifying. Not only for the Council's prestige, but for what it means in the long term. The Balam Alliance might well be far more active than we have been able to discover so far."

While Ultear was torn between giggling and wincing at that statement, one of the others, Org, spoke up quickly. "We need to know what just happened there. It's obvious our side won, but that last spell, what was that? And how bad was it? The casualties, the survivors, why did all of those prisoners come so willingly? We need more information, particularly about anything the Dark Mages let slip in battle about why Siegrain was working with the Oración Siete."

"And what was that last spell?" said another member of the Council, scowling. "That level of destruction, that is not normal, even if those Fairy Tail mages were there!"

"While I would be the first to say that Fairy Tail mages are hilariously good at destroying things in the pursuit of a mission, in this instance my money would be on the Ranger," Ultear said. "He is a Water Dragon Slayer, after all. And didn't that look something like half of a dragon's maw we saw in the image there?"

"That makes sense, but Yajima is right. We still need to know what happened," said the acting head of the council, the female mage, Leiji. She would not stay in that role for long—the king had made that very clear to them all—but she would do what she could for now.

"I'll go," Ultear said with a nod. "The coach should get me there within, what, eighteen hours?"

"Do so. Question Oceana about all of this. We need something to tell our people, even if he will be making a report to the king personally. Besides, he'll want to know what we discovered on this end of things."

"Oh, I will," Ultear said, licking her lips at the idea of getting to know Ranma further as well as figuring out what made him tick. _Given his combat ability and the fact that he might be staying in Fiore for a time, that might be very important._ "Oh, I will."

 **End Chapter**

* * *

… I think my opinion on Jellal being mind-controlled, forgiven and everything that sprang from that is plain here so I won't go into it. Hope everyone liked his end however.

The combat scenes in this chapter gave me a hell of a lot of trouble: I am having a great deal of difficulty matching up the canon movements and spells to my own interpretation and shifting to the written form away from the visual. Ugh. I also think I was playing with too many different characters, each of them with their own different types of magic and being active elsewhere all at the same time. Either I need to get better at that, or I'll need to figure out a way to cut down on the number of characters in any given combat scene. Which, given the battles to come… Well, yeah, I just need to figure it out. Ugh. Anyways hope you all enjoyed this!


	10. Chapter 10

Can't draw. Blech.

I realize this isn't exactly being updated on a international holiday, but hey, Labor Day Weekend for those of us who celebrate it makes for a good excuse LOL.

On a more serious note, I was out of the country with family for the first two weeks of this month, and simply had little time to devote to my stories. It's a wonder I got as much done as I did. FILFy will be updated next month, it's about a third of the way done. Stallion of the Line, which won the small story poll for the first time in far too long, will be updated tomorrow night, after my One Piece editor gets it back to me. And over on patty on I have updated Making Waves (up to chapter 22 over there) and the next chapter of my HP/Gamer/Baldur's Gate fic. If you want to check those out, please feel free to come over and join us, and get more votes to the monthly poll and access to other goodies too, including my ever increasing list of concept ideas, and other patty on only works.

This has been edited by _Justlovereadin'_ for FT knowledge, by _Michael Duggan_ for small mistakes and by _Hiryo_ for his Ranma knowledge. Hope you all enjoy.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Downtime, Sorta**

Leaving the Rune Knights to deal with what Ranma called the boring aspects of the cleanup, the others followed Ranma to the port's train station where, despite Natsu's barely verbal protests, they all boarded the train, bound for Akane Resort. "Least let Wendy use that spell on us," Natsu moaned as Ranma carried him aboard.

"I can't because you're already developing an immunity to it," Wendy said, stepping aboard rather unhappily herself. She didn't like moving vehicles any more than the other Dragon Slayers, but while Ranma could outrun a train it certainly didn't make it any easier to be on his back or shoulders as he did. Despite her stomach squeezing at the very idea, she would rather lay down and try to take a nap than deal with the various uncomfortable things that would bother her during that.

"Besides, Ranma has a trick you might wish to try, Natsu," Erza said, entering the train beside them. "He smokes this kind of leaf that apparently helps him settle his stomach."

"It also helps get us in touch with our Dragon instincts and makes meditation easier. Although I don't think you need any help in the instinct area," Ranma said, somewhat irritably. Natsu's durability bothered the heck out of him when he considered how much further along in his training Ranma was compared to the younger boy. _And let's not get started on Wendy and her latest breakthrough. The more strong opponents I face, the more I realize that this whole ki and Dragon Slayer influence fighting one another in my body is holding me back._

"I'll try anything once! Jus' start using it 'fore the train starts moving," Natsu said, looking around and almost panicking even while his body dealt with the element poisoning. Dragon Slayers could eat their elements, in fact it was part of their power source. They could even, in extremes, eat other elements, but there was definitely a negative effect on their bodies both during and after such things, made worse by what the element in question was, and a few other factors.

Natsu had eaten lacrima infused with not just Ranma's water-element style magic, but dozens of other types of magic, with only the poison-type magic from Cobra being close to anything like an actual element. This was so far beyond the pale for even a Dragon Slayer that it was a wonder he hadn't died on the spot. Instead, he had powered through it for a time, only becoming sick once his adrenaline from the fighting left his system. But once it occurred, it was very, very bad, leaving Natsu unable to move his body beyond twitching uncontrollably.

He also **hated** transportation, and being on a train on top of his current issues was not a fun prospect.

Nodding agreeably at that, Ranma set Natsu down before sitting across from him, opening up a window so that the smoke from his pipe would carry into the other Dragon Slayer's face. Wendy immediately sat between Ranma and the window, nuzzling against his shoulder and holding Carla once more in her lap like she was a large teddy bear.

The white furred Exceed, still rather exhausted, didn't even put up a token protest about being treated like this in public. Instead, she leaned back against Wendy's chest, her eyes already closing in sleep. Whereas Wendy had exhausted herself after the battle, healing everyone—to the best of her ability, anyway—she couldn't help magical exhaustion or element poisoning. Carla had exhausted herself during the battle. Her freak out moments when facing the tentacle monsters and then sinking that ship had almost exhausted Carla's ki reserves. And then, on top of that, she had to fly Wendy to the tower and even help Happy grab Erza as she fell through the massive hole in the tower's interior.

"What's wrong with them?" Simon asked Erza, gesturing to the Dragon Slayers as Ranma pulled out his pipe, his other arm curling over Wendy's shoulders, pulling her closer. "And second hand smoke is bad for kids," Simon said, staring rather sternly at the younger man.

Ranma quirked an eyebrow at him before puffing out a long trail of smoke straight up into Simon's face. Instead of gagging and choking as he expected, Simon simply smelled something, then frowned, but Ranma answered his question before he could speak it. "It's an herb, not tobacco. Don't worry about it."

As the rest of the train filled up, Erza explained the Dragon Slayers' troubles with transportation. Then she began to ask Simon questions about the tower. They had already talked about what her friends knew about Jellal's goals, which was scant little and what they knew about the Dark Guild Oración Siete that was helping him, which, again was nothing much. Wally and Millianna hadn't ever seen them, and Simon had only seen Jiemma during the fight.

But when Mira and Erza described the one called Cobra to them, Wally spoke up. "Huh, that one sounds rather familiar to this dandy. I think there was a young boy who always talked to a snake of some kind in the cells. He spent most of his time curled up, his hands over his ears." Leaning back in the train's seat, Wally crossed one leg over his other knee, thinking. "I…can't recall seeing him since we attempted our first rebellion. Still, it isn't very dandy to hear that he survived only to join up with a Dark Guild."

Ranma's eyes narrowed at that, and he spoke up while Natsu breathed in the Dragon's Breathsmoke, his tortured expression clearing slightly. "That other guy, Midnight, he was pretty young too. You think he could have been from the tower originally too?" He then described what Midnight looked like, looking at the trio across the aisle intently.

Millianna spoke up then. "Um, he sounds familiar, but I don't remember his name. But the black and white hair, that I remember seeing before, nya."

"So, Jellal might have let whoever the leader of the Oración assholes is—doubt it was Jiemma, given they were active before I ran into him the first time—pick and choose from the inmates at some point for his resources, or training, something like that I suppose. I'll want you lot to write down anything you can remember of other kids your own age who you can remember from when you were younger and that you haven't seen since. I'd think you guys'd be better than the oldsters."

The older victims of Jellal's hypnosis were going to be left behind to be repatriated to wherever they had originally come from by the Rune Knights. Ranma would check in on that on his way back to Magnolia from Akane Resort, a name that made Ranma twitch whenever he heard it. He had questioned most of them, but beyond a few who had acted as cooks and cleaners, none of them had interacted with Jellal after a certain point, throwing themselves into their work of building the tower. It was a sign of Jellal's control of their lives that none of them had even thought that this was unusual until after they had been beaten and then heard Shô's big reveal during the battle.

Simon sighed, looking towards the back of the train where Shô's body, recovered and placed in a casket, had been loaded aboard the train. They would have a service of some kind for him at the resort, where they would send his body out to sea. The sea had meant escape and freedom for the 'ex'-slaves for so long, it seemed fitting. "We will do that. I just wish that Shô was still alive to join us. I wanted to be free of Jellal for so long, but I never wanted someone else to pay the ultimate price for that freedom."

"Don't think of it like that," Erza ordered. "If anyone besides Jellal is to be blamed for Shô's death, that would be me. I failed to protect him from Jellal, and that is a mistake I will bear to the grave."

"Don't play that game. No one is to blame; you can't control what your enemy does, and you didn't even know that Shô was in danger before Jellal attacked him. Don't try and blame yourself for something beyond your control. Jellal killed Shô. That is something he'll answer for in the afterlife, not something you need to answer for in this one," Ranma interrupted, looking at Erza sternly.

Staring back, Erza could only nod. Hearing the voice of experience like this from a young man barely a few years older than her was odd, but she couldn't deny the impact of his words or of his eyes on her like this.

Just then Mira sat down alongside Natsu, glaring somewhat angrily over at Erza, who had taken the seat she would have wanted: next to Ranma, on his other side from Wendy. "The train's about to start moving."

"Is that what you were doing?" Erza asked.

"No, I was sending off a message," Mira said, looking back over at Natsu. "I think our resident Dragon Slayer needs his cute little nurses to help him heal, so I sent off a messenger spell to Lisanna and Anna."

"Who?" Simon asked, looking confused, as did the other two from the tower.

"My little sisters both have massive crushes on Natsu," Mira replied without shame. "I have no idea if it's really love, but they seem to think it is, and nursing a Natsu that can't move might give them the time and courage to actually tell the big lug about it and even force him to understand what they're saying."

Wally and Simon both blinked, but it was Millianna who spoke up. "But wait, you said both of them have crushes? Isn't that like, really bad, nya?"

"No, not really. They've agreed to share him," Mira replied, shaking her head. "Again, not certain if that will remain the case once he starts realizing that girls are interesting, but we'll see."

Millianna looked over at her two friends. No one in their right mind would describe either Wally or Simon as perverts. Wally had never shown an interest in any girl except maybe some actresses in some old plays he had seen in a recording lacrima soon after they took control of the tower. And Simon had never shown any interest in anyone but Erza. Despite that, they both were now blushing and staring at nothing.

"Dude, sisters," Simon muttered.

"That's a mighty dandy situation Natsu's found himself in," Wally replied, then grimaced as Millianna smacked them both upside the head.

The rest of the train ride passed peacefully among the mages. Simon and the others were uncertain how they felt right now other than sorrow at their friend's passing. Erza engaged them in conversations about what they wanted to do from now on and what Fairy Tail was like, as well as telling them about what Akane Resort was like. The three Dragon Slayers slept, or in Ranma's case meditated. This left Mira and Levy to their own devices, and Mira talked to Levy about new ways to use her powers. The younger blue-haired girl had rather enjoyed being of as much use as she had been on this mission and wanted to further expand her repertoire so she could do the same in the future.

While she loved missions, which allowed her to play to her strengths—reading, languages and research—Levy wanted to become stronger than she was, something that sort of set her apart from her two friends, Jet and Droy. They were both satisfied with where they were in terms of their magical strength, competing about other things sometimes. They were great friends, but these days Levy had begun to feel that she wanted to push herself, and they didn't.

With Mira and Erza both rather exhausted themselves, it was no wonder they quickly joined the dragon-slaying trio in sleep, leaving Levy to pull out a book and read until they reached the resort's station. There, another train had just pulled in from a different direction. Levy led the way off the train, with Ranma carrying the still comatose form of Natsu on his shoulder, only for him and Wendy to pause, sniffing the air. "What is that? That smells almost familiar, but not quite," Ranma mused.

Levy, on the other hand, simply was looking around when she spotted the individual whose scent Ranma and Wendy had caught. "Laxus, what are you doing here?"

Everyone turned to stare at the tall Lightning Dragon Slayer as he came off the other train. He looked utterly exhausted, his entire body drooping. He was also covered from near head to toe in dirt, dust, and what looked like orange goo of some kind. Just looking at it, Ranma could tell it was going to be one of those hard to remove stains. _Something like blood, but not human blood, for certain,_ he mused, staring at his old frival. "And what the hell is that orange goop on you, man?"

"That's the blood of these freaking, multiplying damned whack-a-moles I had to fight this last mission. They had some kind of replication magic. I had to kill them all within a few seconds of one another or else their magic would just multiply them back to their original numbers. It was distinctly uncool, and I felt I needed a vacation after that," Laxus said, his face showing something like joy, almost, an expression none of the other Fairy mages would have thought to see there. He even smiled down at Wendy before he said, "But enough about me. What the hell, man!? You're in Fiore again, and you didn't try to contact me?"

"You'd know I was around if you had been back to your own guild hall," Ranma retorted, clasping forearms with the other Dragon Slayer.

"True, I guess it has been a few months since I was home. But what brings you here to Akane Resort, and in the company of some of my guildmates?" Laxus asked, cocking a cool eyebrow at his former protégé and her rival in particular. The others didn't really register as much bar Levy, whose magic he had always thought interesting.

The three strangers and Erza broke off to take possession of something that was very obviously a casket. He fell silent then, staring at it, then at Mira, an unspoken question in his eyes. She waved her hand in front of her, saying, "Don't worry, he wasn't one of our guildmates. We tried to free him and a lot of other people from this megalomaniac named Jellal, but Shô, the man in the casket, died during a fight with Jellal. He was able to get the word out about the man's megalomaniacal nature to his other friends, but Jellal noticed what he was doing and killed him for it."

"What the hell have you all been up to?" Laxus asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Ousted that asshole Siegrain as a traitor; found out his real name was Jellal later on. Then fought him, three members of the Oración Siete, an ex-Guild Master from Pergrande, several of Erza's former friends, who at the time were brainwashed, two dark guilds, and a tower full of ex-slaves turned devoted followers," Ranma replied glibly. "After which I destroyed the tower itself."

Laxus's eyes narrowed. "Damn it. Fine, your mission was much more interesting than mine." Even as he made this joke, though, Laxus was feeling rather angry. Yes, his last mission had been fun and somewhat tough, but it hadn't been really life threatening, nor had it been nearly as important as this mission sounded like it had been. And even that mission had been the first in months where he had been able to cut loose. _Fuck, does Ranma have a nose for these kinds of situations?_

"Wasn't a competition, but yeah, I suppose it was," Ranma replied with a barking laugh. He and Mira then went into more depth on the fight they had just been a part of as Laxus led the way out into the resort town, where Erza and the others joined them with the large casket containing Shô's remains. Erza and Ranma could have stowed it in their Requip spaces, but it felt like that would have been disrespectful.

"…Damn, you lot have been busy," Laxus sighed. "Don't worry about paying for anything, any of you. I already booked a suite for my stay; it won't be much of a stretch to upgrade and get us all a place. Come on."

Laxus continued to lead the way through the resort, all of them taking in the sights and sounds as they passed. Simon, Wally, and Millianna, in particular, were looking around in awe. They had, of course, heard of this place, but they had never visited before, never having been away from the tower even after Jellal had organized a regular supply schedule. Now, looking around them, they were all again forced to wonder why they had never questioned why they couldn't leave the tower like that. Jellal's control, and the fear he had placed in them of the outside world, had been insidious.

The Lightning Dragon Slayer flashed a bankcard at the front desk, had a very brief argument with the man manning it, and then calmly led them all through the reception area to the elevators. The elevator carried them to the topmost floor and directly into a series of suites that were situated directly on the hotel's roof. They had their own small pool complete with chairs and a table, four bedrooms with accompanying bathrooms, a large sitting area, and a bar.

"Damn. Living in style, huh," Ranma quipped, moving to the nearest room. It had two twin size beds, and he dumped Natsu on one of them.

"Feh. I don't really spend a lot of the money I get on my various missions except when I'm dating, so splurging like this is fine once in a while," Laxus replied, staring down at Natsu with a shake of his head. "He really ate lacrima crystals imbued with other people's magic? I know we Dragon Slayers are able to eat other elements in extremes, but more than one element mixed up? Freaking crazy little bastard."

"Yeah, he absorbed the energy the lacrima had taken from everyone else. Even mine," Ranma groused. "I bet it'll take him a while to get over it, but once he does, his magical reserves will have doubled, if not tripled. Insane little bastard. It should've killed him." So saying, Ranma then began to smirk, smacking Natsu on the forehead, causing the younger boy to groan. "On the other hand, ya have to like his will, his drive to help his friends. I might not like his lack of any real fighting style or his desire to attack everyone stronger than him, but that aside, ya can't help but like Natsu, y'know?"

"He's a fucking weed; he grows on you," Laxus said with a laugh.

Mira giggled. "I still remember the days when he was such a crybaby, always crying after someone had made fun of him or beaten him in a fight."

"Wasn't that normally you?" Erza said, rolling her eyes. "You always tried to make him cry because you thought he was cutest that way." It was then Erza's turn to smirk. "Heh, I wondered for a time if Lisanna had some competition for Natsu's affections. I of course knew you had a sadistic streak."

"Gah, you take that back! I'm no homewrecker," Mira replied, pointing angrily at Erza, making no mention of whether she was a sadist. Then they both actually giggled like schoolgirls, causing Ranma and Laxus to exchange a bewildered glance.

"Where should we go, Ranma-nii?" Wendy asked, tugging lightly at his shirt.

"Hmm…. Well, one room for Mira and Levy, one room for Natsu and Happy, one room for Simon and Wally, another for the cat-chick and Erza. Which leaves this one for Natsu and Laxus. For us, I think we can set up the tent out in the living room, Wendy."

"MMm!" Wendy replied with a happy nod. It had been years since they had first gotten that tent, and over that time they had upgraded it in many ways so that, while it wasn't quite as sumptuous as the suite, it was definitely very comfy. Wendy loved it.

Mira had been about to object and offer to share a bed with the little girl, but seeing her happy smile instead asked, "Tent?"

"Heh, we bought this tent from Seven, and it's quite a marvel," Ranma replied with a grin.

"Huh. You'll have to show me it sometime," Mira said with a coquettish grin on her face, causing Ranma to laugh at the hidden innuendo of showing Mira his tent.

Blinking, Laxus raised an eyebrow as he looked between Mira and Ranma. _Did Mira just flirt with him? Bizarre._

Erza looked at them all, then gestured out to the ocean visible out through the doors leading to the suite's pool. It glistened slightly with the reflected light of the resort, but, for the most part, it was simply a deep, dark expanse with the nighttime sky merging almost seamlessly into it. "Before we do that, however, we have something else we need to do tonight."

With Laxus joining them, the group made their way down through the bustling hotel and out along the beach until they were well away from anyone else. It was a slightly rocky, very broken up area, not suitable for sunbathing or games, and so was normally left alone even during the day, let along near to two in the morning as it was at the moment.

Ranma, Laxus, Wendy, Carla, Happy, Mira, and Levy stood behind the others as Erza and her friends moved forward to the ocean carrying between them Shô's casket. None of them had any real idea what Shô would have wanted, but when they were younger the sea meant freedom, and Akane Resort was one of the places they had all wanted to visit when they escaped the tower. It seemed fitting that his body would rejoin that symbol from here.

Holding one hand on the casket containing the body of their friend in turn, they each spoke about a memory they had had with Shô that stood out to them and what he had meant to them all. After each one took a turn, they moved forward into the ocean pushing the casket out into the ocean. They waded in with it for a ways before pushing it as hard as they could out to sea as Simon made a small hole in the bottom.

Behind them, Ranma used his powers subtly, pushing the casket out to sea. Feeling out the area around them, he was able to find a current that would continue to carry it out and away from land until it sank, whereupon it would disappear beneath the ocean forever.

Behind them Ranma pulled out his guns, as did Wendy, and Mira called forth her Satan Soul. Nodding at the others, they aimed their hands or guns into the air, blasting out into the sky.

"Guns Magic: Flare!" Wendy and Ranma shouted as one. Bright red and green explosions of light lit up the scene from their shots.

Laxus, Carla, and Mira all launched their own attacks. Lightning crackled in giant balls, blazing off in wide splashes of color. Bolts of purple energy bloomed and exploded in turn. Flashes of blue flashed out through the air from Carla.

Erza Requipped her battered, broken Heaven's Wheel armor. She launched some of her swords into the air with a slight wave of one hand, where they ignited with streamers of vary-colored fire and lightning, dancing in the sky. In her other hand she pointed another sword up into the air, womanfully holding back tears. "To Shô!"

"To Shô!" Wally shouted, his hands shifting into polygon guns and firing up into the air. "May he be a mighty fine dandy in the next life!"

"To Shô!" Millianna and Simon chorused, though they, lacking any long-range magic, had to rely on some fireworks they had bought on their way through the resort.

As the magic show started to fade away, Mira chivied Wendy along back to the hotel, telling her it was definitely past her bedtime. Carla went with her, nodding along and wondering if perhaps Mira could help in her battles against Ranma's influence on young Wendy.

Laxus too left, feeling that, beyond offering some more fireworks, he had nothing to offer to this moment, with Ranma and Levy following him. Not having even seen Shô during the battle, Ranma had just as little to offer as Laxus, and Levy had barely even seen him.

Erza hugged Millianna as she began to cry, while Wally and Simon stayed silent for a time, staring out over the ocean, lost in their own thoughts for a time. After a few minutes, she broke the silence. "What are you three going to do now?"

"I, I do not know. It isn't very manly of me to admit it, but I don't know enough about the outside world to make any dandy plans. I do, however, want to search for my older brother. I was separated from him by the slavers, and I was never able to find him afterward. I think that he might have been sold into slavery elsewhere, or, maybe, as we discussed back at the port, he was given over to the Oración Siete to be trained as one of their members. It will be this dandy's task to find out."

"I think I want to join a guild, nya," Millianna said hesitantly, moving away from Erza and rubbing at her sore eyes for a moment, drying her tears. "I, I want to get stronger. I don't want anyone to control me, ever again!"

"You're welcome to join Fairy Tail. All of you are," Erza said quickly. She rather liked the idea of introducing her old friends to her family.

"No, I don't think so. No offense, Erzie, but that'd be too much like I was mooching off you or something, nya. I'll find a guild on my own, I think, nya." Millianna emphasized her words with a quick shake of her head before laughing. "Besides, if I did that I'd be tempted to steal that Natsu guy's partner away from him and that other little white-haired kitty too."

Just as they entered the hotel, Happy and Carla both paused, shuddering in unison. Carla looked over at her fellow Exceed. "Did you feel as if someone just walked over your grave? Without, in fact, having one?"

"Aye, sir!" Happy replied, shivering again.

Back on the beach, Simon nodded. "I'll join Wally for this. I, I have a little sister out there somewhere. I want to, I thought she was taken with us, but I never saw her in the tower, despite searching. Maybe, maybe she was given to the Oración Siete too. Regardless, I have to find her."

"Just so long as it is information that you are hunting for and not the group itself," Erza said after a moment. "That group is incredibly dangerous, as we saw. If you find anything about their location or even members, you need to pass it on to the proper authorities, do not take it into your own hands or attempt to do something. And as to simply searching for your sister, remember that you can also ask guilds for help. Missing family members is a job that any guild would take on instantly, without even needing to get approval from the council."

Simon snorted. "I saw that Ranma guy and one of the three sent to help Jellal fight it out. I'm not stupid enough to fight monsters like that. And, and I'll remember that about the guilds, thanks."

"While it isn't very hard-boiled of a man to admit to such, I have to side with my large friend on the point about not fighting the Oración Siete," Wally replied. _Unless, of course, my brother really is with them, in which case all bets are off!_

 **OOOOOOO**

 _There has to be a word for an action that is just slightly below that of the level with which one could use the phrase, 'complete catastrophe,'_ Brain mused to himself. Staring at the battered, near-crippled forms of Cobra and Midnight as they rested in their beds, he absently rubbed his throat where the tattoo signifying Jiemma's connection to the spell that kept his alter ego, Zero, in check, should have been. Now it was gone, and that cage was weakened.

Not for the first time Brain lamented the experiment which had created Zero: his dark self, his hidden rage, his urge to destroy. It had been an experiment to recreate the effects chronicled as that which had been created by Nirvana, save in a controlled manner. But it hadn't worked. Instead of being able to control the impulses, to bring it out and then stuff it back inside as he had wished to, his destructive impulses had created an alter ego. Worse this alternate personality wished to do naught but watch the world burn instead of simply conquering it.

 _And the newest chain to keep him under control has been shattered because of this…this utter and complete fuck up!_ Brain wasn't one to curse, even in his own head. He believed curses unworthy of someone of his towering intellect. Yet there really was something therapeutic about using them when the situation called for it, and this situation certainly did.

One of his mages, indeed, one of the strongest of them and certainly by far the most durable, was now dead. Midnight, who he had long thought truly the strongest of his tools, given the nature of his magic, was so badly wounded it would be months before he would be back to normal. _If, that is, he ever does return to normal_. _The damage done to his psyche might never heal._

Midnight had never, in the years since Brain had first taught him to use his magic been touched by any enemy. Now, however, he had not just been beaten but nearly killed by one. It remained to be seen if he could bounce back from that.

Cobra too had been battered beyond belief, but thanks to the poison-type lacrima embedded in his system and the Dragon Slayer magic it gave him, Cobra would likely be fully healed within a week. And it was only because he had been able to think clearly that either of them had gotten away. _And he did bring out the minimal material we required…_ Brain's eyes twitched over to the bag Cobra had brought back with him, then sighed and moved toward it.

Without looking he began to bark orders to Racer, Angel, and Hoteye, all of whom were waiting by the doorway. "Racer, get me a large clear jar of glass, enough amniotic fluid to fill it, and several dozen copper needles. Angel, you go to my chest and pull out four lacrima for me, the black, the brown, and two of the power lacrima. I'll also need that large copper prod. Hoteye, secure the area around this mansion. We'll need to stay here longer than I foresaw."

"What about Midnight's injuries?" Angel asked as Racer raced off and Hoteye mumbled something about money needed to make the world go round, Angel wasn't certain. She had lost all interest in his ramblings years ago and had even developed her ability to tune him out to such a degree that she didn't even need to think about it anymore.

Brain smirked nastily. "I've done enough to keep them from getting worse for now. But I need to get to work on preserving Jellal's brain before the magical residue within it disappears entirely. Who would have thought that seminar I took in Seven on magical autopsies would come in handy?"

His eyes whipped over to where Cobra was watching all this, his battered form laid out alongside his giant snake, who was also watching Brain closely. "After that, you had best tell us all more about what happened. We'll need to figure out how badly this has set our plans back and whether or not this Ranger is going to be a problem in the long term."

 **OOOOOOO**

The next day Natsu was still out of it thanks to the element-infused lacrima he had ingested during the battle, but that wasn't about to stop him from trying to have fun. When he somehow heard that the others were heading to the beach, he had grabbed onto Laxus's shorts before his temporary roommate had been able to leave. "Damn it, you asshole, let me go!"

"Nooo," Natsu moaned. "Takenmewitchou," he slurred.

"What? Natsu, you won't even be able to do anything but lay there."

"Still better'n here," Natsu moaned, his words slightly easier to understand now. "Come on, Laxus, don', don't leave me here."

"Ugh. Fine, you stupid asshole. But if you ever try to eat some other element again, I'll freaking feed you so many lightning bolts you'll fucking explode on it," Laxus grumbled. "And if you think I'm going to help you into your swimsuit, think again!"

Ignoring Natsu's muffled reply to that, Laxus picked up Natsu like he was a sack of potatoes under one arm. He was eager to get this day started. While last night had obviously not been the time to catch up with his old friend (Laxus was arrogant, not socially inept), he wanted to hear about what Ranma had been up to since that time when they had saved Mira and her sisters.

Outside in the main sitting room, Laxus found the rest of his fellow mages waiting for them. The girls were even wearing their swimsuits, presently covered with white bathrobes. These did nothing to protect their curves from his appreciative eyes or those of the other boys but covered their chests and thighs enough so that Laxus could only make out the colors of their respective swimsuits. Erza was wearing red, naturally, Mira black, and Levy and Millianna white and orange respectively.

Ranma too was now in his female form and was wearing a blue and black swimsuit, somewhat on display in comparison to the other girls since she wasn't wearing a bathrobe. But the bathing suit was, while a two-piece suit, about as asexual as any bathing suit could be. It was a stripped suit that was like something _Where's Waldo_ would wear, which showed her stomach but scant else, covering her upper body above the belly button, her shoulders and upper arms, and then her waist done to her mid-thigh. Loose enough you could only make out a vague shape while also being tight enough to not restrict her movement.

"Hey," Laxus said simply, gesturing over his shoulder. "Natsu wants to come with us. Where're the other two? And Ranma, that suit is a little disturbing on you, knowing about your curse."

"Nya, that was amazing," Millianna gushed, staring at the boy-turned-redhead. "One moment he was all buff and guy-like, and the next he's all short and squishy, nya." She smirked, reaching out to poke Ranma in the tit, which she blocked. "If I was the sort to be jealous, those might make me doubt myself a bit, nya."

"Stop that, damn it! What is it about girls getting all handsy with me in this form? What would you lot do to a guy who tried that kind of thing with you, huh?" Ranma groused before sending a smirk over at Laxus. "And that's your own fault, dude. I found this suit and figured it was about the least sexy thing I could find for my body type outside a freaking bag. I've done my bit; you just need to stop looking at everything with a set of these with whatever thoughts a quick spark like you has," she said, lifting up her breasts before letting them fall, where they barely jiggled before stopping, showing an incredible amount of firmness.

Again Millianna shook her head, muttering about, "Unfair!" The other girls there made no comment beyond laughing or pouting as Levy was.

But Laxus simply shook his head. "You're telling me you can control your thoughts like that? You're supposed to be a Dragon Slayer, you watery brat, not a monk." He then smirked widely, showing quite a bit of fang. "And I might be quick to light up, but I've never been called quick to go off."

"Meh, I have 'em, I'm just selective in where I point 'em. And also, TMI," Ranma groused. His eyes drifted over to Erza and Mira, winking at them, and they both smirked back before turning to narrow their eyes at one another as he turned back. "Still, let's get this party started!"

With that Ranma led the way to the elevator and out to the beach. There they found Wally and Simon, both dressed in off the rack swim trunks, laid out on lounge chairs with several more around them. They looked up and, as the girls deposited their bathrobes, began to blush, while Laxus allowed a low, long whistle to sound.

Mira wore a barely there bikini done in white and pink, the colors innocent enough, but the cut of the bikini very much not. The bottom was a side-tied bikini, which hugged her rear and her private parts while not covering anything more. She also had a long, almost see through sash tied around her waist, its color pink. Her top, which was a front tied bikini, hugged her chest, putting it on display too. Her legs were long and perfect, her hair falling in glossy white waves from her head, and her white skin shone with good health. On her face she wore a smirk, half-flirtatious, half-challenging.

Erza too wore a bikini. Her bottom portion almost looked like the one Mira wore, except with more material, covering her somewhat better while it was tied on both sides. Each cup of her top was triangular, covering her breasts entirely, the piece tied in the back. But to everyone's surprise bar Ranma, Erza's chest was actually at least a size, maybe two, larger than Mira's, something Mira was very aware of but not trying to show it. Her suit was also black, standing out against her slightly tanned skin and crimson hair starkly. In contrast to Mira, she looked almost serious as she looked around the beach, her eyes narrowing like she was analyzing the beach for some reason.

Letting loose a coquettish giggle, Mira ran her hands up her body and into her hair, pooling it into a loose ponytail as she expertly cocked her head, winking at the four men. "Like what you see, boys?"

Laxus shook his head, whispering to himself, "Damn, I would tap that so hard…"

This did not stop the other Dragon Slayers from hearing and as Wendy blushed, Ranma smashed Laxus almost to the ground with a slap to the back of his head before looking at Mira. "Not in front of Wendy, dude. As for you, Mira, I think you know we do, else ya wouldn't be such a famous model, would ya?"

Then she tapped the still flushing Wendy on the shoulder. The younger girl was dressed in a cute and very frilly yellow bathing suit. Ranma and Carla had actually agreed on it, and Wendy had thought it was a great birthday present. "Race ya!"

With that Ranma was off, racing towards the ocean. Wendy pouted behind him, her blush receding, then hopped into the air, shouting, "Tenryu no Chuu Heki (Sky Dragon's Air Burst)!" She shot off with the sound of a cannon, catching up to Ranma quickly and tackling her into the water. But it was Wendy who was flung back into the air with a whoop, where she hovered and began to use her powers to throw tons of water at her big brother turned sister.

Laxus dumped the moaning, almost entirely limp form of Natsu on one lounge chair, then immediately moved over to the nearby bar. "I want some food in me before I have some fun." _And I need to get the image of those two out of my damn head. Erza's like family for God's sake, and Mira's a fellow Fairy Tail mage. Don't go pissing in your own pool like that, boyo. Remember what happened with Evergreen, several months of walking on eggshells around one another for no freaking reason._

"Oy! Wait for me!" Cackling, Mira raced after the two of them.

Levy rolled her eyes and moved to sit by Natsu, while Millianna looked at Happy and Carla, pouncing on them. "Come on, nya! Let's have some fun, kitties!"

"Let go of us, you crazy woman!" Carla shouted while Happy attempted to simply squirm away. "We are not your toys!" She transformed hoping to throw Millianna's interest in her off, but even in her cat-girl form, Millianna did not let her go. _Of course, why did I think that would work, she's a cat-girl wannabe as it is!_

"No, not toys, nya! Just furry and fluffy and amazing kitties!" Millianna replied, carrying them off. "Come on, nya. Let's make a sand castle."

With a chuckle at her old friend's obsession, Erza was about to move to follow Ranma and the others. However Simon stopped her, a faint flush on his cheeks above the metal mask that was his lower jaw. "Um, Er, Erza, could I, that is, could I talk to you?"

"Of course," Erza replied promptly, turning to look at Simon. "What is it, my friend?"

At the word friend Simon winced a little, but persevered. "I, I wanted to ask if you, that is… Would you like to, um, go around and see the rest of the resort?"

"I imagine I will in time. We'll all go around together. I already heard Ranma promise to take Wendy to the amusement park, and he invited the rest of us to go with him," Erza replied. "Today I would rather just play in the waves, rest, and, alas, do some paperwork."

Simon found his thoughts, already having hit a roadblock, completely derailed by this last. "Paperwork?"

Grimacing, Erza nodded, looking away from Simon toward a particularly loud shriek from Mirajane, who had just realized that challenging a Water Dragon Slayer to a splash fight was a losing proposition even if she was in her Takeover Satan Soul form. "Yes, paperwork. I lost several of my armors in the fight against Jellal, and even my Heaven's Wheel armor was broken in numerous places. I have to contact Heart Kreuz to replace them. Without them I am forced to rely on my remaining armors, which, unfortunately, limits me somewhat in a fight."

She then added as an afterthought, "And it will cost tremendously. I might well have to sell back two of my latest prototype armors just to pay for the rest."

"Erm, I see," Simon said, then attempted to steer the conversation back the way he had originally wanted it to go. "But I was hoping that, um, that is, that you and I could go around…together?" he ended, his voice a slight squeak.

Blinking, Erza finally understood where her old friend was going with this. _He, he wants to date me? Did he develop these feelings when we were in the tower together?_ Regardless, whether or not it was a crush from long ago or an infatuation, her answer to this situation would not change. "Simon, I realize why you're asking, but I have to decline. I, you and I are not the same people we were when we were young. I see you, Wally, and Millianna as friends still, but I am afraid I could not see us being anything more than that."

 _And if I were to date anyone, I think there is another person ahead of you,_ Erza thought, glancing towards Ranma again. Though in his female form, the shorter redhead grabbed her attention even now. It did not help that she'd had certain thoughts in that direction in any event. "I'm sorry, Simon, but I cannot return your interest."

Simon winced but nodded, taking this in stride. "I sort of thought that ship had sailed, but I had to try." He then looked towards where Wally was laid out in a lounge chair nearby, looking positively miserable. For some reason Wally did not do well with the heat and the direct sunlight. Simon and the others had long supposed this was just down to his shape being more a series of polygon-like blocks rather than a human body.

With that thought in mind, he abruptly said, "Wally and I have decided to head back to the port; connect with some of the others, the older ex-prisoners. Wally wants to know if any of them can tell us more about the Oración Siete, if they remembered seeing anyone unusual around the tower, and I want to question them about my sister. In my case it's a long shot, but it's a starting point at least."

Shaking his head Simon went on. "Then we mean to head to a few places Jellal had mentioned he had allies in over the years. We want to get on their trail as soon as possible. While we do that, I'll be looking for my little sister and asking every guild we pass, large and small, to look for her too." He then smiled, a warm, if somewhat weak, smile. "And, to put it bluntly I want to get away from the sea for a bit. It might have meant freedom to the rest of them, but to me it always was just another barrier to it."

"Ah," Erza said, making no move to try to soften her last blow or indicate that she understood the real reason why Simon had just changed his mind on agreeing to the plan, which Wally had brought up that morning. He had attempted to convince his friends to leave then, but Millianna wanted to go her own way to find a guild to belong to. Simon had postponed answering at the time. Unfortunately, the reason for such was now plain to Erza and dealt with. _I am sorry Simon, but I never saw you in that manner. And to do so now after meeting one another for the first time in such a long while, that would be simply wrong._

With that thought she smiled at Simon and then over at Wally. "I wish you both luck on your travels, but remember, my offer remains open: you will always find a home in Fairy Tail."

Simon nodded back and watched as Erza turned, racing off to join the ever-escalating water fight, which had now started to swamp large portions of the beach and scare other beachgoers away. Erza summoning some kind of spear and twirling it into the water before lashing out towards Ranma with it did nothing to quiet things down.

Watching this with a sweatdrop cascading down the side of his face and noticing the sheer joy on Erza's face as she joined in the fun, Simon sighed. "So much for that dream…."

The Fairy Tail troop stayed on the beach for the rest of the day, joined around mid-afternoon by Lisanna and Anna. Gray had invited himself along with Lucy. Gray tried to hide his interest in what Natsu and the others had been called in for by saying he wanted to make certain Natsu hadn't done anything to embarrass Fairy Tail, but curiosity had dragged him there by the hair. Lucy's motivations were much easier: she figured it was an excuse to have some fun in the sun.

Though their fellow guildmates weren't the first to notice their arrival. That honor went to the numerous men on the beach and, beyond that, in the hotel's reception area.

"Holy hell, would you look at that! Twins! Dude, we totally have to chat them up," said one brawny looking beach goer to his fellow steroid enthusiast.

"Wait a minute, I think I recognize them. That's Anna Strauss, the model voted 'girl you'd like to call your little sister' three years in a row and the 'essential girl next door' two years running. The other girl must be her sister Lisanna. The mags have always said she's too shy to join her sisters in modeling, but they are supposed to be identical twins."

"Heh, that might mean Lisanna's an easier mark. Me, I want a piece of the blond. Check out the size of those bazongos," a third man interjected.

"This has been a most auspicious day. First Mirajane Strauss shows up, then her sisters? I am so very glad we decided to use your condo this week for our meeting," another far older and obese man muttered to his friend, an equally elderly if far fitter looking man, who simply nodded. "I wonder if either of them would be more interested in an elderly gentlemen than her sister seemed to be earlier?"

Whatever plans any of the watchers might have had, they were interrupted by Mira shouting, "Hey, you four! You made it!" The famous model trotted over to her newly arrived friends, her Takeover soul retreating and leaving her in her normal body. Behind her came the others save for Wendy, who merely waved and moved over to join the two cats and Millianna, where the cat lover had essentially forced the two cats to make a sand castle with her.

"Glad you called us in, nee-chan," Lisanna said, hugging her sister and causing many a nosebleed in the men who were attempting to be subtle in their stares from around the beach as their chests pressed together. Even Laxus and Ranma had to look away for a brief moment, something that none of the girls thankfully noticed as Anna took her turn to hug their older sister. "Where's Natsu?"

A weak wave from Natsu, who was lying out on the lounge chair where Laxus had dumped him, caught both twin's attention, and they hurried over without another word, cooing over the boy. He looked up at them blearily and then, to their delight, began to blush as he took in their attire. Both girls wore relatively modest bikini style swimsuits in white and yellow, with long sashes of yellow silk that matched Mirajane's setting off their short-cropped silver hair and their healthy pink skin. Though they didn't have as much in the way of busts as their older sibling, the swimsuits definitely put on display what they did have, and their legs were a match for the older Strauss woman, to say nothing of their rears, which Natsu couldn't see at present.

And, as shown by his blush, even the normally oblivious Natsu was affected. "Lisanna, Anna, um, what're you doing here? Um, not that I'm unhappy about it our anything, just wondering," he squeaked. His voice sounded much more understandable now, though he still wasn't able to move his body.

 _Success,_ both girls thought, with Anna adding a surreptitious fist bump as Lisanna sat down next to her Natsu, leaning down to run her fingers through his wild pink hair. "Mira-nee sent us a message about how you pushed yourself too hard and were hurt. Did you really have to push yourself that hard, Natsu?" she asked sternly, something that really didn't quite work.

"Yeah, Matchstick, going all out like that and not even finishing the fight. Come on, you're going to give Fairy Tail a bad name," Grey said, coming over and poking in where he definitely wasn't wanted just then. "Or was the enemy you faced some kind of monster beyond even you?"

"What'd you say, Popsicle!" Natsu roared, trying to surge to his feet only to turn green as if he had suddenly found himself on some kind of transportation.

He slumped back, but Anna caught him as Lisanna rounded on Gray. "Gray! If you're just here to pick a fight like you and Natsu do all the time, then you can go away right now! Or else you'll have to deal with the two of us!"

"Come on, doofus," Lucy said, grabbing Gray by his wrist and dragging him away.

As Lucy and Gray joined them, Laxus and Ranma shook their heads sadly, with the aquatranssexual saying, "Not cool, man. You don't butt in on a semi-romantic moment like that. Not unless you got feelings for the girl, er, one of the girls, in question."

"That's right. It's, like, rule number four or even three of the Bro Code," Laxus added, nodding sagely.

Gray scoffed, moving to strip down from his swim trunks, only stopping as Ranma growled low in her throat. For some reason it was scarier to Gray now that Ranma was female, and he settled for replying verbally. "Bah! That Flame Brain wouldn't know what romance was if it hit him upside the head like a cannonball."

"That's sort of what my little sisters are doing right now, Gray," Mira muttered. "Honestly, can you be that dense?" She then looked around frowning. "Speaking of dense men, where's Elfman? I thought he would come with the girls to try and protect them."

"He had just left on a job when your messenger bird arrived," Gray grunted in reply, then shook his head. "And I still say you're giving Flame Brain too much credit. I can see the twins being obvious about it, but even so, Dragon Breath won't know what to do in reply."

"Dragon Breath? You're reaching there, streaker, given there's three other Dragon Slayers here. And actually, guys and gals, I think we might be barking up the wrong tree here," Ranma said, smiling beatifically. "I think it isn't that he's dense; I think we were closer when we said butting in might be allowable if the person butting in was interested in the girl." Just as Mira was about to squeal for some reason Ranma didn't comprehend, Ranma held up a hand, still smiling that pretty yet somehow rather terrifying smile as she looked at Gray. "But instead of being interested in Lisanna or Anna, Gray's trying to blow their romantic moments because he's interested in Natsu."

"WH, what the hell? Where did you get that from!?" Gray squeaked, backing away and looking rather horrified, his already pale skin palling even further.

"'Hmm…. You know, that is true. They say that opposites sometimes attract. You fight like an old married couple…" Laxus mused, quickly getting in on the teasing. He absolutely loathed Gray's stripping habit, and anytime he could mock the Ice Make user he was up for.

"You also go looking to fight one another all the time," Mira said, an evil smirk appearing on her face while Lucy and Erza began to blush hotly. "And I'd say seven out of ten times where you strip all the way it's during one of your fights with Natsu. That could be taken as flirting, you know."

Still smiling that calm yet somehow scary smile, Ranma reached over and gently patted Gray on the shoulder, reveling in the way Gray flinched under her touch. "Don't worry, Gray. We understand," she said soothingly. "You're just confused. It's obvious no one's taught you about how to properly show you like someone. Just talk it out with Natsu and…."

"Gah! That's it!" Gray shouted, bringing his hands together. "I'm not gay, damn it! Ice Make: spear!" With that, an ice spear appeared from his hands and one hand clenched into a fist on his other palm.

However, Ranma simply smashed the spear to pieces with a single punch, her lips twisting into a smirk. "Oh, ya wanna go, ice prick?"

Before this could escalate Erza stepped forward quickly, conjuring up two simple swords and sending them to halt directly in front of Ranma and Gray's necks. "Absolutely not!" she shouted, staring both of them down and then flicking an angry glare over at Laxus, who looked as if he had been about to join in. "If you want to spar, take it somewhere else. We've already been getting some looks from our earlier splash fight."

With that she turned to Gray. "Gray, you have to admit that your stripping is strange and that you need to leave Natsu alone for now. If you don't, you might earn the ire of Lisanna and Anna, and I don't think you'd like what the two chief cooks for the guild could do to you to get you back."

Gulping, Gray nodded, conceding the point. In reply, the sword previously threatening his gullet retreated quickly.

With a harrumph, Erza turned to the others. "Ranma, Laxus, if you want to spar, please take it somewhere well away from the resort so that nothing we have to pay for gets damaged. Mira, please stop trying to make fun of Gray's possible orientation.

"…Possible orientation, oy," Gray began, only to shut up as Erza glared at him.

"Good." With that Erza turned away, her swords disappearing back into her Requip space.

"Well, you heard the lady," Ranma said, looking over at Laxus, who grinned.

Ranma left for a moment, and came back in his male body wearing shorts and t-shirt. Then he and Laxus followed Erza's instructions, heading out of the resort to a nearby empty stretch of shoreline. They were at it for a few hours, by the end of which it was pushing midday, and both of them were getting hungry.

The fight between them hadn't gone very far since neither were willing to break out their high-end attacks. Even where they were, that would have brought attention they didn't want. But it was enough to prove to one another that each of them had grown stronger. For his part, Laxus was pleased. His lightning based teleportation ability had been honed to a fine point, so that he could actually teleport his arms and legs, which gave him the speed to match Ranma's Amaguriken for a few minutes. He wasn't nearly as controlled or precise, but that could be worked on. His combat style had also evolved, coming closer to Ranma's ability in that area. His strength was also near equal to the other man's the sound of their fists impacting like the boom of thunder heard for leagues around.

Where he still lost out, though, was in adaptability, agility, and sheer skill. Ranma had a trick or a move for any situation and used his escrima sticks and guns like extensions of his own body, flowing into those styles with a speed and fluidity that was almost terrifying. Laxus could beat him out in durability, but Ranma could still dance round him, matching Laxus's lightning skills.

As they were walking back they talked, exchanging goodnatured insults and advice in equal measure. Ranma's for Laxus was simple. "You need to branch out magically. Get yourself some more pinpoint accurate long-range skills or spells. And maybe add a weapon to your repertoire. Not a gun, something mid-range. A kusarigama, maybe? Something you can conduct your electricity through." At Laxus's quizzical look, Ranma elaborated. "Um, think of it like a chain with a sickle blade at one end and a weight at the other. Nasty weapon, but hard to use properly."

"Hmm…makes sense. I've looked into that kind of thing before, but I've never run into any blacksmiths that could make something like that without a model to work from. But weapons like that could help a bit, especially when I'm fighting alongside other people and have to worry about collateral damage," Laxus mused.

"And penetrating type damage. Ya might run into enemies whose hides protect them from lightning or blunt force attacks," Ranma replied with a nod.

Laxus nodded, then stared at his frenemy as they reached the outskirts of the resort, hopping easily over the security fence around the resort designed to keep animals away. "What's up with your durability?" Laxus asked bluntly. "When I hit you, you felt it a lot more than you should have given how long it's been since we last met. I'd say you're barely more durable than Natsu at the moment, and you're not the type to train up everything else and figure you just can dodge everything."

For just a moment Ranma contemplated lying or waving that off, but shook it off quickly. Laxus wasn't like Ryoga or Mousse, willing to take advantage of any perceived weakness. _Nah, he'd just want to kick the crap out of me at my best._ "I've got two different magics fighting it out in me," he replied equally bluntly. "I only figured it out in the past half year, and since then I've been trying to find a way to somehow push one down over the other, but it's hard as hell. One, my first magic, the magic I learned from my old man, is fighting against my Dragon Slayer magic. It makes me insanely durable itself, but the Dragon Slayer magic fights that too. On the other hand, my first magic gives me an ability to heal that has to be seen to be believed. It's a toss-up, really."

Laxus scowled in thought. "But if it's like Dragon Slayer magic in how it effects the body, then you can't consciously control it, right?"

"Not those aspects, no, not normally. I can sort of do it when I'm seriously injured, help direct it to heal my wounds, but it's not perfect. And the durability aspect? Never even tried to control that before. That's sort of why I'm having a lot of difficulty with figuring out how to control it," Ranma replied.

Laxus continued to scowl. "Wish I could help you with that. The best bet would be to talk to my old man. Mind you, you'd have to force him to take it seriously." Laxus's scowl turned into a smirk. "And, given you can become a bounciful redhead with a tiny splash of water, that'll be almost impossible."

"Did you just call my female form bounciful?" Ranma asked, shuddering. "That's nightmare fuel, man."

"Oh, shut up," Laxus groused, then changed the subject. "So, beyond training, what've you been up to?"

That discussion took them back to the beach, where they found Mira, Erza, and the near-human form of Carla laying out on the lounge chairs. Lisanna and Anna were nearby, helping to erect a now two-story tall castle in front of Natsu, who was shouting instructions to them, while to one side, Millianna, Wendy, and Lucy were at work on another castle. Smaller, this one looked far more intricate, and Wendy was directing the other two. Gray was nowhere to be seen, and Happy was curled up by Natsu's feet.

"You haven't mentioned where the hell Carla learned that trick," Laxus groused, looking away. Ever since his attempt to date Evergreen crashed and burned, Laxus had made the decision to not date anyone within the guild again. It was not worth the effort. But sometimes, when he saw Mira like this or when he bought her centerfold, he had second thoughts about that.

"Carla figured that trick out about a year and a half ago. She was sick of being treated like a cat or a stuffed doll. Don't ask me where she got the idea from though. She says it might be a racial magic thing, like the wings, but she doesn't know for sure." Ranma smiled, looking at Wendy having fun with other people and actually putting herself forward as she ordered the two older girls around. "We're still working on her magical endurance for it."

"Disturbing, wherever it came from," Laxus muttered.

"I heard that!" Carla replied, one eye opening and glaring at Laxus who rolled his eyes and looked away.

"Oh, hey, you two. Have a nice time?" Mira quipped, her lips twisting in amusement as the two men tried to not stare at her or Erza. She stretched, smiling as she saw Ranma flush and look away a bit.

However before she could say anything else, to her frank astonishment Erza spoke up first. "Perfect timing, Ranma. Here." She held out a tube of sunscreen. "Could you get my back for me?"

"Was that a trick question?" Ranma asked, sitting down to one side of Erza, who lay back down, rolling so that she was on her back.

To one side Mira was watching this with shock written plain on her face, and then her face twisted as she caught the faint smile on Erza's face as she turned away from Ranma. _Oh, is that how it is, you bitch!? Fine, it's on!_

Seeing this, Laxus decided to move to one side, a smirk on his face. _Oh boy, it looks as if Ranma has somehow restarted Erza and Mira's rivalry. This could be funny as hell._

Ranma didn't catch either girl's expression. Rather, he was busy enjoying the sensation of Erza's skin under his hands. He began by her feet, rubbing in the sunscreen slowly until the white of it disappeared, leaving Erza's skin glistening slightly. Then he worked on her calves, feeling the powerful muscles under her skin twitch under his ministrations, his rubbing in of the sunscreen becoming a slow massage that worked over first her outer then her inner thigh. He skipped over her rear, seeing as it was covered by her bikini bottom, and moved to her arms, again feeling the muscles moving under her skin as Erza began to breathe a little harder, a little faster.

Moving Erza's long, flame-like hair from her back, Ranma began to work on her back and sides. By this point he had decided to ignore the fact they were kind of in public and had decided to make certain Erza really got some enjoyment out of this. _And if it pays her back for flirting with me during that splash fight, that's all the better._

Erza bit back a moan as Ranma released some old tense muscles in her back and side. The feel of another person's hands on her bare body like this was well outside her normal realm of experience. _Perhaps I, I did not think this through a much as I should…mmm….have…. "_ Eep!" She let out an involuntary gasp as Ranma's hands reached her neck, wringing out some of the tension there in turn.

To one side, Mira coughed. "Um, Ranma, I don't suppose I could ask you to help me next?"

Elsewhere, Laxus had found Gray at the bar, where he was slugging back what looked like an entire bottle of rum. _Huh, wonder what's up with him? Gray isn't normally that hard a drinker._ Shrugging that off as unimportant, Laxus turned with a drink of his own, watching the ongoing castle battle and the little bit of drama around Ranma. _Like day time television at its best."_

 **OOOOOOO**

"So, what was that about?" Mira asked, almost pleasantly. It was now evening time, and the Fairy Tail mages had returned to their rooms to get ready for that evening. They would be trying out the casino, while Wendy would go and watch a children's play with Happy and Carla.

The only three who weren't there were Natsu, Lisanna, and Anna. Natsu was still under the weather, and the Strauss twins were staying with him. Or rather, he was staying with them. The two of them had gotten an entirely separate room when they arrived earlier that day and had moved Natsu in there with them. Neither Erza nor Mira knew whether or not that arrangement would include Happy, and right now had no attention to spare on that possible love triangle over their own.

"What was what about?" Erza replied, though of course she knew what it was.

"You know very well what. You asking Ranma to put on some sunscreen for you. Did you suddenly become an invalid when I wasn't looking?" Mira asked tartly. "Did you lose your inhibitions when you took off your armor?"

"Oh, don't give me that! You're just angry that I stole a march on you," Erza said huffily. "Besides which, Ranma gave you a massage too."

"Only after he was done with you! That's not nearly as good as being first!" Mira riposted. She then huffed irritably. "So, are you really interested in Ranma? You've never been interested in any boy so far as I know."

"There is a first time for everything," Erza muttered with a blush. Ranma interested her somehow, his strength, his confidence, his looks, and, above all, his personality. To her, Ranma was the whole package, something that she hadn't seen in any other man before. And while she was a novice when it came to romance, Erza had decided to pursue this new interest in the same manner that she did everything: full speed ahead. Or as full speed as her nerves could handle. Which, Erza had to admit, wasn't very much after that afternoon.

"Hmmpf! So we're in competition again, huh?" Mira said. She had been afraid of this after their confrontation in the guild hall. A part of her reveled in the idea, but most of her knew this might well break their somewhat fragile friendship.

"I believe we have been for a bit now," Erza replied. Then Erza held out her hand. "However, let us make a vow. We are both mages of Fairy Tail, and we shouldn't let a boy come between us. So, no attacking one another physically or verbally in front of him, and no attempts to sabotage one another. And if either one of us realizes this, this attraction is leading us into more…permanent waters," she said with a stutter and a blush, "then we have to make it plain to the other. All right?"

"Ugh, leave it to you to be all formal about this," Mira groused, but she was smiling as she did. She held out her hand and shook Erza's. "May the best woman win."

Nearby, Lucy poked her head out of the bathroom, her hair up in a towel and another one around her chest. "Did I miss something?"

At that, the two other girls broke off and Mira pointed dramatically at Erza. "And now for the next battlefield: evening dresses!"

That night, when Erza and Mirajane came down from their rooms, Ranma took one look and gasped lightly, his jaw dropping, an expression that brought Laxus's attention towards the elevator too. Laxus took one look and began to mutter under his breath. "Remember, boy, don't piss in your own pool. Don't date within the guild again; don't date within the guild again. Ranma, I don't know whether to thank you, curse you, or demand to know your secrets right now." He sighed then before shaking his head and turning away.

Mirajane wore a black dress that, technically speaking, should've looked rather normal, indeed, almost puritanical in cut. It was a black and silver number that started from a tight neckline, covering her entire chest except for a little triangle around her belly button, and then went down to right below her knees. Beyond that little triangle cut out around her belly button, there was no actual skin showing, though it left her arms bare up to the shoulders.

But that was without considering the body that lay underneath it or the fact that it fit said body almost like a second skin. Her hair was also done up in a very elaborate coif, and she wore a pair of earrings along with some kind of pin thrust through her hair, all done in silver. Ranma idly thought that maybe silver on white wasn't a good idea, but other than that, there was absolutely nothing about Mirajane's appearance that he could complain about. Indeed, the very idea of complaining about even that little bit was absurd.

In contrast to Mirajane's little number, Erza's was rather more obviously daring. It consisted of a crimson dress with straps going over her shoulders and the length of it going down to near her ankles. It was daring because it had a slightly plunging neckline showing a fair bit of the cleavage she had been showing all day along with a slit on the side of the dress that allowed quite a bit of her thigh to be seen as she walked. Her hair fell loose down her back, and, unlike Mirajane, she didn't wear any earrings or any other kind of jewelry bar a bronze bracelet around one wrist. She didn't even wear much in the way of cosmetics, which Mirajane did: rouge on her cheeks, lipstick, and eyeliner. Erza only had some lipstick on.

Ranma moved towards them, dragging Laxus behind him as he continued to mutter about, "God dammit, why are we in the same guild? Maybe I really need to rethink that shit…."

The four of them met up, and Ranma held out his hand, taking each girl's in turn and bowing over them, but not touching them to his lips. "You both look amazing," he said honestly. "What the heck is the occasion?"

"No occasion, Ranma," Erza said, then smirked. "Other than the fact that we rarely get to dress up at all, anyway."

"Oh, that is so true," Mira said with a grin, waving at a few people who had pulled out recording devices and begun to snap pictures of her. "I love our guild and everyone in it, but, other than Loke and Freed, none of the people in it are willing to dress up for anything less than a Council command. This is a bit of luxury for us all, not just the two of us. I mean, look at Levy and Lu-chan."

Behind the two of them came Levy and Lucy. Lucy was wearing a white and blue dress, which was somewhere between Mira and Erza's in style, but with a frilly bottom on the skirt. It was tight around the chest, empathizing her large breasts, but also had a slightly plunging neckline, allowing some of said bounty to be seen. She also wore eyeliner, lipstick, and a pair of pearl earrings.

Wendy, Carla, Happy, and Millianna were nowhere in sight. Having no interest in trying out the casino, the three of them had stayed up in the suite for now, using the outdoor pool and several floating animals to play around with. Simon and Wally were already somewhere in the casino, trying out games of chance and seeing no need to wait for their new friends. That, Ranma had expected, but he also didn't see any sign of Gray, Anna, Lisanna, or Natsu.

While he was wondering where those four were, Laxus looked at Lucy in surprise, shaking his head. "You know, I heard we'd gotten a new member, one that was to my old man's liking," he said, taking Lucy's hand and kissing it lightly on the back of it. He then smirked at her. "It's good to know that you are continuing the Fairy Tail tradition of only allowing the most gorgeous girls into the Guild."

She blushed lightly and laughed with the other three Fairy Tail girls as they smirked at him. It was a running joke that, indeed, there was not a single bad looking girl within the guild. Even Levy and Laki, a Wood Make mage, were very cute, possibly even beautiful if you were into their particular body types: slim, trim, and with rears that would not quit.

Levy's dress was a sort of mirror image of Mirajane's, though with a slightly shorter skirt and in a dark blue color. Her back was also very nearly bare beyond her shoulders until right above her rear. Ranma had never understood the allure of that kind of dress, but wasn't about to say anything right now. It had taken two lifetimes, but tact had finally begun to make some headway against his thick skull.

Mira interrupted Laxus. "The plebeians are gathering, Ranma. I suggest we be off before we girls get mobbed."

With a nod, Laxus led the others out of the hotel and down the streets to the nearest casino. There he was greeted at the door and came back to the group with several stacks of chips, which he passed out to the others. "Don't spend it all in one place," he mock-ordered, then looked around at the girls. "Any one of you want to try your hand at blackjack?"

"Not against you, you damn card shark," Mirajane muttered, shaking her head and looking around the casino with a hint of interest flashing through her eyes. She'd been the poster girl for a few casinos, but she hadn't spent much time actually in them.

Lucy, however, was eyeing the poker table and turned back, cocking an eyebrow at Laxus. "Card shark?"

"Every time there's a card game at the guild and Laxus is involved, Laxus wins it, hands down. He's even beaten Master Makarov," Mirajane replied, while Erza nodded alongside her.

"It is true, Laxus is very seldom beaten in games of chance like that, although I think that after a certain point chance no longer comes into it," Erza added.

"Well, of course not," Lucy said disarmingly. "There's skill in any game of cards."

"Does the new girl think she's up to the challenge?" Laxus asked mockingly. When Lucy nodded, he waved at the tables all around them. "In that case, I'll let you choose your poison."

"Poker," Lucy declared, leading the way. Next to her Levy stayed silent, having decided to follow after her friend, thinking this might be very good entertainment. "But I'll warn you now, I need the money. My apartment is expensive!"

"You don't live in Fairy Hills?" Laxus asked, a little bemused by that.

"It's not **that** expensive, and I prefer to live alone. Or I would if a certain Dragon Slayer wasn't always busting in, coming through the windows, or burning off my lock!" Lucy groused.

Erza laughed at that, shaking her head. "Natsu doesn't understand the idea of personal property. I sometimes think that is a problem across our guild, given how much destruction we routinely create." She paused then, frowning thoughtfully. "Although, I haven't heard of Natsu busting into anyone's actual house before this. I wonder if that gives more weight to Cana's idea," she mused, looking out over to Mirajane for her opinion.

Mira, however, wasn't listening. She was instead staring at a poster on one of the walls. Following her line of sight, Erza turned in that direction, as did the others. "Is that Jenny?" Ranma asked himself, cocking his head to one side.

The poster on the wall was indeed for Jenny Realight, advertising that she was due to perform a live show at the resort's restaurant that evening. The same show, Ranma remembered, that Simon and the others from the tower had hoped to see that evening. _I hope they were able to get tickets._

"You know Jenny?" Mira asked in a startled yelp, whipping around so hard that it caused her hair to almost come undone from its elaborate coif. " **How** do you know Jenny?"

"We met a few years back when she was still on Buckler, working at that massive amusement park they have there," Ranma said obliquely. "I had to be called away on a bit of a mission the same day we met, and she watched Wendy for me for the next day or two. I came back, and we spent some time there, but not much, and it was several years ago. Haven't seen her since."

He made no mention of the fact he and Jenny had kissed or that he had been really interested in seeing where that went at the time. In a way, Ranma was still dealing with the idea of being interested in girls who wouldn't immediately believe that any sign of his interest meant he was willing to marry him. It was very nice, almost heady feeling, as was the niggling thought at the back of his head that the two girls on either side of him at the moment were truly interested in him, rather than having some ulterior motives.

"But where's the stripper, anyway?" Ranma asked, changing the subject. "I haven't seen him all day since he arrived. I thought he'd be plying us all with questions about the battle of the tower."

"He did do that while you and Laxus were having your fun," Mira replied.

"You have to understand that Gray and Natsu view each other as rivals. I know I joined in on the fun earlier about whether or not that speaks to Gray's sexual orientation," Erza said, flushing slightly as she mentioned this, despite not having done so earlier. "But they see each other as one another's chief rival within the guild. Now that Natsu has been part of a job that is of clearly S-rank, Gray feels as if he has been left behind somewhat. Which is just silly, of course. They're both as close to S-class as each other."

Ranma cocked his head to one side, thinking about that. "Really?" Then he paused, thinking before he went on. "Okay, I can see that. Natsu's got the power and the endurance, but Gray has a lot of power himself and more versatility, but nowhere near as much durability, right?"

"Exactly!" Erza exclaimed, nodding her head seriously. "I wish they could learn more from one another, not that I think that either of them will ever be able to use any other magics. Even if they could, I doubt they would be able to psychologically. But there has to be some way to make fire a little more versatile than Natsu's normal method of burning, searing or blasting through everything. Whereas Gray just needs to work on his endurance…."

"Both in actual magical ability and how long he can go without stripping," Mira interjected before turning to more fun topics. "So, do you want to hit up the tables too?"

"No, I don't have a good poker face, I'm afraid," Ranma said with a chagrined look.

"Really? You're able to act so well," Erza replied in surprise, leading the way deeper into the casino.

"Actually, I don't act like other people. I mean, I dress up as other people, sure. I disguise how I walk or look from a distance, but actually acting like someone else? Nope. Besides, poker isn't about acting, it's about **not** **reacting** , about not letting your face just say precisely what you wanted to, which is really hard." Ranma laughed, gesturing for the two girls to follow him towards the row of machines set to one side of the casino. "Once, when I was really young a friend of mine and I got in trouble when we met up with this guy called the Gambling King or something, and he took us for all we were worth. Of course, we were just toddlers basically at the time, so we didn't take it very seriously…or very well."

"What did you do to him?" Erza asked shrewdly. She could well remember how strong Ranma was when he had attempted to free her and had no problem imagining an even younger Ranma dealing with one card shark. _And if he was truly targeting children, then I have no sympathy for him whatsoever._ Beside her, Mira was simply grinning, waiting for the punchline.

"After he demanded that we hand over our clothes and my friend's yatai—erm, that's like a portable food cart—we knocked him out, tied him up, took our money back, and then further tied a mattress around him before tossing him in the river," Ranma said, smiling. "Ahh, that's a good memory, that."

"But he came back, years later," Ranma went on, his lips twitching into a grin as he watched the two girls who were now nearly keeled over with the effort of keeping in their laughter, just imagining a four-year-old being able to do that to a grown man.

"And, and then what happened," Mira asked between gasps.

"Well, I hadn't learned how to hide my emotions any better yet. So they all showed up on my face, and he beat me and several other acquaintances again. My face was so easy to read that I had to find a…unique solution to it. I tried to train it so I wouldn't react, so hard that I actually developed bruises on my face thanks to the numerous punishments I took in that time."

Ranma further explained the mechanism of that training which had Mira now giggling behind one hand, her training as a model coming to the fore. Erza, however, was nodding her head sagely, following the description and wondering if she could set something similar up for training Levy or some of the other less combat capable mages in the guild.

"Eventually we realized the training just wasn't working. However, that gave me a clue. Instead of making my face not react, why not just hide it? So I wrapped my entire face with cloth bandages, and faced the Gambling King like that again. After a few more tricks and sleight-of-hand stuff between us, we eventually won again, but when he vowed to come back again to reclaim his lost property, we tied him up once more and then tossed them into the ocean instead of a simple river. Figured that way he might not come back again."

By this point both girls were now laughing aloud at the images that Ranma had described, but then they reached the machines and Erza quickly regained control of herself, sitting down next to Ranma. "I did not take you for someone who would like games of chance like this. Even if you can't play any card games there are others like roulette wheels or the darts competition I can see over there."

Ranma glanced at the darts competition then shook his head. "Nah, that kind of thing is too easy for me to win. This one is a little bit trickier."

"Trickier how, Ranma?" Mira asked, leaning against his back as he sat there, her hands moving down his chest and resting on his firm, incredibly muscled stomach. This, not incidentally, pressed her breasts against his back, and she smirked as his face began to flush at the contact.

But he didn't respond beyond that, simply resting one hand on hers as the other flipped a coin into the slot and grabbed the handle of the slot machine. "It's actually a good method to train your reflexes and hand eye coordination. Watch."

He pulled the lever once, starting the game, then waited, his eyes glued to the machine. He frowned as he watched the numbers and images blur past, the other two watching too, but before they could notice a pattern, Ranma's hands swiped forward viper quick as he pulled the lever again. An instant later the three lines of 'jackpot' lined up, and he smirked as coins began to pour out of the machine.

"I might not have a poker face still, but reflexes, reflexes I got," Ranma said with a grin, turning to the others and handing them handfuls of coins. "I think I'm going to go pay Laxus back, then maybe see if I can take this casino for all it's worth."

Laughing, Erza and Mira broke off from Ranma then, moving in their own directions. Erza moved to join the poker table where the others were, joining Levy in simply watching the action between Lucy and Laxus, who had quickly cleaned out of several other participants and, even as more sat down to take their places, were locked in a duel.

Mira, on the other hand, went to try her luck at the roulette wheel. She, perforce, smiled and charmed the people around her as they recognized who she was, putting on her public persona swiftly. She did have to slap down anyone attempting to proposition or flirt with her slightly more harshly than she normally would.

Coming back from the desks where he had exchanged the coins for cash and a few more coins, Ranma was startled when he heard a voice shout, "Ranma!?"

Ranma turned in the direction of the shout to see a face from the past striding towards him. Jenny Realight was indeed here and, like the other girls, was dressed to the nines. She wore a slightly more decent-seeming dress than either Erza or Mira, a pink frilly number which accentuated her legs and thin waist while hiding everything it had to. She had a necklace around her neck and her blonde hair done loosely down her back to her shoulders in loose blonde curls.

"Hey, Jenny," Ranma said with a grin. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Fancy seeing you here too, Ranma," Jenny said, putting her arms around him in a hug that caused many of the passersby to glare angrily at him. Two men who had been following Jenny, wearing suits and carrying what looked like clipboards, gasped in shock. One of them began to glare even worse than the other men around them, his eyes narrowing into slits.

She then leaned up and kissed him, and both of those men almost went catatonic, one turning white, the other red with barely concealed fury. Ranma returned the kiss lightly, but didn't deepen it, pulling back a little afterwards. His smile had changed into a smaller, yet warmer expression than his earlier grin. "Is this the way you always greet your old friends?"

"No, only the ones I've kissed before. That was to tell you I've missed you," Jenny said with a smirk, then she held up a hand intoning, "Takeover, Mecha Soul: Gundam Deathscythe!"

An instant later, her hand was covered in a black gauntlet of some kind which looked mechanical in nature. Indeed, for a moment Ranma thought he recognized it, then the gauntlet in question was smashing into his gut with enough force to double him over, and any such thought was smashed out of his head. Ranma gasped doubled over slightly, staring up at Jenny.

"And that is to show you that not only have I been keeping up with the training idea that you gave me, but also to show you I'm kind of pissed you didn't try to find me or contact me! A girl likes to know she's been appreciated, you know?" Jenny said with a huff, waving her hand to one side.

The two men behind Jenny had recovered themselves now. The one with the previously white face was smiling now, while the man who seemed so angry was simply watching, his hands crossed over his chest.

"Duly noted," Ranma grunted, rubbing his momentarily sore stomach before the pain went away quickly, noticing the response to this act from the two men. "Still, it is good to see you," he said, a smile once more on his face.

"Heh, even if after I slugged you one? That's nice," Jenny replied with an equal grin, linking her arm in his. "So, what brings you out this way? Rest and recovery from something, I presume?"

"Pretty much. I can't say anything much about it in public, but it involved a slaving ring, a mage with the power of a Wizard Saint, and at least three members of one of the larger, more powerful dark guilds out there."

Jenny grimaced. "How do you use so few words to paint such a vivid picture? And you handled this alone while also dragging little Wendy along for the ride, no doubt."

"No, I actually had some help from Fairy Tail," Ranma replied. "And I'll have you know, while Wendy did have to fight, she was never in any real danger. She's a lot tougher than you might think, and she also comes with a bodyguard besides me these days, free of charge."

"Huh…," Jenny said, her tone suddenly very cool as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "You wouldn't happen to have met my rival among them, would you? A girl named Mirajane?"

"Yeah, I did," Ranma said, wincing as he saw the warning signs but not seeing any way out of replying. "She's also here with Erza and a few of the others from Fairy Tail."

There had been a time when Ranma wouldn't have admitted that, would have instead attempted to try to hide Mira away from Jenny and vice versa or else escape entirely. Those days were long past because Ranma had learned that women had something in common with most animals: they pounced when they sensed your fear.

It seemed to work, because Jenny's smile was back and she seemed suddenly quite happier. "So this wasn't a date after a hard mission or anything?"

"No, nothing like that." He sighed then and leaned into Jenny, whispering in her ear.

This would've normally caused her to shiver, the feel of his breath on Jenny's delicate ear making her remember that time they'd kissed in the past while she wondered where that could've gone if they had both been in a position to let it. But Ranma's words shoved those thoughts out of her head.

"Most of it's not my story to tell, but Erza had some shared history with the target of my latest mission, and he had enslaved a few of her old friends. One of them died during the fight, and we're all here recover."

"Understood," Jenny said with a sigh. "I am an S-class too you know. I've been on a few missions where the body count is a little too high. So I completely understand wanting to unwind."

There was a loud cough from behind them, and Jenny turned angrily, then sighed as her manager, a fellow mage from Blue Pegasus, held up his wrist, showing his watch. Jenny had started to employ him to help her organize her time better so she could pick up more missions while also keep her singing/modeling career going, but that didn't mean she liked the reminder. Scowling at the man and waving him and the other man, a local manager off, Jenny turned back to Ranma. "Look, I have to go. I have a show tonight."

"What kind of show?" Ranma asked, interrupting her.

"Just a song and dance show at the Jungle Fever. It's nothing risqué, just the same sort of thing I used to do on Buckler but without the whole adventure park angle or other people. It's family-friendly and everything, sort of," Jenny said with a wave of a hand.

"Laxus is here. He apparently got us all a table there tonight, so maybe we'll see your show," Ranma said with a smile.

"I'd love to see you and Mira," Jenny said, all her earlier irritation at Ranma knowing her rival gone. After all, despite the fact they were rivals, they were friends at the same time, a relationship much like the one that Mira had with Erza, only with far less in the way of taunts and physical combat between them. _And I actually haven't met Erza before this._

"Great, so we'll see you then if we can." He glanced at the time too and sighed, disengaging their hands. "I have to go. I'll tell Mira you said hi. But beyond the show, will you be free tomorrow?"

"Probably not," Jenny said with a sigh. "I'm also here for a modeling job, and those can be irritatingly long at times." Then she brightened. "Although, if Mira's up for it I might get her to join me. At least that way I'll have some company. Unless," she said with a smirk, leaning in to Ranma's personal space. "You want to give it a try?"

"Try to be a model, a female model? I don't think so," Ranma said the laugh. "Still, how about this: I'll take Wendy to the amusement park tomorrow morning, and she can spend the rest of the day at the beach with the others. Whatever Mira says, I'll come over and keep you company and protect you from all the perverts out there too."

He then snorted, tapping his stomach. "Though after that punch you gave me, I doubt you need protecting."

"Excellent," Jenny said with a grin, leaning up to kiss his cheek this time.

Ranma held her in a hug, then winked at her before releasing her. As Jenny walked away, however, he groaned internally. _What the hell, hormones?! Three girls now? This is not going to end well for me, I can just tell._ He also noticed the glare the one guy was giving him before he followed Jenny, but couldn't care less about that.

Unfortunately for Ranma, his troubles didn't stop there. He met up with the others, and rather sheepishly informed Mira of Jenny putting on a show at the same restaurant they were due to eat at. He figured it would be worse to let her realize Jenny was there when she first came out for her show.

However, when she heard of Jenny's plea for aid, Mira jumped on it with both feet. "That sounds like a good idea. These kinds of jobs can always take so long, and having a friend around can make them much more bearable. I'll go with you in the afternoon tomorrow, Ranma, don't worry. Between us, we can probably spring Jenny from her mission in time for her to actually hang out with all of us. I'd love to introduce her to the rest of you," she said, smiling somewhat disingenuously over at Erza, who growled, realizing that Mira had just stolen a march on her there.

Ranma was in the uncomfortable position of being between the two of them for the moment, but then Wendy arrived, giving him an excuse to break away, smiling as he reached out and ruffled her hair, which caused her to pout as she tried to push his hand away. "You look good, Wendy-chan."

The bluenette wore a slightly more formal version of her normal dress, complete with sparkly sequins here and there and a dark blue color almost going to purple. It was open underneath her armpits and fell to her knees. It was a little more daring than Ranma wanted to see on her, but the girls had all agreed that it was appropriate. One male voice against four female voices certainly was not going to carry the argument. _Or five if you count Carla,_ Ranma thought, looking down at the anthropomorphic cat, who was standing beside Wendy, looking around disdainfully at the numerous flashes going off all around them.

Laxus led the way from the casino to the restaurant down the street. The restaurant was large, built around an area that had been made to look like a jungle, with numerous trees and bushes around the tables. These were in turn set on a few raised daises, letting everyone see down into an open area which could double either as a small theater or as a dance floor.

There was already a small but very talented band playing as the large group was led to a table, where, to Ranma's surprise, there was someone he recognized already sitting there. "Oh no, not her," he muttered. "This is probably not going to be good."

Erza, too, recognized the woman. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of the woman waiting for them. "What is **she** doing here?"

"Hope that it's just as a messenger rather than a harbinger," Ranma replied, remembering all too easily how the femme-fatale of the Magic Council had tried to use her wiles on him, as well as the feeling he had around her that she wasn't quite what she appeared to be.

Ultear stood up smiling at all of them and gesturing for them to sit down before she looked to Laxus. "I understand that you were the one who made the reservations? You don't have to worry about your deposit; I'll pay for everything tonight. I am…."

"I know who you are," Laxus interrupted, taking her hand and bowing over it, giving it a light kiss as he sent her a smirk. "My old man has mentioned you a time or two. You're here to talk to this one," he said, flicking Ranma in the side of the head with a finger, "about his latest mission, I suppose, right?"

Ultear's eyes narrowed, looking at them all, and Ranma shrugged, leaning in as he rounded the table. "Laxus knew about that a while ago, as do Erza and Mira, and Wendy, of course. The others only know about the latest bit."

"Ah," Ultear said, in response, knowing this meant that Ranma had left his Ranger status mostly out of things. With that she turned back to Laxus. "That is exactly correct. But there's no need to be overly formal about it. We just have some questions about how the battle went, specifically about what we saw on our long-scrying crystal connected to the ship that took you all there."

She looked seriously at Ranma. "We saw glimpses of what had to be members of the Dark Guild, Oración Siete, flying away from the scene. Cobra's large flying snake is rather distinctive. Was he the only member there, or were there others? Was Jellal, in fact, working for them, or was he an actual member of their guild?"

Ranma nodded grimly, and they all sat down. Given the fact that this discussion was going to be a serious one, Wendy sat at the far end of the table with the two Exceed, with Lucy and Levy between them and the others. Ranma sat with Laxus across from him, sitting alongside Erza to one side and Mira on the other, with Ultear sitting next to Laxus.

He looked around quizzically. "Are the twins not joining us?"

Mira shook her head. "No, they're going to stay up with Natsu." She smirked at the other girls. "Lisanna said there is no way they're leaving this resort single."

Ranma and Laxus rolled their eyes at that, while all the girls, even Ultear, giggled. The others looked at her in shock, and Ultear shrugged. "What? I might be a hardened bureaucrat, but that doesn't mean I'm not a woman."

"Do you even know what we're talking about?" Erza asked tartly.

"The story about how Anna and Lisanna Strauss are both attempting to get with the retarded Salamander of Fairy Tail has made the rounds of even the Council a few times," Ultear replied dryly, then flicked her eyes to Mira. "Although I was honestly always more interested in where a second Lisanna came from than their love lives." She looked shrewdly around the table, cocking an eyebrow. "Does anyone want to say anything on that point before we get back to the real reason why I'm here?"

"Nope," Laxus said with a shake of his head. He and Makarov had made the choice not to ever mention the idea of a parallel world where magic was dying to the Council or to anyone else if they could help it long ago, and he stuck with that now.

"Not even a little," Mira said cheerfully. "They're both my sisters, and I love them very much, even if I have to wonder about their choice in men."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Ranma said, looking down at the menu.

"I honestly have no idea either," Erza said hopefully, meeting Ultear's gaze. Her eyes narrowed as she launched her own assault. "Nor do I have any idea why you're trying to be so friendly."

Ultear sighed, some of her smirk disappearing. "I realize you don't trust me, Erza, and I understand why. I always seemed to move in lockstep with Siegrain, didn't I? Is that even his real name, by the way?"

"It is not," Erza replied, her voice curt. "The man you knew as Siegrain was, in fact, simply a Thought Projection of the real man. The real man was named Jellal, and he was the leader of the Tower of Heaven. Wally, Millianna, and Simon were all slaves there, and, like the rest, they will tell you they were duped by him into believing the lies Jellal sold them."

"We realized it was a tower, and we feared it might be the Tower of Heaven. That…system…is known to the Council, but we thought it destroyed years ago. I wonder how the Council missed that! Our Navy might not be nearly as good as Mistral or Caelum's, but we should at least know what islands are inhabited around our territory!" Ultear said with a sigh. "Two of my fellows are looking into that aspect as we speak."

"I don't know," Erza replied, her tone far more normal than before, though she was still slightly glaring at Ultear. She did not like Ultear, not one bit. Far too often Ultear had been in the background whenever she'd have to deal with 'Siegrain.' The woman had always struck her as a bit too good at staying in the background, and Erza knew the black-haired woman had far more magical power than she let on.

Still, she was a member of the Council and hadn't apparently sided with Jellal in his fight against Ranma, rather being another victim, perhaps, of Jellal's magically enhanced charisma. That wasn't enough to convince Erza to trust the other woman, but she was willing to go along with things for now. "I have to assume there was some kind of spell around the island keeping people from noticing it, although how it worked, I don't know."

"Perhaps if we had been able to study the tower before you destroyed it—oh, and the island it sat on—we'd be able to say more," Ultear said, her lips twitching into a taunting little smirk to Ranma, who shrugged unrepentantly. Then she became serious once more, looking at Erza. "I realize you don't trust me, so I feel I need to ask. Will you permit me to question your friends?

At Erza's nod, she then questioned Simon and the other survivors from the Tower, pausing only when the waiter came by to take their orders, Ultear having already taken the opportunity to order some wine and appetizers for the table before they had arrived. Throughout all this, a magic dictation quill was going beside her until she nodded slowly. "Very well, I have enough information about the background, or as much as we're going to get."

"Now," she said, looking around at the Fairy Tail mages. "Let's get to the actual fight. Wendy-chan, you and…Carla-san? Your parts in this fight were visible enough you don't have to participate in this."

This didn't take very long and halfway through their meal Ultear was finished, putting away her notes quickly before turning to another topic entirely. _Master Hades will be very interested in a copy of those later. For now, let's see if I can find out anything more about the Ranger._ "So Ranma, how long do you envision staying within Fiore?"

"I had initially hoped to stay put for a few months, into the autumn before heading further south for the winter. Heh, what with how quickly this mission came up, I haven't even had time to look for a place in Magnolia yet!" Ranma groused. "More importantly, I still want to find out more about what Jellal was up to. Did he really think that the Heaven System could call for Zeref? Where did he get that idea? There's too much we don't know about his motivations and real interests."

"In terms of real interests, we can help you there," Ultear said, passing over a thin binder done in some kind of dark purple lizard hide. "In there you will find the missions that were commissioned by Jellal or allowed through on special dispensation by Jellal before facing the full committee. It makes for some interesting reading. Though I'll give you a summary right now. He was very, very interested in demon sightings and anything connected to Zeref. Hardly shocking, I know, but the actual missions could possibly give you some more information."

After that Mirajane and Laxus combined to turn the attention of the conversation to something else. Mira and Erza talked to Erza's old friends about their plans in the days to come, while Ranma actually moved down the table to sit next to Wendy to talk about the amusement park with her, Carla, and Lucy.

Happy interjected at this point. "Wendy, are you going to use that light blue spell of yours so you can actually go on the rides?"

"Yep, and it's called Troia, Happy-san," Wendy replied, pouting at the blue-furred Exceed. "I don't call your wings, 'those flappy white things,' do I?"

"Aye, sir," Happy replied. "But with that, I'd bet that Natsu will want to try the rides. He's never been able to go on them before without throwing up before."

Mira heard this and turned, about to make some comment about Natsu already being given a ride, but Ranma thought quickly and slapped a hand over her mouth. "Not in front of the kiddies, please, Mira."

Rolling her eyes, Mira complied, turning back to Millianna and going back to explaining about the other guilds whose members she had met.

With Ranma moving away like that, Ultear was unable to attempt to converse with him without being obvious. So instead, she allowed Laxus to pull her into a conversation about the Council and Jellal's Wizard Saint status. Since he had been called the unofficial eleventh Wizard Saint a few times in the past few years, Laxus had a vested interest in that. Ultear teased him about it but eventually replied that, yes, there was a chance that he would be named an official Wizard Saint after this.

Nearby a few men who were sitting at a table hidden from the one with the Fairy Tail mages by a few trees looked up at this. They craned their necks down and around and started to mutter angrily as they saw the number of Fairy Tail guild marks the people at the nearby table were sporting. "Two Wizard Saints in one guild?" one of the others muttered to another. "That's just not going to fly!"

"We have to tell the boss about that, though I doubt there's anything we can actually do about it…," another man said, his voice angry and bitter.

"We might not be able to do anything about the Lightning King over there, but the others are fair game…," said a third man. He was a tall but thin bald man with very dark skin and wearing sunglasses, even inside. He and the others all wore jackets, some with ripped sleeves, some with short sleeves. None of them looked as if they should have been let in to the Jungle Fever, but they were still there, if hidden from the rest of the patrons.

"I don't know, man. There's some stories about that Mirajane chick, and isn't that the Titania in the red dress? I'm not going to mess with the strongest woman in Fiore," the first man replied.

"We can target the others," said the black man, waving his hands. "They can't always all be in one large clump. They'll break off to do their own thing, and then we'll strike at the weaker members. That pigtailed guy, for one."

Another one of the men smirked. "Actually, given the 'in' we have with the resort manager, I might have a better idea. Especially if any of them are heavy drinkers. We'll show them all that Phantom Lord is the real top guild in Fiore!"

The meal passed relatively well after that, with a lot of laughter and tale telling and smiles all around. Simon, Wally, and Millianna were all welcomed by the others now that their questioning by Ultear was done. They fully got into the night, turning it into a bit of a wake for their friend on top of the ceremony from the night before and a party celebrating their freedom at last. Ranma returned to his original chair to talk with Ultear and Laxus for a time, joking and trading barbs with Laxus throughout the meal.

About halfway through the meal, it got even better. The music began to rumble out louder than before, a drumroll of sound as a door in the far wall from the entrance to the restaurant opened. "Ladies and gentlemen, be prepared to be amazed by the musical talents of Akane Resort's own poster girl, Jenny Realight!"

Wendy and the others turned excitedly and watched as Jenny emerged from the alcove, waving at the crowd, even making kissing signs as she walked forward, sending a single wink out towards the Fairy Tail table. "Hello, Jungle Fever! Are you having a fun night? That's what I like to hear! Now let's make this even more fun!"

From there she launched into a singing number. Her well-trained voice and extreme range allowed Jenny to sing several different types of songs. She started out with pop, moved into country, and then stayed on jazz for the rest of the time. Of course, most of those titles weren't the ones used in this world for those types of songs, but that was what Ranma thought of them as.

He supposed that in that area, at least, the odd duality between his past world and this one in terms of how people had evolved made sense. There were, after all, only so many different types of music out there. If their names had matched up as well, then Ranma would've been a little disturbed.

Ranma couldn't say that he really enjoyed most of the concert. The atmosphere was cool and the emotional impact of it pretty fun, but he had yet to figure out a way to control his hearing, and this much noise was a bother to deal with.

By the time Jenny ended, Wendy too looked a little sore and extremely tired. But before Ranma could say it was time to take her to bed, Millie had swooped in, grabbing her and Carla up in her hands. "Kitty sleepover, nya!" she shouted before she started to push through the slowly dissipating crowd with her charges.

One was not protesting at all, and the other was protesting volubly enough for three of them. "Let me go, darn it, you, you uncouth barbaric fetishist! Enough is enough, darn it! Must I be plagued with always being picked up like this?!" Carla bellowed.

Ranma was about to follow them, when Ultear grabbed his hand. "Now, where are you off to, Ranma? The night is still young, after all. And young Wendy-chan seems to have a minder for the evening already."

With that, Ultear pulled Ranma down the steps to the dance floor. The musicians had taken over from Jenny once her show had ended, and there was numerous people already dancing there.

With Millie and Carla watching Wendy, Ranma decided that yes, he could afford to have some time to himself.

Mira made a 'tching' noise in her teeth and hopped off her chair, moving after the two of them. Erza, too, stood up along with Laxus, Levy, and Lucy.

As they danced to a fast, snappy beat, Ranma leaned in speak into Ultear's ear, which was the only way they would be able to speak given that the music now getting louder. "So, is there any reason why you're still here with us? Don't you have enough information already?"

"You're not the only person who has been suffering these past few days," Ultear shouted back even louder, her voice carrying over the music as she leaned up into him. "I might not have been bleeding or sweating like you all, but my hands are near crippled from all the writing I've been having to do. And if I see another pen anytime soon, I'm going to freak!"

Ranma and the others nearby had quickly backed away during this minor tirade. Ultear breathed in deeply trying to calm down. "Sorry, it's just there has been so much of a kerfuffle about this, and all that has fallen on our heads, and by our heads, I mean mine, since I was the 'closest' of the council with Jellal. None of the others seem to realize that that proximity made me just as vulnerable to his mental control, whatever magic he was using, as anyone else."

"Understood," Ranma said. "If you want to have a few days to rest and relax, that's fine by me. I was just asking."

"Good," Ultear said, turning around and latching onto him once more. "Now, dance!"

Of course inside Ultear was thinking other thoughts. Ultear had initially come here to see if she could seduce Ranma but number of other people around them had swiftly shot that down. She could also tell that at least two of the other girls already present were interested in him.

Ultear was many things, but she wasn't stupid. She knew that if she wanted to throw her hat in that particular ring, it would no doubt take attention from her real job, that of continuing to worm her way into a position of power on the Council. _I still need to find out more about that second weapon and how to shut it down. That, unfortunately, needs to be my priority._

Besides which, Ultear wasn't so proud that she wouldn't admit when she was overmatched. She felt she could handle either the so-called Fairy Queen or Mirajane the Devil Bitch, but certainly not both.

To Ultear's thinly veiled displeasure, however, Erza moved between them as another song began. "I have to wonder, Ranma, does this count as our date?"

"Hmm, nah," Ranma replied, more than happy to get away from Ultear. For all that she was gorgeous, there was still something about her that set his hair on end. And besides which, dancing with Erza seemed like it would be fun, given the fact the redhead's normal poise had deserted her from the moment she had stepped out onto the dance floor. Now she looked almost off-balance, trying to look at the dancers around her and copy their movement, but blushing all the while.

Ranma put his hands on her waist and smiled. "Let me lead, huh?"

"F, fine," Erza muttered, and, to the displeasure of a nearby Mira, who was dancing with Levy and Lucy at the time, the two of them whirled through the dancers. That wasn't to say that Ranma's feet were safe, though, and Erza stepped on them several times.

Erza sighed, but Ranma shook his head. "Don't apologize, Erza. It's not like it hurts all that much. Besides, I remember when I first learned martial arts ballroom dancing. It was not a pretty sight. My partner had to wear armored boots."

"And whatever is wrong with wearing armored boots?" Erza said in mock-indignation. Then both of them laughed, and the dance continued.

After the one dance, however, Mira quickly moved over, pulling Ranma to one side as she deliberately pressed her body against the side of his own. "I think it's time you dance with someone who isn't a mortal threat to your feet. Come on!"

"Erm, okay…," Ranma said, not really having a problem with this, of course, but he did have a problem with the look Mira and Erza were giving one another.

"I do not believe Ranma and I were done just yet," Erza said with a growl, pulling Mira away. "What did we say earlier about not getting in one another's way.

"I don't think I asked your opinion!" Mira retorted. "And that's only if one of us or the other isn't rubbing it in!"

As Mira and Erza glared at one another, Ranma decided to beat feet. He honestly wasn't certain how to deal with this other than try to get away, though Ranma knew that this was only putting off the problem, as he had in Nerima for so long. But this was also very different from Nerima. _There, the girls all sent me pretty damn mixed signals, and all of 'em were interested in me at first because of honor or obligation. Here, it's pretty obvious that Erza, Mira, and even Jenny are interested in me for me, though I think that Jenny, at least, is willing to just have fun and not get all…complicated._ By which Ranma, of course, meant emotional about things beyond simply liking one another and wanting to have fun physically.

 _And I've made it worse by showing interest in all of them in turn. But, but given how physical they've been in showing their interest since we arrived here, can they honestly blame me for that?_ Ranma thought as he snuck away using the quiet feet, sneaky feet technique his father had invented. This was a mix of making certain he was noticed but overlooked entirely, moving away silently but with the exaggerated motions of someone who just had to be making a joke of the entire thing. Onlookers, of course, noticed him, but the people he was running from didn't.

As he left the dance floor, Ranma started to think about what he really wanted in terms of the girls or, more accurately, a girlfriend. Before he could get beyond the whole 'more kisses, they're amazing' stage, however, one of the girls on stage with Jenny earlier waved him over to her. Cocking an eyebrow at that, Ranma made his way towards the girl who spoke up quickly when he reached her. "Umm, Ranma, right? Jenny asked if you could join her backstage."

"Um, sure, I guess." Ranma muttered, looking over his shoulder as he felt rather than saw Erza and Mira start looking for him among the dancers. "Lead the way."

After Erza had butted in on them, Ultear had stepped back from her interest in Ranma and simply watched the events going on around him, amused to see him try to sneak away as he did. But when she moved to follow him, a hand gripped her shoulder and spun her around, pulling her back onto the dance floor before she could recover. "Just watching that drama play out isn't fun. You need to have little fun on your own," said Laxus, smirking down at her. "Why don't you show me some moves, council girl? The night's young, after all?"

To that, Ultear could only shake her head. "You think you can dance better than me?"

"Not better, but certainly longer," Laxus said with a leer.

"In that case, oh Lightning King, put your feet where your mouth is," Ultear replied, twisting and turning away to dance to the rhythm of the music.

Over the next hour or so, Laxus proved that his endurance was indeed better than hers was. Her sore feet proved that point very well for him. However, he was gracious in his victory, and, as she hobbled off the dance floor, he took her by the elbow and asked, "You want to join me for a drink?"

"I don't think you could afford it," Ultear said with a smirk.

Laxus looked back at her blankly. "I'm an S-class mage who doesn't actually use all that much money he gets on missions, and I already pay for my own drinking habit. You think you're you can drink more than that? A little thing like you?"

"That sounds like another challenge," Ultear said with a laugh, hobbling a bit faster out of the restaurant towards the nearest casino, which, of course, would have a bar area. "Let's go see if you can once more put your body where your mouth is."

"I can do that in all sorts of ways," Laxus replied, his tone mildly flirtatious.

Ultear laughed, and a few minutes later they reached the bar area. There, another sort of contest began. They didn't have shots, though—Ultear hated the taste of pure liquor like that. Instead they downed various different types of mixes, with the one who finished first choosing the next. "You should stop by Fairy Tail some time," Laxus said as he put down a B-52, smirking across at his opponent, who was looking a little bleary-eyed.

Ultear waved a languid hand, setting her own glass down and using the same motion to signal a waiter to come over once again. "And, jush, vhy is that? I should think yours guild would loathe da zery idea of a councilmember being 'ear Magnolia."

"My fellow guildmate, Cana, is the strongest drinker I know. Hell, she routinely drinks me under the table and would think of this as simply a light start to the evening," Laxus said, enunciating each word carefully so as not to slur them.

Ultear laughed, while internally she was wondering if she should let this go any further or simply bow out and find Ranma again. He had not reappeared from the back room of the restaurant by the time they had finished dancing, and she had been watching out the windows just to see if Ranma left Jungle Fever from the front entrance. _He could've gone out the back, I suppose, but one of the workers I bribed to keep an eye on that should've informed me if so._

Her eyes also flicked to one side, watching a group of Phantom Lord mages who had entered the bar a few minutes after they had. One of the men sat at a nearby table to overhear the conversation Laxus and Ultear were having, but she allowed that. After all, she wasn't actually talking about anything secret. Most of their conversation had been about drinks, sports, and, surprisingly, fashion. It turned out Laxus was a bit of a clothes horse and had talked on that topic with a refinement and understanding that she would not have expected from a big, bad alpha male like him.

She had instead made a point of mentioning the fact that she worked for the Council several times. Now it seemed to have finally gotten through to the man, because as she glanced that way he moved off, meeting up with his fellows.

 _So, my quarry has disappeared and has gathered interest from at least two, possibly three other very powerful women. He and the others told me enough about the fight in the tower to let me have some idea of Ranma's capabilities, if not all of his tricks, as well as basically stating that he would be going after any information that could link Jellal to the Oración Siete. Or should that be Seis, considering that Ranma killed Jiemma? I know how long he will be in Fiore for, where he will be staying, and generally speaking what Ranma's short-term goals are. So, all told, Master Hades and the Council will both be pleased by my mission here._

 _The only part of this mission that hasn't gone as I had hoped is that I have only been able to flirt with him, what, two times, three, in the entire evening? I had hoped to do more. But,_ Ultear thought to herself, reiterating the position she had taken at the dining table _. I certainly won't be able to devote as much time to that seduction as it would probably take, and doing so while working against several other women would be time consuming in the extreme._

 _No, I will have to let this go,_ she thought with more than a pang of regret. Ranma was, after all, a fascinating mystery wrapped up in an attractive package. But she had not become perhaps the most accomplished and certainly most successful spy for any Dark Guild in history by not knowing when to cut her losses.

 _That doesn't mean I won't try to flirt with him whenever I see him, but for now, my official and unofficial mission here is done. So why not have some fun,_ Ultear thought as the waiter arrived at their table. She cocked an eyebrow challengingly at Laxus. "I think we're ready to move on to the harder stuff. What about you?"

 **OOOOOOO**

Millie, Wendy and the Exceed were almost back to the hotel when they were interrupted by a voice out of the darkness. "Little fairy flies shouldn't be off on their own at night, especially after they mouth off like you did back there! Phantom Lord's going to show you that we're the strongest guild around!"

Out of the crowd of resort goers all around them four mages pushed their way forward, glaring angrily at Millie and the two Exceed. Though she hadn't been part of Fairy Tail for a while, Carla still bore the mark on her shoulder, which was far more prominent in her cat-girl form than in her Exceed body, which she had been in since coming down with Wendy. Not, alas that it had stopped Millianna from cuddling her. Happy, of course, also had it on his back, which was also visible, though he thankfully had begun to wear pants most of the time.

Millie stood in front of the cats and the yawning Wendy, snarling, her claws appearing one hand and a loud loop of magic forming around the other. "If you think I'm going to let you hurt the kitties you've got another think coming, nya!"

"You don't have their mark; this ain't your fight," said one of the other men before a barrel was pressed up against the back of his head.

"There are two types of men in the world," said a voice from behind him. "The type to walk away when their friends are in trouble and the type who steps up to the plate and does what he can like a dandy. Nighty-night."

With that the man behind the former speaker fired, and a bolt of magical energy impacted his head from a mere few inches away, sending him into darkness.

Two of the other mages made to move forward but were stopped by another voice intoning, "Darkness Magic: Dark Moment." The lights of their personal worlds went out as both of them were enveloped in a magical darkness that covered everything they could see.

The last looked up and saw Wendy breathing in deeply. He recognized that stance and shouted, "Wait, no way! You can't be a…."

"Tenryu no Hoko (Sky Dragon's Roar)!" she said, sending only a minuscule amount of her magic into the attack. But it was enough to send the last man wheeling away into the darkness that had consumed his fellows. There were three loud crashes, and the darkness around them disappeared, showing all three of them on the ground. Before they could get up, Carla was in them along with Millie, smashing their heads down into the ground with their clawed hands.

Carla huffed, smacking her hands together and moving back to Wendy. "Well, now that that's over with, perhaps we can actually get back to our rooms without any further interruption."

"We're still going to have our sleepover, nya," Millie caroled as she once more picked up Carla and Happy.

"Darn it," Carla muttered, as she once more found herself in Millie's grip, with a willing Wendy following alongside them now, once more yawning and looking as if she was about to fall asleep on her feet.

"I wonder what all that was about?" Simon muttered as he and Wally moved to join the others, heading back for an early evening. The fact that Simon was carrying a large amount of alcohol back for the two of them was not worth mentioning. The two of them had decided to get decidedly drunk, talk about girls, and their missing siblings. And neither of them was willing to do so in public.

"Who knows?" said Wally with a shrug.

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma found Jenny just entering her changing room, and she smiled, giving him a come-hither gesture with her hand. "Come on, Ranma. I want to talk to you alone, and I figured this way no one is going to interrupt us."

Ranma nodded. Any other man might have wondered if that was all Jenny wanted, inviting him into her boudoir, but Ranma didn't think like that. Nor would he be open to more than talking, given his earlier thoughts and his concerns about Erza and Mira. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Hold on a sec." Jenny turned aside, pulling out a screen and then stepped behind it, grabbing up some jeans and what looked like a blouse of some kind. "Now, don't peek~," she said teasingly.

"Feh, don't be insulting," Ranma said with a wave of his head, moving over to a chair, pulling it out, and putting his feet up on the dresser. He also turned away as the silhouette of Jenny began to strip behind the screen.

"So, what have you been doing with yourself? Still traveling with Wendy?" Jenny asked, pulling off the special strapless bra she wore, letting her breasts jiggle for a moment. Her chest wasn't as big as what she had seen from Erza, but she and Mira were almost of a size. But she didn't pose or attempt to do anything more than change as she listened to Ranma tell her a very brief summary of the past few years.

"Wait, that cute cat girl is the same race as Happy?!" Jenny asked in shock, sticking her head out from behind the screen in shock. "Seriously? They don't look anything alike!"

"That's her Human Form magic," Ranma replied, now turning from where he had been staring at the wall. "She figured out how to do that a few years back, nearly eight months after we first met. It's helped her in a lot of ways. How do you know about Happy, anyway?"

"I've met him and Natsu before. Once I was called in to help clean up after one of his missions. Happy was hilarious, Natsu…unrepentant. Seeing as he had smashed a local corrupt sheriff and his team of deputies, I sort of thought he had a point at the time, though he didn't have to send so much debris everywhere in the fight," Jenny replied, stepping out from behind the screen and smirking at Ranma. "And you didn't even try to peek, you big, bad Ranger man." She then sobered slightly. "You know how rare that'd be? How few men would be able to look away from me changing like that? And yes, I know that my body can be seen behind that."

Ranma shrugged uncomfortably. "It just didn't seem right, y'know?"

Jenny giggled at that and sat down on her dresser, facing him. "And that's part of why I'm interested in you despite it being years since I saw you last. The other parts, well, you're hot as hell in ether form, you're funny, and you're strong. You're not easily intimidated, and you don't seem the type to intimidate in turn." She then smirked, leaning forward and placing a hand on Ranma's knee. "All of that is also why you've garnered some interest from Erza and Mira. Now, I don't know much beyond Erza's reputation about her, but I have rarely seen Mira give most men a second glance, let alone a second dance."

She laughed once more at Ranma's poleaxed expression. "Oh, come on, you can't tell me you're surprised."

"Erm, not so surprised you noticed as how open you are about it," Ranma muttered, flushing a bit.

"Hah!" Jenny laughed, though this time there was scant humor in it, and her tone was serious as she went on. "Ranma, I've no doubt I'm the only non-virgin among the three of us. I've dated five boys since I met you, and one of them lasted long enough to get into my bed, although I'll admit that that was more because of the alcohol than anything else." She shook off her dark mood after a moment and smiled faintly. "I'm also in Blue Pegasus and routinely deal with the Trimens, who are simply the biggest bunch of egotistical man-whores in all creation. So if you're going to talk to anyone about this, it better be me, hmm?"

Slowly, Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I guess you got a point to that. It's just…. Okay, this isn't the first time I've had girls fighting over me, but this time it ain't because of honor obligations or weird ass laws or an asshole father. They're interested in me, and I suppose on some level I'm interested in the two of them and, and you too. Though I seriously would prefer to get to know you again before we do anything beyond that kiss ya gave me earlier."

"I am not easy Ranma, nor do you need to worry about hurting my feelings by being honest," Jenny replied with another laugh. "So, you and the three of us. Your flirting is your version of getting to know them, or just reciprocating?"

"A bit of both. Um, it, it sort of just happened, y'know? First I met Mira and this other girl from Fairy Tail named Bisca, and we got to talking, then teasing. After that I met Erza, and she and I, it turns out we share a lot of interests, and we got to talking. No flirting with Erza until today, though. So, I mean, we…."

Nodding slowly, Jenny paused. What she said next might wreck any chance she had with Ranma, but it had to be said. "So, let's look at it from another side of things. I think we can safely assume some of what attracts you to us. It's not like you've had any more time to get to know us then we have you. But what exactly are you looking for in a girlfriend?" Her lips twitched into an impish little smirk. "Unless, of course, you're also interested in a boyfriend, though I doubt that."

Ranma shuddered, making a point to actually spit to one side, ignoring Jenny's cry of, 'Oh gross!' as he did. "Hell, no. But that is sort of part of it. Um, I mean, any girl who I go out with would have to like my female form too."

"I suppose that could be a problem for some, though it's probably not as large a hurdle as you might think. Geez, Ranma, this is like pulling teeth with you. Stop dodging the question. What are you looking for in a girlfriend? What are you looking for in a relationship?"

"To the first, strength and good looks, I guess, though that sounds kind of shallow, I suppose? A sense of humor; they'd have to be kind of adventurous, able to put up with all the bullshit that I find or attract," Ranma said with a sigh. "And, I guess...maybe a willingness to travel with me, within reason, I suppose? I mean, I routinely put down roots for a few months here and there, but I'm always traveling."

"And Wendy and this Carla catty-girl?" Jenny asked.

"Oh, yeah. Um, any girlfriend would have to get along with them too, I guess. Wendy's my little sister and my charge, so I ain't about to leave her anywhere for long, and Carla comes sort of as her plus one," Ranma replied, his lips twitching into a smirk as Jenny laughed.

"Children? Are you looking to settle down?"

"Gah, no!" Ranma said with a shake of his head. "I've been looking after Wendy since she was five already, and Carla on top of her for the last few years. That's enough parenting for me, thanks. I'm not, I mean, I'm not looking for anything permanent. I don't want to make plans like that, since I'm always moving around and, more often than not, finding trouble."

Jenny smiled in approval at that. She had no desire to be tied down, have kids, or anything like that. "Traveling the world sounds like fun. Not certain I'd be okay with traveling all the time, but eight out of every twelve months, maybe? I already travel a lot."

"It is; it really can be. Provided ya have the equipment." From there Ranma shifted the conversation to that topic, and then Jenny replied by asking about the weird local laws he had mentioned before. Eventually, though, they both realized it was getting late.

Jenny sighed. "After my modeling job tomorrow is done I'll be leaving for another mission. It's time sensitive, so I will be doing that even if Mira can help me tomorrow. I don't suppose I could interest you in coming with?"

"Heh. Sorry, no. I need to go over the information Ultear brought with her before deciding where to go from here," Ranma said before reiterating what he had said at dinner that evening. "There's just too many questions about Jellal's motivations and interests for me to leave it just yet. I wish I could just head back to Magnolia and hang out with the Fairy boys and girls, but that's not going to happen."

"Hmmpf. You make it sound as if Fairy Tail is the only guild that's worth hanging out with," Jenny huffed, then shook her head. "But I'll have a promise from you to drop by within a month at the most to Blue Pegasus so you and I can have some more time together. Okay?"

Ranma was about to nod, but then a memory struck him, and he paused. "Um, this may sound odd, but what's your guild master's name?"

"Master Bob, why?" Then, as Ranma looked a little queasy, Jenny got it and laughed. "Oh, you've met him, then? Don't worry; I'll protect you," She cooed.

Just then the door opened and five men entered, glaring. "Oy, oy, oy! What's all this, then! Typical Fairy Fucker, getting preferential treatment like this!"

"Um, what?" Ranma asked, twisting in his chair and looking at them quizzically. Jenny, too, scowled, falling to her feet from where she had been sitting.

"We heard you Fairies going on and on about how you lot are the greatest guild in Fiore. Well, we're Phantom Lord, and we think that's full of shit!" the same man said as his fellows spread out. "We're going to show you lot who's really the strongest around here."

"…" Jenny and Ranma exchanged a glance, then turned back as Ranma held up points on his fingers. "Okay, point one: how exactly are you going to prove you're stronger than someone by bringing in more numbers on your side of things?" As the men growled, he held up another finger. "Point two: neither of us are Fairy Tail mages, just friendly with 'em."

"Prove it!" shouted one of the men, looking a little confused and worried now, though not because of what Ranma had been saying. Instead, he and several of the others besides the spokesman had been looking at Jenny since they had entered the room.

Shrugging, Ranma hopped to his feet and winked at Jenny. He first twisted his arms this way and that to show his arms didn't have a guild mark on them, then pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the side. He then turned in place while Jenny began to whoop in good humor. "Woohoo! Take it off! Take it all off!"

As the men began to growl and look uncomfortable, Ranma placed a hand on his pants. "Gah, enough!" the man in the lead bellowed, looking both angry and embarrassed now. "All right, we believe you!"

"Oh poo," Jenny muttered, reaching forward to run a finger down Ranma's back. _By the first magic, he is sooo muscley! He doesn't have the size or the visible thews, but, gods, his definition!_

"Fine. So you, you're not a Fairy Tail mage. What guild do you belong to, then?" the leader said, now glaring at Ranma as he casually pulled his shirt back on.

"None. I'm an independent. I was on a mission and met up with the Fairy Tail mages; you've seen me with them during that. I'm still going around now to see what guild I want to join. And this is…"

"If they don't know who I am, they've been living under a rock," Jenny said with a laugh, turning her gaze in the interloper's direction once more.

"Um, right, sorry…," the leader said, while his followers simply stared. "So wait, you're thinking of joining a guild!? Then why don't you come and check out Phantom Lord?"

"Well, I've seen how FT works, might as well see what the other largest guild in Fiore is like and directly compare the two. We'll see after my current job is done. Wouldn't do to leave that behind; any guild I'd join after that wouldn't like that," Ranma said.

"Awesome," the man said with a nod, then looked around at the others before gesturing them back toward the door. "We're situated in Oak Town. It's on the river Remira; you can find it on any map of Fiore." The man pulled out a map and began to give Ranma directions.

As they were doing this, none of the men noticed the glint in Ranma's eyes before they apologized and moved to the door. As they closed the door, Ranma's Dragon Slayer assisted hearing overheard the men muttering to one another.

"Hey, man, what the hell? You know the boss won't like you just offering a spot in our guild to any random asshole."

"Idiot! You saw how Titania and the Mirajane were all over him, and here he is with Jenny Realight! Come on, man, getting three hotties attention like that, he's got to be using some kind of undetectable Charm Magic. The boss would love that, and we'd get the side-bennie's too!" the man replied.

Rolling his eyes at that, Ranma put the map in his Requip space before turning back to Jenny, finding her looking at him. "What are you going to do to those poor idiots?" Jenny asked, having seen the glint in Ranma's eyes, which the other men had missed.

"Oh, nothing to them, but…. Let's just say that Jellal's actions weren't the only ones causing me to have issues with Fiore's Magic Council. Still, now I know where their guild hall is, and after I've figured out what Jellal and his backers were up to, and if they can or can't resume it, I might look them up, for a…number of reasons."

Jenny scowled at that. Despite all the jokes about blondes and models being rather airheaded, she was far more intelligent than she normally let on and was a master at reading tone and expression. "You do know the Guild Master of Phantom Lord is a Wizard Saint, right?"

"Cool, then I'll be two for two," Ranma replied blandly, causing Jenny to laugh aloud.

 **OOOOOOO**

While Ultear and Laxus had quit the dance floor and left the Jungle Fever entirely, Mirajane and Erza had simply moved to a nearby table and ordered a few drinks for themselves, waiting for Ranma to come back out. It didn't occur to either of them that he would escape out the back way, but they wanted to talk to him, and neither of them was willing to let the other out of their sights at the moment. Their earlier attempt at a semi-truce had failed at the first hurdle, and they kept glaring at one another. Each of them had ordered a single drink and begun to nurse it as they kept watch, neither noticing it was having an impact well beyond that which a single drink should have at first.

"Do you think Jenny is interested in him too?" Erza asked, sighing faintly as she gave voice to the thought that they both had been wondering about up to this point.

"I don't know," Mirajane said with a sigh. "Despite how she acts sometimes, Jenny is actually pretty darn smart, and she isn't at all easy or anything like that. If Ranma was telling the truth and they only met for a few days several years ago, there's no way he could've made that big an impression on her. I mean, I know she's dated a few times. Jenny even had something going with one of her guildmates at one point, though that ended rather abruptly after only a few weeks."

She pauses as Erza shuddered and drank down a large gulp of her drink, looking at Erza with apology plain in her eyes. "Ah, sorry. I know you have problems with Blue Pegasus. Sorry to bring it up."

"It, hah, it's fine," Erza wheezed, not noticing that her hand had actually warped the wood of the table for a moment, actually digging into the table for a moment as she tried to calm herself down. "It's fine. Ichiya's simply, I shimply consider him anosher type of monster, one that needs ta be avoided at all costs," she mumbled.

Mira laughed, but went on more seriously. "Maybe they really are catching up. I wouldn't worry about Jenny stealing a march on us."

"You are rather overly fond of that phrase," Erza said, now enunciating her words carefully as she looked at her friend/enemy. "Is there reason for that?"

Mira flushed. "It's, it's a line that's used in a few o' my bodice-ripper novels. I've got an entire bookcase worth of 'em." At the end of that speech, Mira blushed, looking down at her drink. If she had been sober, she would've never admitted to that, not in a million years.

Erza, however, simply nodded. "I have read some of those, but they're too tame fer my tashtses. I prefer ta read erotic novels," she said, her voice slurred even as she leaned over to whisper that, falling flat on the table as she did.

"Ihs that supposed to be a big secret?" Mira asked, attacking her friend/enemy to cover her earlier moment of inebriated honesty. "I means, everyone practically knows it already; they just're scared to mention in front of you. And can you blame them? You might have no body modesty to speak of, but it's like whenever something romantic or erotic comes out, you blush, stammer, and then slam someone with one of those gauntleted fists of yers."

"Fairy Guild has 'nough problems with rowdiness, drunkenness, and public destruction, and of course Gray and his public displays to add further to our bad reputation," Erza said, pushing herself off of the table and leaning back in her chair, crossing her arms under her chest.

This, of course, caused Mira to glance down at said chest and glare angrily. "I's got a question," she said, pointing across the table at Erza. "Where've you been hiding d'ose!?"

"I haven't been hiding them. I've simply been covering them with my armor," Erza said, looking down at her own cloth-covered chest.

"Oh ho, it seems our connection with the manager here finally did something right. They're both stinking drunk!" said a nearby voice, causing both women to look blearily in that direction.

Next to their table five men stood. Each of them had the Phantom Lord badge prominently on forearm or even on the face of one of them.

The speaker was a slightly taller than normal, a black skinned man with a bald head and an odd pair of glasses that caused Mira to giggle and point. "Wheshes the other lens," she slurred before tipping back and cackling, almost falling out of her seat, but catching herself and falling forward instead.

"Yeah, these two are out of it!" said the man, grinning evilly. He began to bring his hands forward into fists, preparatory to using his magic. "When we're done with you two, you'll know who the strongest guild in Fiore really is!"

"Hold on," said another man. "This is the Titania and Mirajane Strauss dressed up like that, and they're drunk as hell. We'd be fools not to take advantage of this."

By this point Erza had somewhat blearily understood was going around, and she pushed herself to her feet, glaring angrily at them all. "If you shrink, tink, think I am drunk enough for you to take advantage of, you, you can shrink again!" she shouted, pointing at them and lifting her chin so much she was actually facing the ceiling rather than the five Phantom Lord mages.

Mira, too, understood now and pushed herself to her feet, where she began to sway. "Don't you dare look down on me just because I'm a pretty face! This amount of liquor is noshing, nothing! We'll beat all twelve of you!"

"Let's knock them out first, then we can decide what to do with them after," said another man, magic flaring around his fists. Electricity began to flare around them, and he grinned. "Element Magic: Knockout Fists!"

He raced forward only for Mira to dodge to one side, grab his arm right behind where the magic was coruscating off his skin, and flip him over her head to slam into another nearby table.

"Sound Magic: Howling!" shouted the leader. From his hands a purple circle of magic appeared, and thousands of discordant, high-pitched musical notes flared out towards both of the drunk girls.

Mira collapsed underneath it, avoiding the stream of loud, screeching noises easily. Erza leaped over it, landing next to him. Before he could turn a hard punch sent him reeling backwards. He was still on his feet, and he turned angrily, all of his fellows now surrounding the two women. "They still got some fight in them, but they can't face us all."

"I beg to differ!" Erza shouted bombastically, pointing a finger straight up. "Prepare yourselves to faysh my most powerful armor!"

At that, the five Phantom Lord mages stepped backwards as the Requip magic appeared around Erza's body. But instead of some kind of armor appearing, her magic had seemingly not followed her will very well. She now wore what was quite obviously a bathing suit, a simple one-piece, blue swimsuit the likes of which high school academies would use for their swim team. The image was finished by a large fishing pole appearing in one hand.

"Oh, yeah," said one of the other man, laughing as he pulled out a staff from his own Requip space, the ends of which began to flare with some kind of black colored magic. "That's really intimidating there, Titania!"

He was answered by a punch from Mira, who was now cackling, sounding somewhat like she had called upon her Satan Soul, though nothing physical pointed to that. Before the others could figure out that maybe, just maybe, drunk S-class mages were still S-class mages, the two girls were on them, with Erza using her fishing pole like a whipping stick, smashing several of them up to their knees, then over the head, laying them out easily, while Mira punched out two of them, still cackling wildly.

The noise and confusion of the fight had brought Ranma and Jenny out from the back of the restaurant. Ranma took one look at the wreckage left behind after the fight and laughed. "Damn, I thought those guys were smarter than that," he said, moving over to where Erza was now actually sitting on top of one of the tables, cackling and holding the fishing pole like she was actually fishing.

Jenny moved past him. "There is more going on here than I think we can see. I know Mira. She can hold her drinks pretty well. Not fantastically well," she said judiciously, remembering a time where both of them had kind of lost control, "but one drink sure as hell shouldn't have had that much of an impact."

She waved over to where Mira was sitting, giggling quietly to herself as she thumped a crying man's head against the floor. "Hehehe, stop crying; it's too cute! Stop crying; it's too cute!"

"I think you've had enough, Mira," Jenny said, taking her hand in hers and leading her away. "What do you drink?"

With Mira leaning on her, Jenny pulled her friend over to the table, leaned down, and looked at the drink thoughtfully before taking a single sip of it and then spitting it out.

"What is it?" Ranma asked, dragging Erza to her feet and trying not to blush at how very well she filled out a swimsuit that was designed for a person at least two cup sizes smaller than she was. To say Erza was in danger of spilling out was an understatement.

"It's called Weasel's Piss. It's a kind of concentrated cocktail that you can dump into other drinks. It doesn't have any actual flavor to it, but it has a kick like you would not believe," Jenny groused.

"That's not good," Ranma said with a frown. "Could they have slipped that in without the waiter or whoever noticing?"

"Doubtful, though I doubt the waiter would've had anything to do with it. That would cost him his job, at the very least. Weasel's Piss isn't exactly illegal, but if anything had happened, he would've been an accessory." Jenny scowled. "I knew the manager of Jungle Fever had a bad reputation, but I thought it was just because he was so smarmy and flirtatious, I didn't see any other sign he was crooked. I guess I'm not as good at spotting that kind of thing as I thought."

Ranma looked around at the unconscious mages and shook his head. "Well, I'm not going to get any answers out of this lot, primarily because if I investigate Phantom Lord after this, I don't want them to have reasons to be angry with me already. Where can I find this manager guy?"

"He's got an apartment nearby on the third floor of the building right next to this one. It doubles as a storage space for the restaurant." Jenny pointed it out for him before moving over, with Mira on one arm, to take Erza from him, pulling the giggling girl to her other side. "You'll find him there while I will try to get these two back to your hotel."

Erza looked up at her and then tried to pull away, pointing at Jenny with a wobbly finger right between the eyes with her free hand. "Oh my God, not you too!?"

Jenny looked at her quizzically, then over to where Ranma had already turned away and moved out of the restaurant towards the building she had indicated. But Erza's next words brought her attention back to her two charges, causing Jenny to flush red. "Are you interested in him too?"

"God, seriously?" Mira muttered, leaning her head on Jenny's shoulder and putting one arm around her waist to help steady herself. "I know he's hot, but come on!? Is it that rare to find a hot, powerful mage who know how to flirt but aren't utter tools?"

Jenny looked down at Mira blandly, then replied, "Yes, yes it is. The most powerful mages either become utter tools, as you said, or simply are entirely asexual. It's the difference between Gildarts or Iron Rock Jura. And, unlike Gildarts, Ranma isn't a tool and is actually quite handsome."

"Must've made quite an impression on you," Mira muttered, with Erza mumbling agreement. "Thought you met him only once before this?"

"Let's just say that he helped me and my magical training along tremendously," Jenny replied. "He helped me achieve my dream by showing that I could do it myself all along. That's not the kind of thing you forget. Now, come on. Let's get you two back to your room. I wouldn't want to be your heads in the morning..."

 **OOOOOOO**

While Jenny lead the two drunk girls back to their hotel, Ranma found manager, still awake and scribbling some notes down in an office adjacent to his apartment, which was, indeed, as Jenny had said, on the second floor of the storage building set to one side of the main restaurant. He entered silently, and, before the manager knew what was happening, he grabbed him from behind and twisted until his head was pointing downwards and his feet were tied to a rope hanging from a ceiling fan. "What the? Wh, who are you!?"

"I'm the person who's going to use you like a piñata in a moment," Ranma said, pushing the man lightly in the stomach and sending him spinning through the air in a circle. "Did you have a part in those Phantom Lord idiots trying to spike the drinks of the Fairy Tail mages?"

"What are you talking about?" the man said in response, glaring at him, but under Ranma's icy blue glare, the man immediately began to quail. "They, they threatened me…."

"Yeah, I don't think so," Ranma said with a sigh, pushing the man again and sending him to move like a pendulum in the air this time rather than in a circle. "You've already used two of your strikes, I'd think carefully about answering the next question **very** honestly. Did you let them use that Weasel's Piss stuff?"

"Y, yes," the man stammered. "It's part of my agreement with Phantom Lord. They supplied me certain commodities that I can't buy openly, and they can sometimes use some of the product themselves."

"Of course," Ranma said with a sigh. "A resort like this would no doubt attract scumbags. You're going to write down that information, and then you're going to forget this conversation ever happened. Furthermore, you're going to stay away from Jenny and the Fairy Tail mages during our stay here. You won't **ever** tell Phantom Lord we had this conversation. If you do, this info will be found by the Rune Knights or one of the Mage Guilds, okay?"

The man calmed down almost instantly at that, now looking at Ranma speculatively despite still being tied upside down. Ranma simply looked back at him, and the man said slowly, "Do you work for the Council or something?"

"Or something," Ranma replied dryly. "But what I am is none of your business. Now, are you going to write that information, or am I going to have to use you like a piñata?" _It might not help me in the long run, but turning that bit of information over to Ultear might get the ball rolling on an investigation from the Council's position on Phantom Lord, so I won't have to deal with it. Who knows? Stranger things have happened, after all._

 **OOOOOOO**

The group of mages that had tried to attack Erza and Mirajane met up with the group that had attacked Wendy and the others as well as the four that had been following Ultear and Laxus. "Well, that didn't work," said one of them dryly, one of the few uninjured there.

This was immediately remedied by one of his friends smacking him upside the head and sending him sprawling with a magic staff. "Shut your trap! At least you didn't get your ass kicked by two drunk women who looked as if they were barely able to stand up! God, this was fucking humiliating."

"What should we do now?" asked another man.

"Get the hell out of here, find some town nearby and a bar or something to lick our wounds at, then head home," the bald, black-skinned man said. "And we never say anything about what happened here to anyone."

"Why the hell not?" groused one of the ones who had been hurt the most by Wendy's one attack. "The boss needs to know that Fairy Tail's getting stronger, bringing in new blood, if that little girl is any example."

"She might not be given what that other guy said. And besides, do you really think that the boss will take our loss like this lying down? He won't attack Fairy Tail about it, though. No, he'll take it out on us first!"

To that, the other man simply had to nod in understanding. Their boss would indeed do that. Jose would take any excuse he could to attack Fairy Tail, but he also wouldn't stand for anyone making his guild look like idiots, and, unfortunately, that was what they had done today. The others began to nod one after another, seeing their leader's point, and they all started to limp down the street towards the train station, still quietly grumbling to one another.

 **OOOOOOO**

Jenny's prediction of hangovers proved prophetic the next day not only for Erza and Mira, but also for Laxus. However, she hadn't known about Wendy, the miracle worker. After finishing her work, the tiniest Dragon Slayer found herself in a glomp from Mira, who cuddled into her with a smile. "Oh, Wendy, you are my favorite person right now!"

Nearby Erza and Laxus nodded rueful agreement while Ranma laughed, but they were interrupted by a bellow from the doorway. "Oy, let Wendy go, Mira! She needs to cast that Troia spell on me! Man, I'm looking forward to this! I've never been to an amusement park before!"

Behind him, Lisanna and Anna finally made an appearance. Their hair was mussed, there were a few marks on their necks, and their eyes were shining. Taking one look at her sisters, Mira squealed and raced forward, pulling them both to the side and chattering excitedly. Ranma decided this probably meant they had succeeded in getting Natsu to realize they were interested in him, and he and Laxus quickly escaped, meeting up with Lucy, Levy, and, surprisingly, Ultear outside the hotel. "You going to come with us?"

"Hmm…. I think that Laxus here owes me an amusement park ticket. Or are you reneging on our little bet?" Ultear asked.

"Hmmpf. I still think I won that match," Laxus growled before smirking. "Then again, I suppose that there's only one way to really see who won. Another drinking contest."

"Agreed," Ultear replied quickly before smiling. "But you're still paying for the amusement park."

Later, as they were walking back from the amusement park, Laxus and the others spotted Lucy and Levy making their way towards the train station.

"Leaving already?" Millianna asked, racing over to the other girls. They'd sort of bonded about books and talking about different guilds. Lucy had done a lot of research on various guilds before deciding to join Fairy Tail, despite the fact that she had met Master Makarov and felt she owed him. Between her and Mirajane they had helped Millie narrow down the guilds she was interested in by quite a lot.

"There is a book signing nearby from a famous author in a nearby town," Levy said, hopping on her feet excitedly while Lucy simply nodded, her expression a wide beaming grin. "We're going to go over and see if we can get our books signed before heading back to the guild."

"We weren't planning to leave for another day," Laxus said, shrugging his shoulders, "but if you want to leave early, I'm not going to stop you."

"My rent's due tomorrow," Lucy said with a sigh and a wicked smirk as she looked at Laxus. "So I need to get back and cash in my hard earned money."

Laxus growled at that reminder. Lucy had matched him trick for trick when they were playing cards the other day, and between the two of them they had taken the casino for all it was worth. But when they had faced off against each other it had proved inconclusive, something Laxus definitely did not like.

While the others went back to the tower, Ranma and Mira joined Jenny for the rest of the day. With Mira's help and Ranma's reluctant assistance in dealing with smarmy photographers, Jenny finished the job in enough time to spend the evening with them, eating and having fun with the Fairy mages and their friends. The Phantom Lord mages were nowhere to be seen, and, once on the hotel's private beach, they weren't even bothered by paparazzi. That didn't mean there wasn't a crowd, but it was a much more sedate one.

Despite that, a day of a now crowded beach and the amusement park left Wendy 'peopled out,' and she opted to stay in the suite on their final day at the resort. Ranma did the same, intending to get some meditation done, which he began early in the morning.

Halfway through the morning, however, Ranma's meditation was interrupted by a shriek from Wendy. "Cannonball!" He barely had time to open his eyes before a wave of water cascaded over him.

Glaring through her wet hair, Ranma cocked an eyebrow at Wendy, who was giggling at him. "Okay, now that's just askin' for trouble."

After dealing out the appropriate punishment for this, Ranma moved inside to sit down at the table, wiping her hair off and muttering, "Damn young brat is getting more and more like me every day. Wish I could figure out if that was a good thing or not."

She paused by the lounge table, then sighed and sat down, pulling open the folder Ultear had given her last night, which had been lying there. Now she opened it to the first page and began to read. This activity was interrupted about twenty minutes later as Ultear came in from one of the rooms. She plopped down, her hair and skirt immaculate as she smirked at Ranma.

Ranma cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're looking chipper this morning for some reason."

"Heh. Your friend Laxus attempted to beat me at a drinking game last night. He lost," Ultear said discreetly, staring at Ranma for a moment. _All right, I have to admit that while his female form is cute, this curse of his is a bit off-putting._ She crossed her legs, and watched as the redhead's eyes flicked up to her legs and back with a smile. _His hormones are still that of a guy though. I suppose I can work with that._

Looking to another room, Ranma cocked his ears slightly and could just about make out the noise of someone snoring up a storm from the room Laxus had to himself, now that Natsu had left. _Thank goodness for that. I really don't want to see what a hungover Laxus would do to Natsu if he acted his normal self around Laxus._

"Do you have any questions about the missions Jellal sponsored?" Ultear asked, crossing her arms under her chest. This brought attention to her chest, which, while not as big as Erza's (and hadn't that been a shock, but at least one Ultear shared with Mirajane Strauss), were still of a very decent size.

"Meh, not really. I figure at least half of these were covers for some of his material gathering missions."

"We noticed that too. Missions to take out bandits here and there or move Rune Knights or local guild mages out of the way for his suppliers. Others we think were missions designed to take out suppliers who gouged him or left evidence behind," Ultear said. "There's a pattern there too. At first he was incredibly careful, then he became more slapdash, never realizing that someone could be putting the raw numbers of all the supplies going missing together."

"Right. But…there were a few missions that are interesting to me, I think. Missions that have been accepted by a few guilds but haven't been followed up on. A few of them to Fairy Tail, one or two to Phantom Lord, and one to Lamia Scale."

Erza and Mira came out then, moving to join the others. "Missions Jellal sponsored?" Erza asked. "There are still missions from that man on our mission board? I will immediately return and remove them."

"Not just yet. I need those missions. Oh, you can remove them, but only after making certain none of your guildmates have tried to complete them or taken missions in the same area," Ranma replied. "And, honestly, most of these are things I'll pass on to King Toma, let his espionage team follow up on them. There are only two that I'll follow up on personally."

Erza winced at that, knowing that was precisely what her friends Wally and Simon should have done. But they hadn't trusted the kingdom to do anything after so long since Wally's brother and Simon's sister had gone missing. "I see. And I would assume that those two mission are going to be combat intensive?"

"Heh, more than likely. The first mission details a demon sighting in mountains southwest. It also specifies that it is an ancient, man-shaped demon that might have been created by Zeref. The mission continues to say that it routinely terrorizes the territory every dozen years."

"I know that one," Ultear said, frowning for real now and actually telling the truth. "I asked him for information on that, but he would simply smile this smug smile at me and say he had heard about it from some of his own personal resources. If the demon is man-shaped, then it will be unique among the demons Zeref created, which were all supposed to be shaped as monsters, then twisted into other shapes after."

Ranma said nothing, wondering about the demon girl he had fought with after destroying Lullaby. "Hmm…. That's true, I suppose," he said, giving nothing away. "But yeah, that's why I think it's interesting, and the fact it's been sighted so routinely. Kind of like the Beast, only maybe more intelligent? I want to know why Jellal was interested in it. Was it just because it was a demon and therefore connected to Zeref, or something more specific?"

"I want that one," Mira said preemptively, grabbing the mission out of the binder and looking at it avidly. "If you're going to be investigating that mission, then I am **so** joining you."

"Why?" Ranma asked, not turning down the suggestion but wondering where it had come from.

"I use Take Over magic, specifically Devil Soul Take Over. If I beat a demon like that and take it over, it will serve me as a major power up," Mira replied, having no reason to not tell the trio around her how her power worked.

"What was the other mission you thought might be interested in?"

"Removing the curse from Galuna Island," Ranma said. "Jellal helped this mission through the system within a week of it actually showing up, and…is this right? No one knows who actually asked for it?" When Ultear nodded, Ranma went on. "Now, removing curses can be tough or hard, but this one was an S-class mission for some reason. That, the lack of information on it, and the prize makes it stand out to me."

The two Fairy Tail girls looked at him, and he shrugged. "Part of the reward is a gold Zodiac key. Those things are supposed to be really rare, right?"

"Actually, there I know some more information. There were sightings of several demonic entities—small, warped creatures, not very strong but numerous—on that island for years. The mainland has no trade with it, nor vice-versa. And there have been numerous ships which have gone missing there in recent months, starting a week or so before the mission turned up so mysteriously in the Council's mission inbox," Ultear said.

With Jellal dead, she could toss what remained of his operation under the bus without thought. _The fact that this will give me a chance to possibly thump that arrogant Ice Make user a good one is a bonus._ "There were also unsubstantiated reports of something large being brought to the island months before that."

"Hmmm…," Erza mused. "And you think that this mission will be dangerous. But it is already in our books?"

"Fairy Tail and several others accepted that mission, yes. Fairy Tail also accepted the other one, but according to this, Makarov slapped it with a twenty year quest label," Ranma replied, to which they all nodded. While the Council decided the level of a mission, guild masters could use labels like this to make certain their guild members knew what they were getting into.

"Well you can't be in both places at once. And, given what the councilwoman just said, they could both be time sensitive. One of them is linked to numerous disappearances, so the sooner we act on that, the more lives we save," Erza mused. "The other might be like a ticking bomb, the time when this 'human-shaped' demon goes on a rampage coming up soon. I propose we—that is, Fairy Tail and myself, personally—take on this mission to Galuna Island, while you deal with the other."

She didn't like the idea of Mira having time alone with Ranma while they pursued this mission, but her sense of both honor and fair play said it had to be. He had gone with her on the mission against Eisenwald, after all, and Erza could not in good conscience wait on the mission to Galuna Island either.

"I agree," Ultear stated before following up her original thought. "In fact, I'll go with you. That way you'll have a council rep already on hand if need be."

Erza stared at her in irritation, but had to concede that such a thing would be helpful. _And there is no chance of me asking for Yajima, since this woman was apparently assigned to this case. Curse it._ "Very well. I propose we return to Magnolia, then move to the nearest port to Galuna via train. It will cut our time down tremendously."

"Whereas me, Wendy, Carla, and Mira should leave from here, since we're closer to it from here," Ranma replied with a nod.

"After which, you and Wendy will head back to Magnolia, yes?" Erza said, looking at Ranma, a very faint flush on her cheeks giving away her real reason for being interested in his answer.

"Yep," Ranma said with a smirk. "Well, we've got a plan now. Anyone want to wake up Laxus so we can get going?" There were no takers, and Ranma sighed before moving to wake up his snoring friend.

 **End Chapter**

* * *

Oddly enough, in many ways this Ranma would get along a lot better with Yang from Semblance of Hope than the Ranma in that story. Odd thought, but true. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it, and continue to enjoy my stories.


	11. Chapter 11

I can't draw. 'Nuff said, really.

Happy Halloween! This is the next chapter of my heretofore patty on only story, posted here as a gift to my readers for this holiday.

Thanks go to _Michael_ for his awesome work on this. Though RL got in the way he still got it back to me and he spotted a lot of small mistakes throughout, making the chapter far better than it had been. Thanks also go to _Justlovereadin_ ', for his mastery of Fairy Tail Knowledge and _Hiryo_ for his Ranma know-how.

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Multiple Fights, Same Issue**

About twenty minutes later the group left the hotel for the final time, heading towards the outskirts of the resort. While Laxus was still dealing with a hangover and looking at Ultear in something like awe. "How the hell did you do that? The night before last I beat you easy!" Then his eyes narrowed, and not because of the pounding headache. "You cheated."

She smirked back at him. "'If you're not cheating, you're not trying,'" she quoted, giving him a wink before turning away as he growled angrily. Last night had been rather fun, but she didn't want to get **too** close to him. _Or to anyone, frankly, given the fact that I might have to betray them in the near future,_ she thought. The fact this thought was clinical tinge with only a slight hint of real regret. Ultear was devoted to Grimoire Heart and it's goal, utterly and completely. If she had to get close to someone then betray them, she would do it, but neither would she t search out such complications.

"Tell me again what we're doing?" Laxus muttered, turning away from the Councilwoman, hiding his eyes from the glare of the sun with one hand until his other hand could pull out a pair of sunglasses. He put them on quickly, then moved after the others, grumbling irritably.

As they walked, Carla suddenly stopped and shivered, going down to her knees and hugging herself as if a chill had gone through her, looking around wildly.

"What's wrong, Carla?" Wendy asked quickly, kneeling next to her friend.

The cat-girl shook her head, still shuddering and looking around wildly. "That was, what the heck was that! I just had a feeling of someone having walked over my grave!"

"Someone must be talking about you," Ranma said callously, "and said something you would find personally horrifying. Don't worry; I get those sometimes. It passes quickly."

Leaving Wendy to comfort Carla, Ranma turned back to Laxus and explained what was going on: that they were splitting up to follow up on two missions that Jellal had put in the books. Laxus listened without comment, then grunted. "You have a map of where that other mission is, the one that you're going on, Ranma?"

Ranma didn't have much of a map, but Ultear supplied one that showed the area where the 'human-shaped demon' was supposed to reside. Looking it over, Laxus grunted again. "I don't know much about that area, but I do know that Mermaid Heel is based out there."

"Mermaid Heel?" Ranma asked. "I never heard of that guild. It is a guild, right?

Laxus nodded. "Yeah, it's an all-girls guild, started about four years ago, I think. They're small time, but a guild that excludes men made some noise when it first opened."

"Why am I not surprised that you know about an all-girls guild?" Mirajane asked teasingly, thumping her fist on Laxus's shoulder.

Laxus shrugged, not replying as Ranma asked, "So, are they man haters, a girl's club writ large, or girls who have been abused by men before?" he asked, frowning as he said the last few words.

"More like all three at once from what I know," Laxus said with a shrug looking over at Ultear. "You know anything more about them?"

She shook her head. "No, I wasn't part of the Council at the time that guild's creation was approved. I do know for a fact they don't have any S-class mages in their guild and they're a very small one, around thirty something mages total. A few of them have shown up in modeling magazines, so I doubt that they are all man-haters or victims of abuse. Their guild master is.…" She frowned for a moment as she tried to remember. All Council members needed to know the names of every guild master. "Orca, I want to say. Sorry, but I can't put a picture up with the name."

"That's fine. They might know more about this demon shaped like a man that's supposed to be around there."

At that point they had reached the train station where they would part. Wendy, Carla, Ranma, and Mira would head out straight to the area where this demon was supposed to be. There was no train into that section of the country, and the only one closest would take them well out of their way. It was going to be a trek for Mirajane, and she said so now.

Ranma shrugged. "I can carry you easily enough," Ranma said with a shrug. "You can switch off with Wendy, and she can get some exercise."

Mirajane grinned, moving to hug his side for a moment, pressing her breasts very deliberately against his body. "That sounds like a lot of fun!"

"It's only fun for the first few miles," Wendy said authoritatively. "Then, if he keeps on running, it starts to get boring, and then actually starts to hurt a bit." She pouted, pushing at her brother's other side. "He's too solid to be fun to sit on for that long even in his girl form."

"I suppose that depends on your definition of fun," Mira said coquettishly, grinning up at Ranma, who blushed only slightly and winked at her.

Erza was gritting her teeth angrily at this, but not overmuch. After all, she had only known Ranma for a few days, and, while she would like to see where their seeming mutual attraction went, she had decided last night that getting so worked up about a boy after so short a time was beneath her.

Laxus merely grunted as he stared ahead of them at the train before reaching over to thump Ranma on the shoulder. "What's this I hear about you having some kind of tobacco that lets you handle transportation easier?"

"It's called Dragon Seed," Ranma said with a nod. "I found it down in Desierto. I always keep a bit with me." He glared at Laxus. "And I'm not sharing it! I've only got so much, and I already gave some to Natsu before he and the others left. Besides, didn't you say that you were okay with transportation? I believe you called me a freak a few times when I mentioned my own problems with it when we were younger."

Growling, Laxus shook his head. "Not anymore. I think it's somehow connected to our getting in touch with our Dragon side or something." He paused and, still scowling, said, "I'll pay you?"

"I don't know," Ranma said, smirking evilly. "You don't seem apologetic enough. Besides, is that any way to ask for a favor?"

Laxus grunted again, turning to glare at Ranma, who glared right back. "How about, 'Give me some of that Dragon's Seed before I smash your face in, please?'" he said angrily.

"Yah want it, come and take it, Sparky," Ranma replied, bringing up his clenched fists.

When Laxus lashed out, Ranma's forearm redirected the blow while his other returned a jab, which was, in turn, blocked. Ranma's and then Laxus's hands moved faster and faster, both of them starting to call upon their magic, the fight quickly becoming serious.

"Boys…" Erza said dangerously. "We're in public, and is this really that big enough a deal to come to blows about?" Her eyes flashed, indicating that it better not be, and both young men subsided, with Ranma smirking a little at his old friend.

"Fine," he said. "You don't have to pay me. But if we haven't arrived in Magnolia yet before you all are done with that mission, look around for an apartment for me and Wendy."

"Deal," Laxus said with a nod.

Ranma nodded back and held out a pouch he was suddenly carrying, having pulled it out of his Requip space so smoothly that only Erza had seen the flash of magic from his hand. He opened it up and let Laxus pull out some of the leaves within. Looking at Ranma quizzically, he asked, "Not that I'm complaining, but I thought you said you smoked it."

"I do, but I also crush it myself. I figured you could just chew the leaves since I don't know if you smoke."

"No, I don't. My vice is liquor, not smoking," Laxus said dryly, nodding his thanks.

Ranma replaced the pouch in his Requip space and then turned, looking out over the tracks and hopping across quickly out into the open area beyond. "Well, come on! The day's a'wasting." Wendy hopped over too, landing on his back as Carla did the same to her, once more in her Exceed body, and Ranma raced off without another word, carrying both of them off and away.

He was moving as fast as Jet within a few seconds, and Mirajane stared after him, shaking her head. "A part of me is irritated that he didn't ask me if I was ready to go, and another part of me is wondering if he really thinks he can keep that speed up. Jet can only keep it up for, what, thirty minutes? And his speed is based off magic, not endurance, which is just a byproduct of his actual magic."

Erza and Laxus both shook their heads. "At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he could keep that speed up all day," Erza said honestly.

Laxus snorted. "The bastard is an endurance monster," he supplied. "It was that way when we first met, and he wasn't even a teenager then. In fact, looking back on it, I bet I could put that first version of Ranma up against the present day Natsu in terms of endurance, and he'd still win. It's got nothing to do with his Dragon Slayer magic; it's all him." He smirked at Mira, jerking a thumb after his old friend. "Which means, you better hurry to catch up, or else they'll leave you behind."

Mirajane glared at him. "You're still an asshole sometimes, you know that, Laxus?" she said, the words harsh even if her tone was her normal every day one. "Takeover Soul: Satan!" With that her magic activated, and her body shifted into that of her Takeover form, with large black wings flaring out from her back. "I'll see you both in Magnolia! And Erza, try not to be too broken up when I take the lead!"

With that she pushed herself off into the air and winged after the quickly disappearing Ranma, pushing her speed as fast as she could go.

With another snort, Laxus shook his head. "The two sexiest S-class mages in all of Ishgar competing for one guy, I wonder what the tabloids would say about that?" No one, not even his old man, would have been able to say if he was jealous about that or not, since he honestly wasn't certain of that himself.

"Absolutely nothing, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders," Erza replied dangerously. While she still had some respect for her old teacher, there were just some things she wouldn't let go even from him. She then looked up as, in the distance, a train's whistle went off. "And here's our train."

The three of them got on quickly, with Ultear speaking quietly to the first conductor they met. This got them a private stall in one of the forward-most carriages, where Ultear left the two Fairy Tail mages, ostensibly to go and pay for their passage with the conductor. The two of them had no reason to be more suspicious of this than Erza already was of Ultear, and she was happy enough that the councilwoman was not going to be around for a few moments, that she was wasn't going to question it.

Instead of talking to one of the conductors, Ultear found an empty stall a few carriages down and pulled out her communication lacrima, with which she called the man who held her true allegiance rather than the Council, Master Hades of Grimoire Heart. She informed him what they were doing now, detailing the fight against Jellal and relaying what the others told her. This took her some time, but eventually she was finished, the sounds of the train's passage now loud in the background.

"A chance to watch Deliora in action is one that could be useful, but I am glad that you will not have to go out of your way to do so. And you have already created something we can use in the future," Hades mused.

"Master?"

"The Zalty persona that you created to interact with that Ice User. It's presence might come out, and we can use it to further interest this Ranger, Ranma, in a connection between Jellal and the demons, either Tartarus or the Oración Siete. I will send Meredy there immediately to aid in the deception. She will meet you when you arrive."

"You mean to try to aim Ranma in the direction of one of the other Balam Alliance members?" Ultear asked in some surprise.

"If possible, yes," Hades said with a nod. "While we might be allied with them, that doesn't mean I trust either of them. Further, simply making certain that he is not looking for us and turning the attention of other Rangers and, indeed, the governments of other countries away from us could be useful. Of course," Hades went on with a slight evil sound of enjoyment in his voice, "you will also be able to see if anything of your mother still exists within the Iced Shell."

"Nothing exists there!" Ultear barked back, her tone sharp and bitter. "And she stopped being my mother when she abandoned me."

"True, but it would be an interesting experiment nonetheless. Where did you say Ranma was going to be?"

Ultear supplied the area of Fiore where Ranma would soon be operating, and Hades nodded. "We don't have any agents in that area, or even proxies, which is probably a good thing."

"I would highly recommend that Azuma and Ranma never meet," she said grimly. "They would either get along far too well for the good of our guild or could possibly level a continent."

"I will take that under advisement. For now, keep doing what you are doing and contact me after the heat has died down. Nothing you learn on this mission or anything involved with Jellal is worth giving up your cover for, do I make myself clear? You must continue your work on the Council until you understand how those two magical devices are activated and how to stop them from doing so."

"Yes, Master," Ultear said and signed off without another word, stowing the lacrima within her own, albeit incredibly small, Requip space.

 **OOOOOOO**

Having left the resort early the previous day, Natsu, Lisanna, and Anna had reached the Guild within a few hours of leaving, such was the speed of Fiore's train system. Once there they had checked in with the master, and then Natsu had moved back into the main hall of the Guild, grabbing a drink from the bar and lighting it on fire before slurping it down. He looked over at Elfman and asked, "Where's Gray and Lucy?"

Elfman shrugged in ignorance. "I don't know. I just got back about fifteen minutes ago. Where are my sisters?" he asked in return.

Natsu couldn't quite keep a blush from his face as that question brought back to his mind what had occurred between the Strauss twins and him last night. With his body still dealing with element poisoning, he hadn't been able to move much. Indeed, even now while he could move easily, Natsu could tell his magical powers were at an incredibly low ebb as his internal fire (as he thought of it) attempted to deal with the numerous different types of magic the lacrima he'd consumed had absorbed.

But the two twins hadn't cared. In fact, they had had taken the opportunity to literally attack him, taking turns kissing him senseless. While one was kissing him, the other talked about the three of them: what Lisanna and Anna wanted, how they felt about him, and so on.

He didn't know what he honestly thought about it all other than that kissing was a lot of fun, but Natsu instinctively knew that mentioning that kind of thing in front of their brother would probably not be a good idea without them around. "The two of them are in the back, getting ready," Natsu replied, gesturing towards the bar and the kitchen beyond. "As for Mira, she stayed on for a few more days, I think. Wanted to catch up with one of her friends, erm, Jenny, I think her name was? And…I think she just liked being around Ranma," he said, slowing down before brightening up visibly. "Not that I blame her for that; the guy's so **strong**! I can't wait until he gets here so I can challenge him."

"You do remember how easily he beat you down, right? I mean, it wasn't like Gildarts, one hit and you're out, but he was still a true man nonetheless!" Elfman said with a laugh.

"I'm different than I was then!" Natsu retorted, though it was less forceful than he normally would have said it.

Elfman shrugged his shoulders and looked up as his sisters entered the main hall. They seemed to almost be glowing, and he frowned, looking at their necks, which were visible in the outfits they wore as waitresses here at the Guild. Moving closer, he asked, "What are those marks on your necks, Lisanna-chan, Anna-chan?"

Natsu coughed uncomfortably and quickly pushed himself off and away from the bar, heading towards a table underneath the staircase. Unfortunately for Natsu, while Elfman didn't recognize those marks, there were a lot of men in the Guild who did, and a wail soon went up as they noticed it. "No! Our precious flowers have been defiled!"

"That can't be! Why!"

"Lisanna-chan, say it isn't so!"

"Anna, why have you forsaken me!?"

"What?" Elfman barked, now closer and able to see that the marks were tiny bruises. "What are you all talking about! It's not very manly to say stuff like that about one's sisters, you know!"

"Those marks on their throats, those are hickies my large friend," Loki said, patting Elfman commiseratingly on the shoulder. Now that Lucy was nowhere in sight, the resident playboy of Fairy Tail had once more crawled out from wherever he had hidden himself whenever the Celestial Key mage was around. "Trust me, I've left more than a few in my time." His eyes glanced over to where Natsu was sitting down against the far wall, and as the flirt of Fairy Tail—he was not only better at it then Laxus, but he also had more than one girlfriend at a time, so he earned that nickname—smirked. "Something you want to tell us, Natsu?" he shouted over the hubbub around the Strauss twins.

Elfman turned with a roar. "Natsu! How dare you defile my sisters!"

Natsu actually yelped, dodging the blow. "Hey! They came on to me! I didn't even know about all that boy girl stuff until they explained it to me." A flaming fist caught Elfman in the chest, hurling him away. "But if it's a fight you want, that's fine by me!"

The brawl that they engaged in then had a bit more of an edge to it than normal, thanks to Elfman, but swiftly ended when the master came out of his office and stomped on them with his Titan-sized feet for a bit.

After recovering from that with a fraction of his usual durability, Natsu sat at the table he had been originally heading towards when Loki had sold him out, sitting and watching as Lisanna and Anna moved through the Guild. There was still a lot of crying and whining from the boys and older men now. The girls—or the remaining girls, rather, since three of them were missing currently—were all giggling, taking every opportunity to ask them questions as they passed. Even Evergreen was smiling and happy for the twins as she asked them questions, which, coming from the normally haughty young woman, was a bit disturbing to Natsu.

"Why does that send a shiver up my spine every time it happens, Happy?" he asked his companion as Evergreen broke out into giggles, her eyes shifting towards him.

"I don't know. All you big people are a little bit bizarre to me anyway. Why were the two Strauss's trying to suck your face yesterday?" Happy asked around a mouthful of fish.

That brought the memory back to Natsu once more and he allowed a goofy grin to grow on his face as he remembered how good that felt, how soft their skin had been, their scent in his nostrils. However, his mind balked when he tried to think of a way to explain it to his adopted son. "I don't know. Just put it down as a human mating thing, I think. That'd probably be best all-around."

Happy nodded slowly, staring first at Natsu and then to the girls. "So sucking face is a mating thing? Does that mean I should do it with Carla?"

"Probably," Natsu said, shrugging his shoulders. "They did it to me when I was just lying there, so, yeah, that makes sense."

As Happy nodded, Natsu's thoughts returned to the two girls and this whole girlfriend thing. Yesterday had been, first, weird, feeling things he hadn't often felt before and certainly never for long enough to really think about them before. But seeing the two girls in their swimsuits and having no ability to fight, to concentrate on anything else, had forced him to do so. Then it had become really, really nice. That was all Natsu could think about their kisses. He didn't even understand the hints he'd gotten that other things might be in the offing later.

But he still didn't know what to do or how to treat them now. He'd seen couples—Loki with his 'flavor of the day' (a phrase that Natsu was only beginning to understand); Laxus occasionally brought one of his girlfriends around—but Natsu hadn't really watched them, so didn't know what to do. _I've even seen Gildarts with a woman but I can't remember what he said about them at all! Am I supposed to act like they did? All touchy-feely, with them and with other girls too?_

Gildarts would probably have been his role model in this as he was in fighting if Natsu had bothered to listen to anything the man said that didn't relate immediately to combat. Luckily for Lisanna and Anna, however, he hadn't. This meant he would be slapped far fewer times than Gildarts would have been in a similar situation.

He looked up from his introspective thoughts as the voice of one of his guildmates caught his attention. He watched as the man stood up, waving one arm and continuing something that he had been saying before. "…But if you ever decide you want to try a man rather than a Dragon, you know where to come." With that he reached out and captured Lisanna's hand, bringing it up to his lips.

At that act heat flared up with from within Natsu, and he growled angrily, pushing himself to his feet and charging forward before he was even thinking. He'd felt something like this before when people got too touchy-feely with one of the twins, but that had been nothing to the feeling he had now. "Stop flirting with my girlfriends, you bastards!"

"Shut up!" shouted more than one mage as they too came to their feet. "It's bad enough you've stolen our angels, but you can't steal our fun too!"

"That's right! Share the wealth!"

"As if a bore like you would know what to do with them anyway!"

"Do with them!?" Elfman roared, turning to that speaker and smashing him so hard the man flew through the air to smash headfirst into a nearby wall. "It's not manly to talk about ladies that way!"

Instead of trying to stop the fight, Anna and Lisanna simply laughed and got out of the way. Anna quickly used one of her magic staffs to teleport a short distance, as Lisanna used her Harpy Takeover form to take to the air, flying over the fight to land next to her twin. "That staff is easily the most useful I've ever commissioned."

"I know, right?" Lisanna said, leaning happily against her sibling's neck and shoulder. The two of them had been practically inseparable since Anna had appeared on Earthland, and, now that they had their man, it was even better. "I'm so glad that Erza and the master figured out you could use them, though how you can stand those modeling jobs, I don't understand."

"Mm, they're not so bad," Anna said with a giggle of her own, leaning. "Besides, it was those jobs that go me the swimsuits that finally pushed Natsu over the edge. And I've got a lot of other outfits I bet he'll like just as much."

Lisanna laughed wickedly, and the two of them linked arms and sat down on the bar before turning their attention back to the fight, shouting encouragement to their man and their brother.

However, the fight didn't go on for very long before the master once more appeared from his office. He leaped out of it, landing in the center of the guild before turning into his Titan shape, shouting and smashing at the pile of combatants before grabbing up Natsu and hurling him to the side to stand over him angrily. **"You! I know it was you, Natsu! Where is the S-class mission for Galuna Island!"** the titan roared.

Natsu rubbed his head from the impact to the wall but glared back up at the master. "What are you talking about!"

Shifting back to his normal form, Makarov stood on Natsu's chest and glared down at him, his weight somewhere between his Titan body and his normal one. "Don't give me that line. You're the only one idiotic enough to take an S-class mission without authorization after the time I punished Laxus for doing it!"

"Gramps, I haven't even been here for more than half a day! And I surely haven't been up on the second floor!" Natsu protested, angry that he was being blamed for something that he, for once, hadn't done. _Not that it wouldn't have been a cool idea._

"That's true," the master said, calming down a little. "Dammit, who could have taken it, then? Laxus hasn't been back; Mirajane and Erza are still out with Ranma on that Rangers' mission," he muttered under his breath as he hopped off Natsu. "Where could it have gone? And why that one, one of the most suspicious missions that I've ever seen come across my desk!"

"Well, I've got a question for you, old man," Natsu grumbled as he pushed to his feet. "Where's the Ice Prick?" Natsu wanted to rub into the Popsicle's face that he'd gotten a girlfriend, while Gray hadn't, seeing it as just another way to prove he was his rival's better.

"Aye sir! I don't see fatty Lucy anywhere either." Happy said from nearby, where he had begun to gnaw on a fish.

The two of them stared at one another for a moment as a grin suddenly blossomed on Natsu's face, and a look of horror dawned on Makarov's. In an instant they both shouted as one, "He's taken it!"

"Oh man, that's so nice!" Natsu went on excitedly. "If he gets to go on one, I just gotta go and grab my own," he said, turning quickly and heading up the stairs before the master's elongated hand grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Not a chance!" he roared into the Dragon Slayer's ear before calming down once more, a crafty look crossing his features as he pointed at Natsu and Happy in turn with his free hand. "Instead, you go after him! You and Happy can catch up to them easily, and your nose will allow you to trail him wherever he's gone. I don't care how you do it, but drag his carcass back here!" He released Natsu, smacking his hands together and grinning villainously. "While you do, I'll prepare The Punishment™."

Natsu grinned, his hands lighting up with his fire magic. "You sure about that, Gramps? I mean, Gray might not come quietly, you know."

Makarov nodded, understanding full well what kind of chaos this was going to cause. "As long as you bring him back, I don't care how you do it. That means you can go crazy when you fight him, Natsu."

"I'm getting all fired up now!" Natsu said with a grin, slamming his hands together, the fires around them igniting further. But then he paused, looking over at Anna and Lisanna, the fires around his hands going out. "I, um.…"

They both laughed, and Lisanna moved through the Guild and kissed him on the cheek before stepping back and letting Anna do the same. "Don't worry. You can leave us behind for this; we'll still be here when you get back. Neither of us are into combat as much as you are, anyway, so we don't have to go on missions together or anything like that if we don't want to. It's just, when we're all here, we'll spend time together, and we'll show you what dates and…other things are like."

Natsu grinned, then, surprisingly, daringly grabbed Lisanna in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground and kissing her hard on the lips. As Elfman roared in the background and Anna quickly used another one of her magic staffs to a immobilize the man, Natsu released Lisanna. She wobbled backwards and Natsu did the same with Anna before grabbing up Happy. "We'll be back before you know it! Come on, Happy, let's go prove that fire beats ice once and for all!"

"Aye, sir," Happy shouted, though inwardly he was looking at what had just occurred and wondering, _Is that really what I should try with Carla? I wonder if she'd taste like fish._

 **OOOOOOO**

It took Natsu only a few minutes to find Gray's scent, and he raced through the air with Happy's help towards the nearby port. There he found Gray and Lucy about to step onto a small boat. Landing, he grinned evilly at Gray, punching him from behind. "Hey, Gray. What's up, Ice Pop?"

The punch to the side of his head sent Gray spinning away, and Lucy screamed before recognizing who was doing the attacking and rolling her eyes. Gray stumbled, then turned and growled angrily, slamming his hands together as Ice magic began to form around them. "What the hell, lizard breath! You can't just slug someone out from the blue like that, but if it's a fight you want!…"

"Aye, sir!" Happy said hopping, off of Natsu to land next to Lucy. "That phrase is probably the most overused phrase by any Fairy Tail mage of all time."

"Wouldn't doubt it at all, little blue," Lucy said with a sigh, shaking her head as she stared at the fight about to occur.

"What the hell are you even doing here anyway?" Gray barked, glaring angrily at Natsu.

"The master sent me to get you! You took an S-class mission, and you're not an S-class mage yet, duh. Now, I'd be down with that, but he said I can bring you back however I want, so prepare for a beat down!" Natsu said with a wide grin.

"Ex, excuse me," said the fisherman whose ship they had been going to take to the island in question. He had introduced himself as Bobo to Lucy and Gray. "Um, but if he beats up your friend drags you back, how long do you think it would take for other Fairy Tail mages to come and take the job?"

Lucy sighed and shook her head. "For a S-class quest that's labeled a twenty-year quest? I've no idea, sorry. Since none of our S-class mages are around at the moment, it could be as short as a week or as long as a few months." _The only reason I was interested in taking the missing after I found out the level was because of the golden key. But I can't say I am unhappy to be talked out of it,_ she thought. _What we've heard since arriving here makes this mission sound way too scary!_

"Wait!" Bobo shouted, looking appalled at that. He stepped up out of his small boat, moving between the two fighters before they could really come to blows. "Wait! I understand that you're angry that your friend broke the rules…"

"Hell, no!" Natsu said with a laugh. "Like I said, I'm not angry at that. I'm not even angry that he beat me to it. I just like the idea of fighting him with the master's approval for once."

"You know what, that does sound like fun!" Gray barked back.

"Then," Bobo said wildly, still standing between them. "Can't you fight him after the mission is completed? Please. I, I'm from that island, and I can tell you it needs help."

Natsu stared at the man and then shrugged, the fire magic disappearing from his hands. "Why don't you tell us about it?" he ordered, then looked up at Gray. "If they need help, I'll go with you. Surely between the two of us we're worth an S-class mage, right?"

Gray grinned and nodded. "Right."

Initially he had wanted to go on this mission to prove that it could be done, that, despite Natsu's work with Ranma, Gray hadn't been left behind by his rival. He had brought Lucy along as insurance. Lucy might not seem like much, but when she used her Celestial Spirits and fought alongside them she was actually quite strong. It'd been relatively easy to get her to her agree, too, once she saw the reward. But after hearing the story about Galuna Island from the fisherman, he knew that there were some things more important than his rivalry with Natsu.

That story was as bizarre as it was horrible. There was only a single small, simple village of fishermen and hunters on Galuna Island, which had its own separate society, relying on simplicity and being close to nature. But recently the sky over the island had turned a deep purple color at night. At the same time, all external contact, which had never been all that much to begin with, had ended abruptly. Weeks later, a strange disease had taken hold of the villagers, slowly transforming them into demons.

After listening to Bobo now, Natsu nodded seriously, though his serious nature didn't last long as the man revealed his arm as an example of the curse afflicting his village. "That is so cool! I want an arm like that!" As the others, even Happy, stared at him, he coughed and went on more seriously. "Ahem. Well, yeah, obviously they need some help against this curse thingy too. Maybe we can find whoever's doing it to them and punch them in the face until they stop."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Well, it looks as if we'll be going on this mission after all."

 **OOOOOOO**

In Magnolia, several hours had gone byafter Natsu had left before the doors opened, and Laxus and Erza entered with Ultear following. "Yo, old man, we're back. And we need to talk to you for a minute," Laxus said.

Makarov nodded, looking up from where he had been drinking only to nearly spit out his beer as he saw Councilwoman Ultear there. "Laxus!" he roared. "Don't tell me you got in trouble with the Council again?!"

Erza shook her head, moving past them. "It is nothing like that, Master. She is simply here to help us on a mission that connects to the…previous issue which I was called in for. How much did Natsu tell you about what we ran into?"

"Everything about the mission the Ranger dragged you and the others along on," Makarov growled. "I'm not happy about that! You should never have been involved with a fight that dangerous. That's what the Rune Knights are supposed to be for."

Erza simply nodded, not saying anything. She knew that the master always had problems with missions that resulted in people dying and actually approved of that attitude, considering that it could always be the Fairy Tail mage that did rather than their opponents. Here, however, she didn't agree with the idea that they shouldn't have been involved, so said nothing rather than agree as she would normally have.

Instead Ultear spoke up. "Jellal posted a few missions on his own cognizance, one of which is a mission that Scarlet mentioned seeing on your message board, the mission to Galuna island? I'm here to record anything unusual so they know more about what Jellal's long-term plans might've been as well as any further underworld contacts he might have."

Laxus nodded. "According to Erza and the others, he was involved with at least three Dark Guilds, including one from the Balam Alliance. So it stands to reason he might be involved with one of the other Alliance members. Ranma and Mira are checking out one mission, and, since that island is actually pretty near the nearest port to Magnolia, we volunteered to check this one out."

"That and I'd bet you'd just love to run into some kind of demon or other, right?" Makarov asked dryly.

Laxus shrugged, though it fooled no one. "If it happens, I'm cool with that."

"Well then, Councilwoman," Makarov said, turning to her with a smile. "I'm glad you're here to help." Then he suddenly disappeared from where he had been standing, reappearing behind her and reaching up to fondle her rear. " **So** happy! If they had to send anyone along on this kind of mission, at least they sent the prettiest one by far!"

Ultear glared and turned, her face flushing, but the master had already hopped away, cackling and she regained her equilibrium with difficulty before a small smirk worked its way onto her face. "Hmmf, you really are as perverted as they say, aren't you Makarov-kun? This kind of action is exactly why you're looked at as being as bad as your mages."

"Oh please, my dear. At least no one's ever complained about me destroying things." Makarov waved her argument off.

"Ah, but I have to wonder what your guild's healer would say about it?" Ultear went on, tapping her chin with one finger as she smiled mockingly at Makarov.

Makarov shuddered while Erza actually nodded in approval at that. "N, none of that! Ahem, anyway what mission were you interested in again?"

"The mission to Galuna Island," Ultear replied calmly, though she had also turned so her rear was protected by the front of the bar.

Groaning, the master put his head in his hands. "Of course, it has to be that mission!"

"What's wrong? And why don't I see Natsu, Happy, Gray, or Lucy anywhere?" Erza asked, looking around for them.

The master winced, and Laxus suddenly grinned. "He didn't!"

"Natsu didn't," the master said, looking up before sighing and taking a quick quaff of his remaining drink. "Gray did before Natsu and the twins got back. I sent Natsu after Gray with Happy, but they haven't returned yet."

"Which probably means Gray was able to convince Natsu to come along with them," Laxus said with another laugh. "That little brat's always been looking to jump to S-class before he's ready. Which means he's going to be punished too, right, Gramps?"

 _Then again, in terms of magical reserves he might be ready now, given how much power he took from the lacrima of that freaking tower. We'll have to see about that after he fully recovers._

"Most definitely. I'll have to prepare two more potions. All of them will be given… **that** , as punishment," Makarov said grimly.

Erza, on the other hand did not take this nearly as well. "I can't believe them! Gray's always been more respectful of the rules than Natsu."

"Except the laws of common decency," Ultear interrupted with a small smirk on her black-painted lips. "He is the one who's always looking to strip off, correct?"

"Yep," Cana and Laxus said as one, one amused, the other simply resigned.

Then Cana laughed, winking at Levy, who was sitting next to her and shaking her head at Lucy being convinced to go with the regular pair of troublemakers. "I've seen Gray's junk more often than any boyfriend I've ever had. What about you, Levy-chan?"

"Do not ask me that, Cana!" Levy shouted with a blush on her face, while nearby Jet and Droy vowed to kill Gray as soon as they could.

Erza ignored them, continuing to talk as if they hadn't said anything. "And he actually stole an S-class quest? And Natsu, ignoring his orders to bring Gray back like that? Rule breakers! I'm going to give them both a stern talking to."

"Meh, I think **that** is more than enough punishment, whatever you want to do with them," Laxus said with a shrug, causing Ultear to look between him and his grandfather, intrigue clear in her expression. "Come on; let's go."

"Why are you so interested in this mission?" Master Makarov asked, looking at his grandson quizzically. While he knew that Laxus cared deeply for the Guild and its members, he never went out of his way to show it like this. "You do know it's more likely to be a false alarm or a small time Dark Guild rather than anything substantial."

Laxus allowed a wide, toothy smile to appear on his face. "Other people have instincts for food, how to spot a sale, how to find something, or how to read other people. Ranma, Ranma spots trouble. He finds it and then goes out of his way to do something about it. If he thought this mission was of interest, there is no doubt that we will run into some trouble out there."

Internally, Erza was rather worried. She had lost numerous sets of her armor in the fight against Jellal, and it would be quite some time until they could be replaced, or repaired, as was the case with her Heavens Wheel armor. _Still, like Laxus says, Ranma's nose for trouble seems worthy of respect._ "Are you going to teleport there?" she asked, looking at Laxus.

"I can't teleport that far while carrying a passenger," Laxus said, poking a finger towards Ultear, who scowled and made to bite it, causing him to smirk at her. "We'll take the train."

"In that case I'll meet you by the train station," Erza said. "I need to head back to my room and grab some more armor sets. I keep most of them on me, admittedly, but with so many of my normal sets battered and broken, the few prototypes I haven't added yet to my Requip space might come in handy."

When they arrived at the port town and began to see about acquiring a ship out to the island, they ran into the same issue that Lucy and Gray had run into initially: no one was willing to take them. Even Ultear was unable to convince any of them to take her out on Council authority. The fishermen and various sailors were just too scared.

"Fine me, take my ship for a few weeks, revoke my fishing license, that's fine!" said one of them, shuddering and twisted away from them all. "But you'll not find me going anywhere near that cursed island!"

"Well, this is a problem," Laxus grumbled, staring out over the ocean. "There's no way I could flash-teleport even myself that distance, not and arrive with any energy, anyway. What about you, Erza?"

She frowned thoughtfully. "I could probably fly there, but carrying passengers would be difficult for me. None of my armors are designed for that kind of thing, and unless I use one of the new prototypes, I won't have any offensive capabilities as I'm flying either."

"I don't suppose either of you know anything about handling ships, then?" Ultear asked. "We could just commandeer a ship and leave the crew here, after all."

The two Fairy mages shook their heads, and Ultear growled. "All right, then I'll have to call it in and get one of the Rune Knights' ships down here. That'll take at least a full day, though!"

The three of them stood there thinking about what might be happening on that island, with Erza hopeful that, at the very least, Gray and Natsu would be strong enough to handle whatever it was together. _I want them alive to be punished, after all._

Laxus was simply irritated, angry that he might miss out on a fight that Ranma had shown interest in. He had no doubt that the two irritating as hell mages would be all right.

For her part, Ultear hid her feelings well, since, while watching Deliora and the other demon sealed with him in action would be useful information, her own personal desire to smack the arrogant Ice Make user who was looking to release them from her mother's Iced Shell upside the head was something that need not even be mentioned.

Just then there was the boom of a cannon in the distance, and a large ship, a galleon several times larger than most of the ships in port, came into the cove. Its cannons were booming in a full broadside to either side of the vessel, and its sails were painted with the skull and crossbones.

The three of them looked at one another, then sighed, and Laxus turned away. "I'm going to go for a drink and see if I can rustle up more of that Dragon Seed. This is a port, right? They should have it somewhere."

Ultear nodded. "I'll call into the Council about this mission as well as what Ranma is up to. Unless, of course, you need my help to subdue them, Scarlett?"

Erza rolled her eyes at that but did not rise to the other woman's taunt beyond that. "No, I should be more than enough for this." With that, she calmly walked away down the wharf along the half circle of the docks towards the ship.

Ultear smiled, turned, and moved away, leaping up onto the nearest rooftop and moving away from the docks before sitting on the edge of a roof in full view of several dozen people below. Once she sat down, she once more used a communication lacrima to call the Council, who, rather ominously, said that they would pass everything she told them on to the King. That was a sign that the king was still taking an interest in this whole fiasco with Jellal and that the Council was still under a lot of scrutiny. That wasn't good, but nothing that Ultear could do anything about here. _I will just have to trust Master Hades and the background he created for me._

Once that long conversation was finished, Ultear made her way back to the docks to find the pirate vessel anchored out in the bay, its guns silent, as Laxus talked to a few local police authorities. He nodded in her direction, and the two of them boarded the vessel to find the entire crew there, kowtowing towards Erza in neat, orderly rows between the masts as she stood by the tiller, a whip in one hand, the captain of the ship on his knees right in front of her.

"I take it they've agreed to take us?" Ultear asked lightly as she hopped aboard.

Erza nodded. "They were unable to put up any reasonable defense against my argument," she said with a chuckle.

Laxus took one look at the kneeling pirates and then at Erza with her whip and shuddered before resolutely turning his back and moving towards the back of the ship. _I didn't drink nearly enough to want to get involved with that._ Instead he sat down, staring out over the port, trying to ignore Erza's bellows as she got the crew up and moving, and pulling out another Dragon Seed leaf chewing on it thoughtfully. _Interesting effect these have; very interesting, indeed. But not as interesting as what we might find out there._

 **OOOOOOO**

Within four hours Mirajane had decided that yes, Laxus had been correct about Ranma's endurance. Fortunately for her, this just meant that she could take him up on his offer to carry her. She was now clinging to his back like a limpet, her legs wrapped around his waist from behind and her arms around his shoulders and down to his chest. Perhaps because of this and the fact that each step they took her breasts rubbed against his back, that she had a lot of thoughts about where else that endurance could be used going through her head. _Hehehe! Oh, yesss…_

Nearby, Wendy and Carla flew just over their heads, working in tandem so that both of them took some of the exertions off the other. As far as Mirajane could tell, Wendy was keeping them aloft at times by pushing down on the ground, as if she was taking miles long hops with her magic powers, while Carla would glide for a bit then flap rapidly afterwards to regain some height while Wendy helped to do the same. Carla was once more in her normal cat form rather than her cat girl form: she had to stay in her Exceed form for long distance travel like this in order to conserve her magic.

Mirajane and Ranma had been talking since she'd climbed onto his back about other demons he'd seen, what they would next have to expect, and what differences there were, possibly, between a human-sized demon and a large, totem-type demon like Lullaby or the Beast, whose size fell somewhere in between, and whose origin was unknown beyond the cave paintings Laxus had destroyed. They felt that this demon would probably be something like the Beast if shorter, but possibly smarter and thus more dangerous. This, of course, made Mirajane want to kick the crap out of it even more, remembering how that mission had gone into the toilet and how it had nearly cost her both her brother's mind and her sister's life.

Yet, oddly enough, Mirajane got the impression that Ranma was not telling her everything he could about human-sized demons. There was just something off about how he was speaking about the possibility and the fact that he'd never said where he had run into one or even if he ever had. It was strange, but wasn't something she was going to question him about.

Looking up, she saw Wendy came down again to take one of her huge hops. The little girl was giggling aloud and laughing as she shouted out her magic spell, Carla having canceled her wings to let them drop faster. Despite that sight bringing a smile to her face, Mirajane had another topic she wanted to talk about. "So, I understand the story about how you met Wendy, and why you decided to take her on, but what exactly is traveling with her like? Especially when she was younger. I can't imagine that would have been very easy. Surely you should've thought of settling down somewhere at some point."

Ranma waved a hand from side to side. "It was tough, but it was mostly tough because of her age, not because of the traveling. Traveling is something I'm very damn good at, and, with all the accoutrements we were able to pick up in Seven right after meeting one another, I was pretty much able to make traveling easy and fun enough for Wendy too. But taking care of Wendy, the kid, that was something else entirely. That was a lot of work there." He shook his head with a laugh. "It wasn't something I'd wanted, and I was young myself when we met, too. But, generally speaking, I think I did a decent job."

Frowning, Mirajane asked, "Are you saying you wouldn't want kids? Even when Wendy is older and grown?"

Ranma shook his head. "No, parenting Wendy was enough for me. I can see me being a teacher, a big brother again, but a father, a real, primary care provider? No. Worse, I know traveling is hard on kids. I said it was tough on Wendy too, but she is a Dragon Slayer, a lot tougher for her age than you would think."

That caused Mirajane's frown turn into a scowl, and she leaned back, pushing away from Ranma so that her breasts were no longer pressing into his back and wishing that she could see more of his face from this angle. "So you don't see yourself settling down at all?"

"Settling down.… That's a loaded phrase," Ranma said. "Can I see myself with a girlfriend? Sure, I'd love a girlfriend. But settling down in one place? My job normally takes me all around, for one thing," he went on with a chuckle, glancing down to where his Ranger brooch sat on his chest. "On top of that, I've got quite a lot of wanderlust, y'know? What's over that next hill, what does that island look like? That kind of thing.

He sighed, smiling almost whimsically. "Hopefully, by the time that Wendy is eighteen or seventeen we'll have seen all of Ishgar, or as much as we can, and learned as much as I can. After that, maybe at that point Wendy will be willing to go her own way, and I'll be able to head into the interior of the continent or even visit the other 2 continents, heh, though probably not Alcatraz. I've been wanting to do that ever since Gildarts told me what about what I might run into there."

"You're a madman, both for thinking that Wendy will ever want to leave you and for wanting to go into the interior," Mirajane said, shaking her head, leaning back down, and speaking directly into Ranma's ear, enjoying the sight of Ranma's ears slowly turning red. "That little girl loves you, and I don't think that she's ever going to want space like that. Although I do wonder if how she loves you might shift~~," she teased, keeping her own real thoughts and feelings hidden as she teased Ranma on that topic for a time.

Inside, Mira was **not** happy with Ranma's answers to her questions. If there was one thing that Mirajane was very certain about, it was that she would want kids, and, frankly, despite being a little younger than Ranma—about a year or so, she estimated—she was ready to settle down now, or would be soon. Maybe not marry, but certainly have a relationship that could move in that direction. She also didn't really like traveling all that much, although she was willing to hold off on making a judgment on that until after she saw the tent and other accoutrements that Ranma seemed so proud of.

A few minutes later Ranma paused as he saw something through the trees. He slowed down a little, waiting until Wendy came down from one of her giant hops again, and raised his hands to one side. To Mirajane's surprise, instead of coming down the ground, Wendy came down on that arm, grabbing it and flipping herself around it for a moment before skidding to a stop next to Ranma, giggling happily. "That's always fun, Ranma-Nii," she said with a giggle.

Ranma grinned back at her but kept his arm out like that as Carla landed on it neatly, standing there as if she was a lady just standing on a balcony, even wiping her dress down. She had let Wendy loose a second ago before the girl had grabbed at Ranma's arm, not at all wanting to be part of that whirly-gig for a moment. Before Ranma could speak, she pointed in the same direction where he had seen something earlier. "There's a stream of some kind, I think, over there, or a river. I am not too clear on the difference between a river and a stream."

"Size," Ranma said with a shrug. "Is it large enough and going in the proper direction for us to make use of?"

"I believe so, though of course you're far more of an expert on that kind of thing than I am," Carla said haughtily, and Ranma nodded, flipping her lightly off his arm with a shake and setting Mirajane down on her own feet. _Not that it wasn't fun, feeling her against my back like that, but all good things must come to an end. Besides, those questions she was asking earlier made me a little uncomfortable._ "Let's go in that direction, then."

Mira took a moment to readjust her dress and skirt, thankful that she was wearing one of her more outgoing, outdoorsy sort of dresses, but her short skirt had still ridden up pretty badly. She looked up, noticed that Ranma had spotted that, and smirked before pushing her skirt back down. She then followed the others through the woods until they came to the river. It wasn't very broad, but it was deep looking, and it flowed out of sight around the trees in the proper direction that they had been traveling.

"Good," Ranma said, looking around and spotting a downed tree nearby. "We can use this. Mira, help me with this. I want all the limbs off of it, the bark off, and the sides smoothed down."

Mira frowned but nodded, pulling off the limbs easily and then changing into her Takeover form to use her Devil Spark on very low power to pare them down further so that the side of the log was smooth. As she did that, Ranma carefully smashed a few sections of the trunk and then began to cut into it with his hands, glowing with some kind of magical energy. His hand was moving so quickly that Mira could barely follow it. Within minutes Ranma had hollowed out enough space in the trunk for a few people to sit down comfortably, and then he went to work on the front and back of the trunk, creating the bow and then the stern of the log canoe, while Wendy joined Mira to work on the sides.

Within ten minutes they had what looked like a very makeshift but solid canoe. Ranma then pushed it into the water, wading out into it, which triggered his change. "If you are going to do that," Mira said clinically, "you should have changed into a shirt that doesn't cling so much."

Ranma looked down at herself, then shrugged her shoulders and pushed the canoe back into the bank once she was certain that it would float. "It's not like I have many shirts that wouldn't, and you're the only other person around here to look, so I'm good," she said with a smile, before using one hand to pull out her shirt to make it even tighter over her chest, making the shapes of her nipples appear in the shirt. "Look all you want."

Mira flushed a little and looked away quickly. The fact that Ranma's female form still looked vaguely like Erza was more than a little bothersome, despite the time she'd, admittedly drunkenly, experimented with Jenny. However, she got into the boat just as the other two did, sitting at the far forward position while Wendy sat at the back, with Carla between them. It made sense to sit that way so that if they ran into any monsters, Mira could take care of them. Wendy could've done the same, of course, but not as quickly or as easily as Mira.

"Everybody aboard?" Ranma asked with a grin, positioning herself in the water so that now she was half in and half out of it, her magic power glowing around her legs, visible through the water. "Everybody holding on?"

"Ready!" Wendy said, thrusting a tiny fist up into the air. Mira did the same, looking quizzically over her shoulder at Ranma who grinned back and then pushed through the water like a rocket, thrusting the boat forward.

Wendy flung her hands into the air and whooped, while Mira did the same with a grin. Carla, however, shook her head disgruntledly, once more in human form as she tied down her long blonde hair. "This is so undignified."

"It's faster and less difficult for you, too," Ranma said over the roar of their passage. "I don't see where you're complaining."

Carla huffed and hunkered down, doing what that she could to stay out of most of the water spray. Even in her human form, the Exceed did not like getting wet.

This part of the trip went on for the rest of the day until the sun started to go down and the river course changed away from the direction they wanted to go. Both siblings seemed to have a lot of fun with it, while Carla seems to simply endure it. Mira thought it was fun, but she spent most of her time simply watching the two siblings tease and joke with one another, with Wendy mockingly saying that Ranma needed to get a new hairstyle occasionally, reaching out to play with her red hair, sticking it out this way and that.

 _Ranma might say he doesn't want kids, but that doesn't mean he's not good with them._ _There could be something there even if he says he doesn't want to settle down. But he also says he just wants to have fun, which is_ _ **so**_ _not for me. If I wanted that I'd jump on someone like, well, like Laxus, maybe. A male gigolo of some kind, anyway. At least that way I'd know the physical side of things would be fun. Still, there is a lot to be said for Ranma despite that attitude, and who's to say the right woman can't change his personality a bit?_ she thought to herself with this smug little smile as she hopped to the side of the embankment, swiftly changing into her Takeover form and pulling the log boat up behind her with ease. "Are we going to use this again?" she asked.

Ranma looked over at the blonde cat-girl. "Carla?"

Carla huffed but nodded and, still in her human form, activated her wings, flying into the air and away to follow the river for a bit.

"She'll tell us if it comes back this way. If it doesn't, then there's no point. Wendy, let's get camp set up, okay?" Ranma said, turning back to the others.

Wendy nodded and, without another word, rushed off into the woods. Mira looked at her quizzically, and Ranma shrugged. "She'll be back with stones and with branches and dry leaves for the fire, along with any mushrooms or other vegetables she spots. If you could clear away the grass and moss for a fire, that'll be great. I'll set up the tent."

"I'm looking forward to seeing the interior of this tent of yours," Mira said with a chuckle. "Wendy seems to think it's pretty awesome."

"We like it," Ranma said simply, pulling out the tent and its accompanying parts, then moving around and setting it up quickly while Mirajane cleared an area for a fire pit, then thoughtfully dragged the boat over for something to sit on.

As she was doing that, Wendy soon returned and began to create a fire pit, lining it with stones as Ranma finished the tent. "I didn't find any veggies, Nii-san, but lots of branches, and I saw a few wild boars."

"Excellent. I'll head out and see if one of them is stupid enough to not run away," Ranma said with a grin.

"Come on," Wendy said, taking Mira's hand as Ranma moved towards the forest himself. "Let me show you the inside of the tent."

Mirajane entered not even having to stoop much to get inside, and whistled as she looked around the interior. The interior of the tent was large and came with a soft floor to go along with it, centered around the heating and cooling paired lacrima. Several large bean bags were situated around the lacrima, with a few large sleeping bags beyond them. To one side of this was a tiny cleared area, where a few cooking utensils had been put. There were several lights illuminating the interior, including one that looked like a ladybug, while others looked like birds. The tent's side had been colored here and there to look like different landscapes, and the ceiling was marked by thousands of tiny dots, which glimmered like tiny stars.

It definitely wasn't as high-class as Mirajane would've preferred. Further, the idea of sleeping bags was one she had never really gotten into. But, despite that, it looked very homey and nicely lived in.

Once back outside, they found that Ranma had returned with a large boar in one hand. Mira asked, "Um, are you going to need help with that?"

Ranma looked at her quizzically. "Have you ever cooked over an open fire?"

Mira shook her head, and Ranma nodded, gesturing to the supplies she had taken out. "If you could cut some bread and the vegetables and stuff for the stew, that'll be a major help."

Nodding happily at that, Mira went to work quickly.

By the time they had gotten dinner ready, Carla came back. Landing nearby, she was puffing a little with exertion as she shifted back into her cat-form. "I went as far as I could go before coming back. This river doesn't wend its way back this way, though I think I saw a few more in the distance in the direction we're already traveling. They don't meet up with this one, as far as I could tell, but they're there."

Ranma nodded agreeably and held out a bowl of stew to the little cat, complete with fresh bread and a plate of boar cutlets. "Good job." Carla nodded agreeably, taking the food and eating hungrily.

As they ate, Ranma described some of the places the two of them had camped out in over the years to Mira, with Wendy adding her own anecdotes. Far and away her favorite was the treehouse down in the forest of Bellum, which wasn't like camping at all, but there were others. One was a day when it was so rainy out they had just decided not to go anywhere and stay inside the tent, watching the rain from the flap. Another time they had been camping out in the snow, where Ranma had made them an igloo to stay in, with the tent set up inside of it. "That was a lot of fun!" Wendy supplied, giggling at the memory. "We made this huge dragon in the snow around our igloo with the entrance as it's mouth, and a few passersby thought it was real!"

"Yeah, that was funny, although the fact they tried to attack it with pitchforks and other things when it didn't move wasn't so much fun. They nearly caused a cave-in, for goodness sake," Ranma said with a laugh of her own.

"And then Carla," Wendy said, continuing the tale and pulling her friend into a hug, which the Exceed, once more in her human form, allowed as she kept eating. "Carla starts shouting at them from the mouth of the igloo. They ran away, screaming, thinking they had woken the beast up, which was just funny."

Mira smiled at that, shaking her head and returning with some talk about Fairy Tail and the troubles and fun times that she had had within the Guild. Ranma interjected a few times, asking about her rivalry with Erza as well as Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer had negated some of his initial impression on Ranma by the way he'd fought through the Tower of Heaven.

"I still think he's a cocky little so and so, and his attitude of challenging everything that's stronger than him is really irritating. But you can't help but like the guy. Someone who will give his all just for his friends like that is a good'un."

Mira smiled at that, wholeheartedly agreeing and wishing her sisters the best with Natsu. "My only problem there is, I wonder if Lucy is interested in him regardless of saying she wasn't. Or vice versa, considering how often since she joined up that he's been around her."

"I'd recommend just letting it happen. Romantic stuff like that is just not worth the trouble you can bring down on yourself by poking your nose in it," Ranma said with a shrug.

Mira had the others in paroxysms of laughter with a few tales, and then asked Wendy, "So, what you think Wendy? Do you think you'd like to join up with Fairy Tail?"

"Oh, I admit it would be a great deal of fun," Wendy said with a laugh, leaning against Ranma's shoulder and still holding the only slightly shorter Carla in her lap. "But I'd have to choose between joining a guild like that and staying with my big brother, so I think I'll pass."

Ranma nodded. "There is a difference between settling down for a lifetime, connecting to a guild like yours, and settling down for say a season or two, which is pretty much what I'm planning to do in Magnolia. I figured we'd stay for autumn and winter, but staying for longer than that.…" Ranma shook her head. "That's not going to happen."

Scowling internally at that, Mira kept an affable smile on her face and she turned the conversation to other things. The three girls then went into the tent, with Ranma still on guard outside for a time. "I'll move around for a bit, see if there are any dangerous animals about, and come back," Ranma said, heating up some water to change back to his male form. "Don't wait up for me."

Wendy took this at face value, curling up in her warm and exceedingly fuzzy sleeping bag with Carla, the two of them reading a book together. Listening, Mirajane decided that Carla was helping Wendy to enhance her vocabulary, and that the book was quite a few levels above where she had would have anticipated a young girl Wendy's age would read. For her part, she sat up in her own sleeping bag, a spare that Ranma had brought along, playing with her hair for a time before going to sleep, still thinking about whether or not she was interested enough to compromise the kind of relationship she was searching for and, if so, how to stake her claim now, before they returned to Magnolia.

 **OOOOOOO**

Flying out from where the former pirate vessel had dropped anchor, Laxus, Ultear, and Erza saw Lucy on the beach, dodging around a.… "Is that a giant rat?" Erza said, her voice somewhere between horror at the very idea and confusion that such a thing was even possible.

"And is it wearing what looks like a very ugly dress? Complete with a bow in 'her,' and I use that term very loosely, hair?" Ultear asked.

"I think I'm just going to kill that thing on general principle," Laxus muttered, looking away. "Such things cannot be unseen."

By the time they arrived on the beach, however, Lucy had dealt with the rat-thing. Dodging around an attack from it, she had used a whip made out of cosmic energy. She wrapped it around the beast's tiny forward arm, then twisted, pulling it off balance before a kick loading with spiritual energy hammered into its chest, hurling it away. "LUCY KICK!"

"Not bad," Laxus commented, landing nearby.

"I learned how to do that from Capricorn," Lucy said absentmindedly before gasping and turning in fright. "What are you two… three…doing here?" she trailed off, staring at Ultear.

"I'm not the person you should have a problem with right now," Ultear said, stepping to the side as a visibly simmering Erza stepped forward, pointing a blade at Lucy.

"Lucy!" Erza roared, causing Lucy to quail and shrink in on herself. "I expected better of you! Why are you and Gray and even Natsu here! This is an S-class mission, and you should've known better than to be joining in on one of their wild adventures!"

"No, but listen, the people here really need help! I,…" Lucy stammered.

"That is no excuse for breaking the rules! You should've left it to an S-class mage, like the two of us," Erza bellowed back, silencing the blonde. "Now I'll have to drag you and the others back for punishment! No doubt the master will put you through… **that** ," she finished, her tone turning somewhat distasteful. "Still, it's no more than you deserve for your transgression."

"Ah, **that** …" Laxus mused, shuddering. "I'm sorry for you, Lucy, but yeah, Gramps is a bit of a stickler for this particular rule, especially after I ignored it a few times when I was younger. Just," he made a patting motion with one hand. "Just, um, just grit your teeth and get through it."

Lucy stiffened up at that, seeing the fear and distaste on both her guildmates faces, and then twitched her head to the side, this way and that, looking for a way out as Erza lowered her sword. When the rat-thing she just dealt with began to stir and push to its feet, she took her chance, twisting around and racing to the woods. _I've got to warn Gray and Natsu! Whatever punishment had Gray and even Natsu so terrified, she's offering I don't want any part of it!_

"Hold it right there!" Erza shouted after lashing out with a single kick that caught the rat-thing in the head, knocking it out. She Requipped a lasso then, twirling it around her head for a moment before lashing it forward to catch Lucy around the waist, pulling her to a stop and dragging her back. Once Lucy was sitting at the redhead's feet, she began to use another rope to tie her up. "This is for your own good, you know, Lucy. If I had to chase you down, I would be forced to take steps to make sure you can't run again."

Ultear moved off to examine the rat-like creature, kneeling down and staring at it, though she was really staring out into the woods and beyond to the ancient temple where she knew Leon and his cronies were. She couldn't see the beam of power coming down from on high that she knew was there, thanks to distance, but they had seen it while flying in, which meant they had arrived in enough time for her purposes.

She stood up abruptly, moving over to the others. "I'm going to head out into the woods towards that light we're seeing from the Temple out there," she said, gesturing in that direction. "You two, gather up the rest of your guildmates and head out in that direction tomorrow. We've lost all light at this point," she ordered peremptorily, utilizing her guise as a Councilwoman before moving off into the woods.

Looking up from where she had been tying Lucy, Erza growled a little, staring after the other woman, her hands moving automatically. "That, that woman!"

Smirking at this, Laxus decided to have some fun. "You know, that's not the way to tie someone up,…" he said in a low voice, then began to give short orders on how she should tie Lucy up. This ended up with Lucy tied up more like she was participating in some kind of bondage play than an actual prisoner. Staring down at herself, Lucy then looked up at Laxus and the still simmering Erza, who was staring after the woman. "That was low, and you are a freaking pervert," she said in the most deadpan tone she could manage.

Laxus smirked. "Hey, I'm not the one who was tying you up."

Erza turned to look around at that and looked down at what her hands had been doing while her mind was busy thinking very bloody thoughts about the Councilwoman. "What, tha, that, um.…" She blushed hotly. "What is this! Lucy, who did this to you? It looks like.…" She blushed again and fell silent.

"Like a scene from one of your books?" Laxus asked, his smirk still on his face. He then reached down, hefting Lucy onto his shoulder, making no move to actually release her from her bondage, pun intended.

Erza punched out hard, catching Laxus on the side and causing him to groan and release Lucy, whereupon Erza grabbed her. She pulled off the ropes except for one around her wrists, and then tugged on it lightly. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said to the groaningS-class mage.

"Sure you don't," Laxus grunted. "And that was a cheap shot!"

"Where are the others?" Erza asked, looking at Lucy and ignoring Laxus rather pointedly.

"I don't know. We agreed to meet up back at the village, though, if we got separated, so if we go there we probably have a better chance of finding them than if we went out searching everywhere."

"Lead on, then," Erza urged, pushing the other girl lightly in the shoulders. "And while we're moving, you can tell me why you agreed to go along with this mad scheme. You haven't struck me as one to regularly break the rules."

Lucy shrugged. "I ran away from home. Does that count?" At their surprised looks, she shrugged her shoulders again. "Let's just say that a few of my decisions, and the fact I wasn't interested in business or marrying to help my father's business grow, caused a bit of a rift within our family. There was only so much Capricorn could do to shield me from that kind of thing, and, even though he disagreed with my decision, he didn't stop me from running away."

"So you're more of a rule breaker than I thought, but that doesn't explain why you decided to go on this S-class quest. You definitely do not strike me as the type to want to risk your life like that," Erza said.

"Did you see what's on offer as the reward? A golden key! You better believe I wanted a piece of that kind of thing. It was my mother's dream to bring all the golden keys together and be friends with all of their spirits. I want to follow that dream, and this could be another step in that direction."

"So you're another dreamer," Laxus said with a huff, half impressed, half amused. "You'll fit right in with this guild."

The three of them fell silent as they moved through the jungle towards the distant village, where they were challenged immediately by the guards on duty. One of them pointed at Erza. "You there, strip to prove you've got the Fairy Tail mark!"

Lucy gave him the finger shouting, "I was here earlier, darn it! What is it with you people and asking me to strip!"

"You've got a nice palisade," Laxus said slowly, his hands sparking with lightning, his own guild mark on display for a moment on his left shoulder in the light of his attack. "It would be such a shame if anything were to happen to it or anyone currently standing on it."

The watchers gulped but ordered the outer wall open. The three of them entered where, after being accosted by the village chief shouting about how they needed to destroy the moon, they found Gray and Natsu in one of the tents.

 **OOOOOOO**

Walking through the woods, Ultear paused, staring up into one of the trees above her and smiling lightly. "Hello, Meredy. How are you?"

The girl that hopped down was a young girl of short stature around Wendy's age or perhaps slightly older. She had short, pink hair like Natsu's, only slightly darker, with bright green eyes. She was currently wearing a tight, purple leotard with brown, thigh-high boots which had white stripes at the top, and was covered by a long cloak, the same cloak Ultear had used as 'Zalty.' She smiled slightly at Ultear, but there was nothing slight about the hug she gave the other woman. "Ultear. You are well?"

"I am," Ultear said, returning the hug. "Did you have any trouble playing the Zalty persona?"

Meredy shook her head. Moving out of the hug with some reluctance, she then pulled out a mask and outfit that Ultear had used to cover her identity when she met with Leon. In her other hand she held a small lacrima about the size of a person's mouth, which could indeed be emplaced in the mouth of the mask. The outfit, too, had a few other be-spelled bits and pieces embedded in it which would allow a partial shape-shift of the face as well as the chest.

 _Not,_ Ultear thought sardonically, _that Meredy would actually need that last as I did._ "What happened after you arrived?"

"The fool Leon is still of the opinion that your Zalty simply wishes to aid in killing the demons for the simple thrill of seeing it fight." Meredy replied in her normal clipped, almost unemotional tone. "He and his foolish followers, including the three former Lamia Scale mages, have continued with the Moon Drip project in 'Zalty's' absence. The two demons should be freed sometime within the next week or less."

"That's good, but please skip to what happened after the Fairy fools arrived," Ultear said, her tone teasing to take any sting out of her words.

The younger girl flushed very slightly but nodded. "I did not observe the Fairy Tail mages' arrival, but apparently they ran into some trouble on the sea. After meeting with the local villagers they moved on to the temple and found the demons several hours before your own arrival. Thanks to my aid, we found them with ease. However Fullbuster, Gray, target three, seemed to recognize the fool Leon. After exchanging meaningless words, the fool Leon defeated Fullbuster, but he was then saved by target five, Dragneel, Natsu. Knowing of your arrival and the fact we were to toss this entire mission under the train, I convinced the fool Leon and the others to search for other mages on the island before launching an attack on the village and the known mages tomorrow at dawn."

Ultear nodded slowly. "Did any of them get an idea of your magic?"

"Negative. I used Maguilty Sense: Sensory Link on various animals to find the mages, but began the spell long before I met up physically with the fool Leon and the others. Do they know about your magic, Ultear-sama?" Meredy asked.

"Good girl," Ultear said, patting the other girl on the head. "And as to your question, no. My magic is distinct, and Erza, at the least, will be making a report to the Ranger, and, if he asks, he can discern what the Wizard's Council believes my magic to be quickly enough."

"And will we now switch places? I am concerned that one of the mages will ask me something of your past dealings," Meredy asked, her voice worried.

"They shouldn't. After all, I actually haven't interacted with them all that much. And while you could probably pull off a reasonable of me for a short amount of time, playing Zalty is far easier. And I don't think you would be able to flirt," Ultear said wryly.

"What?" Meredy said, stopping and staring at her in shock.

Ultear waved her hand. "It was just an attempt to get close to the Ranger at first, and now I'm getting close to the S-class mage, Laxus."

Meredy frowned, going through her memory. "Laxus, S-class mage, Fairy Tail. Number two on the list of Fairy Tail enemies. But you flirt with him?"

 _Is she jealous?_ Ultear thought, giggling to herself before leaning down and giving the other girl a light peck on the forehead. "Don't worry; it's nothing serious. I just wanted to see if I could learn anything about him and about the Ranger Ranma, who apparently is his friend. It worked too: I got the full tale of how they met and found out quite a bit about what might have led up to that Pergrande Civil War a few years back that we didn't know. I've also discovered more than a few things about Dragon Slayers which might be useful fighting them in the future."

"Understood," Meredy said, looking a little flustered, though. Whether that was because of the kiss on her forehead or the fact that Ultear had allayed her fears was up in the air. She then paused, looking around them and moving into the shadow of a tree, gesturing for Ultear to follow. Confused, Ultear did, and Meredy said, "Have to report something unanticipated. I arrived a few hours before the Fairy Tail mages, as I said, but before they made for the temple, I saw something, someone, watching the island from on high."

"Someone watching? Someone flying and watching from the air?" Ultear asked, frowning. Flight magic wasn't exactly unusual, but someone who could just stay in the air without moving long enough to observe long term events was very rare. It spoke of someone who was fearsomely powerful if they could be that blasé about the magical strain of such a thing. "Could you make out his or her features?"

"She looked like a woman, erm, the shape, anyway." Meredy gestured at her chest, making motions like she was describing someone with larger breasts than even Ultear. "But with a giant horn coming from her head and wings. Other than her wings and the silhouette, however, I could not make out anything concrete. She did not see me, thankfully, nor has anyone else marked her out. She was hiding very well among the clouds. But even that brief glimpse made me very worried, and she has since moved even higher in the air."

Frowning, Ultear thought about that and about the mysteries of Deliora and the fight that had ended when it and its fellow had been captured in Iced Shell. And why, in point of fact, Deliora was not alone in that battle when before it had always been alone.

"It looks as if we're not the only ones interested in Deliora," she mused aloud. Thinking about it, she shook her head. "I wouldn't worry over much. I would presume that, whoever that is, she is here simply to observe. Unless she actually acts, we will continue with our plan. Now, when it comes time for an actual fight to break out, here is what you need to do.…"

 **OOOOOOO**

Entering the village, they found Natsu and Gray, with Natsu snoring like a foghorn on one side of the fire and Gray on the other, staring out into the darkness, a dangerous, cold glare on his face. It broke as he saw the two of them, and Natsu snorted awake as Gray turned, pushing himself to his feet and pointing at them both. "What are you two doing here?!" Gray shouted.

"Laxus!" shouted Natsu, hopping to his feet and roaring forward. "Fight me!"

Laxus dodged to one side, grabbing Natsu's head with his hand as the smaller boy ran past and then ramming him down into the ground, face first. "Not now. I'd hate to give you a concussion right after you survived the stupidity of eating so many elements at once. You've pushed your luck enough for one year."

With that he turned back, only to pause and watch as Erza remonstrated heavily with Gray, who was glaring back at her, before turning away without a word.

Yet, instead of threatening to cut Gray in half for that temerity as she normally would have, Erza stared at him thoughtfully. "I haven't seen that look on your face in a long time," she said. "What's wrong?"

"Is it because of that demon we found?" Lucy asked, coming into the tent to sit down to one side and look up at Gray and Erza, ignoring the twitching form of Natsu for now while Happy wailed over his best friend. _Huh, Natsu doesn't seem to have gotten back to normal just yet._

"Demon? What demon?" Laxus asked sharply.

"There were these two big demons sealed in a kind of purple ice underneath this temple we found at the center of the island. And when I say big, I mean they were **huge** , just as large as Lullaby was and even wider in the shoulders, less sickly looking. It looked as if Gray recognized them," Lucy, said, looking over at the Ice Make user.

Gray huffed in irritation, looking away. "It's got nothing to do with any of you, not even the guild, so butt out!"

"You honestly expect us to do that?" Erza asked sardonically, shaking her head. "For one thing, we, that is, myself, Laxus, and our… companion, actually were going to come on this mission ourselves, so we'll be taking over now." She smirked evilly at the three of them. "Which doesn't mean you won't be punished for trying to take an S-class mission in the first place. The master told me he was preparing four potions for… **that**. I daresay none of you will enjoy it."

Happy shivered while Natsu balked, his face turning so white it looked as if he had turned into a ghost. "Seriously, what is **that**!?" Lucy cried, staring first at the two frightened mages and then over at Erza and Laxus's looks of mock sympathy.

But Gray simply glared angrily at Erza, uncaring of the punishment to come. "You can't! This is something I have to do. I have to beat it out of them; figure out why they're trying to revive the demons!"

"Perhaps," Erza began, looking between Gray and Lucy, "the two of you should start at the beginning."

Later that night, Gray lay awake his hands pillowed underneath his head as he stared at the ceiling of the tent. He wasn't actually seeing it, though. Instead, his mind was replaying the events of long ago for the second time that day.

 **Flashback:**

Gray had traveled through Iceberg from Ice Den to the town where Ur had been seen, the greatest Ice Make user in Ishgar. He wanted the woman to take him on as an apprentice in order to learn how to use his magic so he could get vengeance for his parents. Finding her was tough, and it pushed him hard, traveling through the frozen tundra, though it also helped him get more in touch with his magic, the cold making him able to control his own temperature and imagine the Ice within him.

When he found Ur, he was rather surprised to find the woman was quite young, possibly only in her early thirties, with dark black hair in a simple bob cut and a fit body, the kind that made her get many a proposition from men whenever she was in town. The younger boy standing before her, though, didn't seem to be interested in anything but her magic. Refreshing, but also rather irritating. "Why do you want to learn from me, kid? I already have an apprentice, after all, and I don't know if I can handle two power hungry brats," Ur had asked.

"Because this is something I must do," Gray said. "Something I have to do to avenge my family!"

Ur had promptly turned him away saying, "I'm not going to teach anyone who becomes a vengeance fueled monster."

It took weeks of camping out by her doorstep to get her to agree to train him. A little over a year had gone by with Gray and his fellow student, a young man his own age named Leon, learning Ice Make magic. They had also begun to adopt some of the mannerisms of their teacher, much to their chagrin whenever they were around other people. It was a fun, fascinating time as Gray started to get used to his magic and using it. It also started to heal his soul, warming the cold that was within him ever since his parents had died.

But it all came to an end in the same fashion as Gray's previous life had: with the roar of a demon.

The two boys had noticed for a few days that Ur had been meeting with a few other mages from around the area. These were the leaders of a large family of hunters, who used Bow magic to hunt, the leader of a miners guild, most of whom were also mages, and a few others water and fire mages who could create animal companions made of their element along with one Snow Make mage. This man's magic was like an Ice Make mage, only with snow. He and Ur seem to clash heads every time they talked. Regardless, it was obvious that something was going on.

Eventually Ur actually talked directly to them. "All right, you two, I can tell you both have been wondering what's been going on with me meeting with all of the others. There's a problem, a big one, a big one called the demon Deliora incoming. It's been sighted several times, moving in this direction. So we've been making plans to evacuate the village, draw its attention elsewhere, maybe even ambush it. That demon's been rampaging throughout Iceberg kingdom, but this time we've been able to get ahead of it with some of our mages.

"The water and fire users?" Leon had asked, frowning in thought. He was what Gray thought of as a bishounen boy (not realizing that the label could also be sent his way) with light blue hair carefully coifed and an extremely arrogant attitude. His dream was to surpass Ur in terms of Ice Make magic, and he resented the time Gray took from their one on one training. Despite that, there was nothing wrong with his mind. "I thought they looked a little too regimented."

"Those mages are apprentices to the court mages who were sent to the Army for a time to help train them to fight and, specifically, to fight this demon. When the demon first showed up again we asked for help from other nations, but we thought we had more time, and none of them have responded yet, apparently. So it's down on us," Ur said cheerfully, though there was something very brittle about it.

Not that Gray had noticed at the time. He was too consumed with thoughts of revenge and anger towards Deliora.

"So you two are going to be sent off with the rest of the townsfolk if it comes within sight." Leon made to protest, but Ur shushed him quickly. "None of that! I know you two are strong, but you're young yet, and you're not as skilled as I'd like you to be before going up against even a human opponent, let alone something like Deliora. Leave this to us."

"But, Master, if the full power of the court mages couldn't do anything to this demon, what makes you think the rest of you will have a chance!" Leon asked. "You'll need us!"

"Because we're prepared for it this time. It's not coming on us suddenly out of the blue; we're the ones that are going to surprise Deliora this time. We won't have to be saved by a random wandering mage this time!" Ur said with conviction before sobering. "Now, come on, the two of you need to learn where to go and who to report to during the evacuation."

As Gray had half-feared, half-hoped it would, the demon Deliora was spotted the very next day coming towards them, but, thanks to the Wind Anima mages, the ambushers and townsfolk were warned of its coming. Ur bundled the two kids into their clothing—they would be around other people, after all—and pushed them out the door as she moved with them toward the town. There she met up with the other mages, handing off the two boys to a few older men and women who had volunteered to organize the evacuation. The rest of the town was then evacuated.

While the boys and the last of the townsfolk raced off, Ur and the mages went to work. Gray had no idea what preparations they had made or how well they did. By the time he could run away from his supervisors and Leon, the battle around the town had already begun. And whatever planning the mages had been able to do had come undone instantly.

Because Deliora wasn't alone: there were two other demons with it. Deliora was taller and stronger looking, with larger arms and a wild feral appearance, though it had seemingly been injured quite badly in the had numerous small scars crisscrossing its body, one of Deliora's birdlike feet had been replaced by a fleshy-looking, square stump, and its other leg had a large scar on it. One of Deliora's eyes was a blind white mess, and that side of its face was heavily scared and missing teeth along with chunks of its mouth and ear. And one arm from just above the elbow looked to be of the same gray-skin as its two fellow demons.

They were shorter, and, unlike Deliora, their skin had a grey, almost sickly look to it. Or rather like clay perhaps, and they had no hair. They had human-like hands; smaller horns than that of Deliora coming out of their skulls; wide, bulging eyes; but they had the same birdlike legs as Deliora. And, unlike Deliora, they were uninjured.

Or they had been before this battle began. As Gray watched from a nearby copse of trees, he saw one of these new grey-skinned demons falling into a snow pit of some kind as he heard the shouted words of the Snow Make mage shouting, "Snow Make Secret Art: Endless Pit!"

The demon sunk into the trap up to his waist even as he lashed out, killing several Fire and Air users who had been attempting to use their Element Creatures to fight the demons. But their elemental attacks didn't seem to be able to do anything to the two unnamed demons, while Deliora cried out in anger and fury, singed and cut, but only slightly.

A series of loud thrumming noises was heard even where Gray was hiding as the family of hunters all fired as one. Five of them fired at the eye on the demon in the pit, five to the left eye and five on the right, and this time the attack hit home. The magical arrows hit with all the force of a non-magical cannonball, and five of them were enough to get through the magical durability of the creature, destroying the demon's eyeballs.

It roared and screamed, lashing out in either direction as the mages fell back, losing one more of their number but moving out of the demon's range for the time being. It then attacked the other two demons accidentally, its claws finding Deliora's side and battering Deliora to one knee while the other hand grabbed its fellow's arm and dug in deeply with its claws. Driven mad by the pain of its destroyed eyes, it pulled that demon close and made to bite it, but the second, heretofore exactly alike, demon pulled back.

After that the two uninjured demons tore their maddened fellow to pieces. Deliora grabbed its arm and, when it moved to bite him in turn, the other grabbed it by the back of the neck and twisted hard, ripping its head off. There was no blood, though, and the demon slowly began to turn into some kind of smoke.

"What the hell are you doing out here!?" Leon shouted into Gray's ear.

He jumped, twisting around, and thumped Leon hard in the chest. "Don't do that! And what the hell are you doing out here, anyway!?"

"That was my question, you asshole!" Leon barked, then his eyes narrowed. "You're not out here so you can try to take advantage of things and get your revenge, are you? I.…" Leon paused as he stared over Gray's head, making Gray turn, his face going white as Leon's did the same.

As they watched, Deliora turned from where it and its fellow had dealt with their third member, its mouth opening. An instant later its breath weapon lashed out to destroy much of the town around them and, with it, more than half of the miners there to join this fight. Deliora's fellow demon took a few arrows to its face, but with the Hunters unable to hit the creature's eyes, those arrows were useless. The other demon leaped forward into the woods where the shots had come from, shattering dozens of trees under its bulk. An instant later it lashed out, its hands flashing all around it like a maddened ape attempting to crush a fly in an effort to find whoever had been shooting it.

The arrows of the hunters quickly fell silent, while Ur and a few of the others rushed forward to engage Deliora. But, while it might have been more susceptible to their attacks than the other one had been to element based magic, it still had an incredible amount of magical resistance.

Ur and the other survivors there, after a bare minute of this, attempted to retreat, trying to pull the demons' attentions away from the caves in the southwest where Gray and Leon were supposed to be along with the rest of the village's survivors. But this seemed to indicate to Deliora that its fun was over. Even as Gray raced forward to join the fight, Deliora once more used its breath attack.

In an effort to protect them both, the Snow Make mage gestured at the ground and began to flare his power into it with one hand pulling Ur down into the snow with him as the attack hit. "Snow Make: Deepening Shield!" he roared, his voice carrying to where Gray, and Leon, who was following him, were racing forward. The snow from all around them flowed around the two mages, hardening as much as his magic could make it, a massive dome of ice.

The coruscating beam of power lashed out with a light so bright that both boys cried out in agony, covering their eyes and diving into what snow was nearby. When they pushed themselves out of the now softly steaming snow, the entire area had been simply…changed. What little of the town that remained was now gone, replaced by a massive crater where the beam initially hit. From there a marginally smaller furrow had been sliced out of the ground, and many of the surviving mages were simply gone now. Around this furrow the snow had been burned away, revealing the ground underneath, ground that had not seen the sun for far longer than the town had been there.

For a moment all was still, then the demons turned away, roaring triumph as they seemed to sniff the air, searching for further prey.

Racing forward, Gray shouted, "Ur, are you there? Ur!" Leon quickly joined him, raging angrily.

From the only remaining patch of snow, Ur pushed her way to the surface. Behind her, the Snow Make mage's body revealed itself, and it was a body. Its skin had been seared off half its length, the man's side which had been nearest the magical assault, and Ur's desperate attempt to pulse her own magic into the snow, hardening it, hadn't spread far enough before the attack slashed close-by.

Worse, the snow hadn't protected them from some of the debris the attacks had caused. There was a piece of wood like a spear of some kind in her side, the side of her head was caked with blood from some other bit of debris , and one of her fingers had been torn off by something.

Staring at the two demons, Ur paused, staring over their shoulders up into the air, for some reason, as Gray and Leon arrived. There, up in the sky above, was someone simply standing there, watching. It was perhaps the most disturbing thing Ur had ever seen: a normal seeming human with long dark purple hair standing in midair.

The man was staring down at the demons as they obliterated their victims, writing something down in a long scroll, like he was a scientist taking notes. He seemed to note that she had spotted him and smiled before flying higher up in the air, so high she could no longer see him. "Di, did you see that?" she whispered in shock and fear before scowling. "Wha, what are you two doing here!?"

"We're here to get you out, Master," Leon immediately grabbed her by the arm and started to pull her away from the demons, making for the nearby woods where the boys had been hiding, rather than to the shelter. The demons, Leon had noticed, were turning inexorably in that direction.

For his part, once he was assured she would live, Gray turned his own attention to the demon who had claimed his parents and now all these other people. Thoughts of that, of the vengeance he wished to wreak on Deliora, had brought him to this point, but now, as he watched Deliora and its unknown companion march in the direction of the other townsfolk, Gray felt a new urge rise up in him: an urge to stop them, not just to get his revenge but to defend those people.

Racing towards them, he bellowed, "Ice Make: Giant Spear!" The spear lashed out, catching Deliora in the back. But that wasn't meant as a real attack. Rather, it was just meant to make the two demons stop moving in their ground devouring strides. As they did, Gray used his Ice Make powers to slide over the land like a snowboarder on the cleared ground. Before the demons knew it, he was close to them with his hands crossing in front of him, his Ice Make magic covering his hands and slowly changing form into a sort of purple color rather than the normal blue.

"NO!" Ur shouted, pushing Leon to one side and flashing up a shield meters thick between Gray and the two demons. Deliora had responded far faster than Gray had anticipated, and this shield saved his life, though it shattered in the doing, and Gray was hurled away, landing with a cry of agony as his arm shattered. Yet he still launched an attack at Deliora, which turned its baleful gaze on him and away from Ur.

Leon followed, launching an attack of his own, but the second demon replied with a breath attack, and Leon's attack halted, shifting into another massive shield. This, again, was little defense, but just enough for Leon to use his Ice Make magic to create a bird to fly him out of the beam's trajectory. It fell apart almost instantly due to the heat, but Leon was still alive as he fell through the air to land with a groan on the ground, his leg giving out just as Gray's arm had for him.

But the two attacks had just barely taken the demon's attention from Ur. She had gathered her power and now stood actually between the two demons, and, as they moved to attack her students, she performed the spells that Gray had been about to use. Her entire body glowing purple, she flared out her arms from where they had previously been crossed in front of her, shouting out her final attack. "Iced Shell!"

From her hands came a surge of power into the world around them, raising ice up over the demons' legs before either could even blink, the cold of the attack freezing the blood in their veins at the same time. From Ur's body, ice began to form, slowly encompassing the entire area as the demons' movements slowed, their bodies freezing solid. The ice continued to grow until it contained just the two demons and Ur herself, her body slowly disappearing and becoming one with the ice.

 **End Flashback**

 _It should've been me! It should've been me who sacrificed himself to stop the demon; it should've been me!_ _I should've been the one to do it! I was the one looking for vengeance. Not her, not Ur. Now she's dead, her soul encased in that ice forever, keeping those two demons entrapped._ Gray thought, remembering her last words to the two of them, how she had told them to live their lives and not live for vengeance or ambition. It had caused a falling out, with a distraught Gray taking her words to heart and Lyon blaming him for Ur's death for some reason, saying they could have gotten away if not for Gray jumping in as he had.

 _And now Leon is trying to release the demon!? Release the demon our teacher gave her life to defend against? No way; no chance in hell! I will not allow Deliora or that other demon to be released, never! Tomorrow, tomorrow you and I are going to finish this, Leon. And then I'm going to drag that thing somewhere deep into the ocean where it can never be found again!_ Gray snarled to himself.

 **OOOOOOO**

As was usual while camping, Ranma woke up early, but, instead of staying within the tent or exercising outside of it, he decided to head out into the woods to figure out how far they had to go before they entered the territory where this demon sighting might have occurred. He did this by climbing the trees and trying to discern any landmark other than the river to use as a point of reference, having already found the river on the map.

He spotted the distant mountains, or what counted as mountains in this area, anyway, and with the help of a spyglass he was able to make out a hint of the just risen sun on water out there, corroborating what Carla had reported the night before. With that done, he had a rough idea of the direction they had to travel as well as how long it would take them.

Arriving back at camp, he began some exercises while also pulling out of his Requip and ki space the ingredients for breakfast, setting them aside before going back to his exercises. _Turning my ki space into a refrigerator: my old man would approve, though I doubt Mousse would be at all amused._

Soon Wendy woke up, noisily exiting the tent and giving him a hug before starting her own exercises. Carla too woke up, exiting the tent with something that looked like affronted dignity on her face. "I'll get the kettle boiling, since someone here doesn't seem to be feeling very hospitable," she said, moving in that direction.

Ranma chuckled at that, but continued his exercises until Mirajane came out, and he promptly began to laugh. "Heheh, are you okay, Mira?"

To say that Mirajane was not a morning person was an understatement. Her two sisters were, which was why they were always at the guild first to deal with anyone there in the mornings. However, given how many of the guild members drank, mornings were a slow, fragile affair for all of them. So life at the guild hall didn't really pick up until around noon, which suited Mirajane down to the ground. She had a lot of trouble waking up in the mornings and disliked morning people intensely, which was one of the reasons why she and Erza were still semi-rivals even though they had mellowed dramatically over the years.

Now she glared at Ranma and then over at the boiling kettle, the noise of which had finally woken her up. "There better be coffee here," she growled dangerously, looking as if she was about to enter her Satan Soul form without actually calling on her magic.

"I'm sorry, but no," Carla said. "I have herbal tea."

"Herbal tea," Mira drawled, her fingers beginning to twitch. "Herbal tea?!"

"We also have water and orange juice," Wendy supplied helpfully.

"Where is the coffee?!" Mira snarled again. "You must have something here!"

"Nope, sorry," Ranma said with a shrug. "We have a lot of sugar, though. You could make yourself some sweet tea or something."

Grumbling, Mira did just that, but the jolt of sugary happiness was, while pleasant, not a substitute for real caffeine. She watched as Ranma and Wendy practiced martial arts, the two Dragon Slayers then quickly breaking down the camp as Mira finished her meal. Once they were done, Wendy hopped up onto Ranma's back with Carla changing back to her Exceed form and perching on Wendy's head in turn.

They all then looked at her expectantly, and Mira sighed, pushing to her feet and summoning her Take Over magic. Instantly she was wide awake, the strength of her magic invigorating her, and she nodded at them. "Let's go."

Ranma nodded and led the way through the woods, racing at a pace that Mira had to fly to keep up with once more. She skimmed over the trees now that they were in a deeper forest and she couldn't see them so easily. She was still doing that when they broke out from the forest into a farming area around a small hamlet of four or more decently-sized buildings. Setting Wendy and Carla down, Ranma made his way forward as Mira joined them, alighting to her feet before canceling her magic.

A few of farmers were already in the field, of course. They stopped and waved at the strangers, who waved back, and Ranma shouted, "Excuse me, do any of you know how to get to the Guild Mermaid Heel from here?"

"I do," said one of the farmers, moving towards them. "But I'm not certain you'd be welcome there. They don't allow boys to enter the Guild Hall."

"That's no problem," Wendy said with a giggle, dumping a canteen of water over Ranma's head. Mira giggled while the man gaped, and Ranma turned, giving her adopted little sister a sideways glare.

Eventually the farmer regained control of his senses enough to nod. "I see. If you are cursed to be a boy, then they might make an exception. There's a little pathway that starts over there on the other side of our hamlet. Take it until you come to a fork. One way will lead you back westward until it meets up with one of the King's roads, the other will take you to Mermaid Heel eventually."

"Is it just the Guild? I mean, is there anything else built up around it?" Ranma asked.

"There are a few small river-based fisheries, but no, nothing else."

Putting that information to one side in her mind, Ranma led the way to the path, walking now, with Wendy and Carla in her cat-girl body falling in behind Mira and Ranma. Now that they were just walking, observing the area, Mira spoke up about something odd that she had noticed. "He didn't seem all that concerned about the demon, did he?"

"No, he didn't," Ranma said with a sigh. "I'm wondering if this is a dead end or just rumors that went out of control. Although, I also noticed that each of those families had a cart set up outside, and they was packed full of stuff in every case."

Frowning thoughtfully, Mira nodded. "Those houses, they looked kind of new to me."

"Yep, that too, I think. If something is happening around here, well, these people are ready to get the heck out of here at a moment's notice. Maybe the demon is real, but they have learned they can run away from it or something."

Eventually the forest around them slowly started to change. Not in a sinister manner, just that it was becoming more brush and less tree as they moved up into the hills and mountains. They also began to hear the sound of running water, and Carla flew up into the sky to scout it out for them.

Eventually she came back, shaking her head. "There is a river ahead of us, a small one, but still decently sized, and you'll see one of those fisheries we were told about soon enough, though there is no one there at present. But a little further along the river there is a bend to it, and at that bend, you'll just have to see it to believe it. It's actually one of the more impressive Guildhalls I've seen. Not in size, but in sheer uniqueness. You truly have to see it to believe it."

Soon enough the quartet crested a small rise and saw the river. The trail they had been following wound its way along the river towards their destination, a destination which caused Wendy to gasp in delight, and, without a word, she raced forward.

Like Carla had described, there was a curve to the river here, and at that curve was a gigantic tree. About the size of a large building, the willow tree thrust out from the edge of the embankment out over the bend in the river, with giant roots and branches visible. Among those branches there was a giant house built out of the tree's central trunk and many of its branches, along with what looked like half a ship pushed out into the river bend, merging from the willow's roots.

The image was completed with a large platform on the top where several women could be seen walking around or, as Wendy came closer, lying out on lounge chairs and sunning themselves. The women moving around stopped as they spotted the incoming travelers, then blinked as Wendy leaped into the air, landing next to those up in the branches.

"Hello!" she said chirpily, then hopped up on to the balcony nearby, the tallest portion of the tree, and sighed happily. "High places are best places."

The girls there all looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders before one asked, "And who are you lot?"

"I'm Wendy," Wendy said, not turning away from the view. "That's Ranma," she said without even looking, pointing at her friends quite accurately all the same. "That's Mirajane from Fairy Tail, and that's my friend, Carla."

Ranma shouted, "Wendy, what've I told you about climbing buildings without asking?"

"It's not a building, though, it's a tree." Wendy replied stubbornly.

"It's a tree with the building in it. Now come down here," Ranma replied while Mira laughed to one side.

One of the girls shouted down, "She's fine up here. I get the impression we don't have to worry about her falling or anything?"

"Not anymore. She got out of that phase when she was seven or eight, I think. Though she still trips on occasion," Ranma teased, looking up at his sister.

At that Wendy finally turned to stick out her tongue at him, then went back to staring all around her. She actually curled around herself for a moment like a dragon as she stared out over the distance.

"What is it with Wendy and high places?" Mira asked as they moved over a small bridge towards the amazing guild hall.

A bridge which, Ranma was quick to spot, was incredibly well detailed and crafted. Here and there, among the trees, she could see other areas of the treehouse which had been finely detailed with flowers, banded designs, and animals. This was obviously a place that had been lovingly cared for a very long time. _I thought that Mermaid Heel was a new guild, but this place doesn't look new to me._

He shrugged at Mira's question, by which time they had reached the entrance. Ranma opened it, letting the other two enter first and then entering herself. Inside, there was a desk to one side of the circular doorway, a series of small benches around little alcoves against the other wall, and a bulletin board against the far wall.

At the desk sat an old woman. She was tall and thin with the darkest skin Ranma had ever seen in this life or the last. It was as if someone had created a skin tone called midnight, then aged it for centuries, adding scars here and there and lots and lots of wrinkles, like stars in the sky. She also had short-cropped gray hair and only one ear. She looked at them both and then nodded. "Mirajane Strauss. I am happy to speak to one of the strongest women in Fiore. I'm Guild Master Orda. Who are your companions?"

At the name, Mirajane Strauss, a few of the women around the place perked up, moving forward and exclaiming, "Mirajane! Oh my God, it is her!"

"I saw your latest spread in Sorcerer's Weekly! Do you have any advice for someone who wants to break into modeling?"

"Screw that!" said one of the others. "She so strong! Do you have any advice for someone who's trying to become an S-class mage?"

Carla too drew a lot of attention from some younger girls. "Oooh, she's so pretty, a cat girl! What do you do to your hair?"

"Ca, can we pet you?" asked another one, already doing so and making the polite question a moot one.

Smirking as Mira was inundated by requests of that nature, Ranma moved around the group and nodded to the guild master. "My name's Ranma. I'm a sort of special investigator helping the Magic Council at the moment, looking into one of their own. It turns out that.…" From there the redhead explained what was going on and that the man had created a mission to look into the rumors of a demon in the area.

The old woman frowned. "I think I know what the rumors, as you put it, are about, and yes… there are demons occasionally sighted in the area. But there are actually two of them. Well, perhaps. Our legends aren't really clear about that. All that's really known is that they can change their forms slightly and that there are **probably** two of them. Legends are much clearer on what kind of magic they use. Darkness magic, Cosmic magic, and Water magic."

"Change their forms? Are they normally human sized?" Ranma asked hurriedly.

"Yes. Sometimes they are two females, sometimes two males, sometimes male and female, sometimes no gender anyone can discern. They can also transform into other things and people too, sometimes. The last time they appeared, around seventy years ago, they did that and caused a lot of havoc despite the people living here having long since discovered they could simply leave the area and wait for their bloodlust or whatever to die down before returning."

Ranma frowned, leaning back and crossing her arms. "That's bizarre. I've never heard of anything like that before. Could it be that they have some kind of illusion magic which keeps their real form hidden randomly?"

"That is what my thought was when I first came into the area and heard about it," Orda said with a shrug. "They haven't been seen since I was but a baby and taken away from here by my parents." Orda scowled. "I remember they said later we lost two out of every five people. They were too slow to run, you see."

Narrowing her eyes at that, Ranma digested it for a moment, but then she asked. "But if they have this transformation magic, they don't need to attack like that openly. Have there been any mysterious deaths or anything like that?"

"The demon or demons don't work like that," Orda replied promptly. "They are more like a natural disaster. They appear and destroy everything around them. But if there's nothing in the area, they'll subside and we can return after a few weeks. We do know that that time is rapidly approaching, hence why our Wood magic people are slowly shaping a ship out there. That way we can take our home with us, hopefully. Other people have already left the area."

Scowling, Ranma nodded, and Orda looked at her closely. "Are you planning to fight them? I wouldn't recommend it. My parents told me that the time the demons appeared when I was a child, they were faced with four S-class mages. They died on that mission, and the demons still ran amok."

Ranma's eyes flew wide open at that. "Wait, what! I didn't read anything about this mission having ever been given to the Council before!" _Are we dealing with another cover up here?_

"I don't know about that. But my parents were very clear on that point. They complained rather loudly about how they had paid for it, but the mages ended up not helping them at all," Orda replied. She looked at Ranma's grim face and sighed. "If you follow this river, you'll find the center of the demons' territory. What is there, no one knows, but the area they plunder is in a rough circle from that area out."

Scowling further, Ranma nodded at her and made for the doorway, finding Carla walking beside her, looking rather grim. She had escaped from the girls who had surrounded her and had evidently heard some of that last bit. "It's clear that I chose the right freaking mission to come on," Ranma muttered to her, getting a wry snort of agreement from the cat-girl.

A few minutes later Ranma had collected Mira and Wendy, and they began to head out into the woods, following the river as Orda had told them to if they wanted to really find the demons. As they did, Ranma looked down at Wendy seriously. "Wendy, if it comes to it, you have my full permission to use **that technique,** all right?"

Wendy's eyes widened, but as Ranma explained about the dangers they might be facing, she nodded firm, if rather tremulous, agreement.

 **OOOOOOO**

Laxus lowered his hand after blasting the vat of acid that the giant rat-thing had been carrying and the beast carrying it. Glaring angrily around, he shook his head. "Stupid rock-paper-scissors!" Earlier that morning, once they had all awakened, he and Erza had played a game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would stay to guard the town against the inevitable counter-attack by the group trying to release Deliora.

Laxus had lost. This forced him to remain, while Erza and Lucy went after the boys, who had left even before the sun was fully up. Laxus didn't think they left together. It was more likely that Gray had left first to have a showdown with this Leon jackass who was trying to undo their master's work, and Natsu had gone after them. Either to help or to hinder, Laxus didn't know, nor did he really care.

"That should count as protecting you lot from attack," he said now, glaring around him angrily. "I'm off to see if there is anything on this island that's actually worth my time."

"That's fine and all, but first you must destroy the moon!" shouted the old chief, reaching for him with a clawed hand. "The moon, destroy it! The source of all our agonies!"

"Old man, if you touch me I will electrocute your ass!" Laxus said, holding up a hand in front of the older man, sparking with lightning. "If we wanted to, Fairy Tail could certainly destroy the moon, but right now we've got bigger fish to fry. Once we're finished dealing with whoever is using Moon Drip, your issue with turning into demons should be solved anyway."

Laxus actually wasn't certain about that one. There was something **off** about how these people smelled to him, and it wasn't always connected with those who had visible demonic limbs or other things. Regardless, he glared at the old man—who backed off—before he turned and exited out the front gates of the primitive looking village. _And what's up with that, anyway? If this island had any kind of normal relations with the rest of Fiore, surely they should've been able to at least bring in some better building materials or at least techniques. Something really weird is going on here._

"You did well to stop our acid attack, but that just means we'll have to do things the hard way," said a voice from in front of him as Laxus wound his way into the forest. He paused, cocking his head to one side as he stared at the two very odd looking mages.

One of them was short, very short, barely coming up to Laxus's waist. He was wearing what looked like something from Mistral, the same kind of pattern and cut, anyway. He also looked vaguely from like he was from Mistral: an angular face, black hair, and slightly slanted eyes. The other one looked as if someone had crossed a ugly cat-boy with an equally ugly human. He had a vaguely catlike face and features and stood there shirtless with long arms hanging down as he stooped forward slightly, a grin on his face.

Laxus sighed, shaking his head. "I'll give you both one chance to leave with your skin intact. Get out of my way or fry."

"You aren't the only one here from a large mage guild, lightning user," said one of them. "The two of us, as well as Sherry, were part of Lamia Scale. We know all about powerful mages. Perhaps you've heard of Jura, the Rock Fist?"

Laxus smirked. "Oh, is Jura on this island somewhere?"

The other one spoke up. "Of course not, you idiot! What a stupid notion, as if he'd ever be involved in something this illegal!"

"It's not illegal; there just aren't any laws that say we can't do it," said the other one.

"Pity," Laxus muttered. "I'd have loved to have a rematch with him. Our last one ended inconclusively."

That caused the two mages in front of him to stare before the catlike one shouted, "As if, you idiot! No way a weakling like you could match up against Jura!"

An instant later Laxus was standing behind him, grabbing his head as lightning shot through him, causing him to scream out in pain before Laxus threw him to the side, unconscious. "Being called a weakling by people who don't even recognize me, let alone are in any way strong themselves, **irritates** me," Laxus said coldly, smirking as the song on his headphones changed to Thunder Road. "What about you? Are you going to take my offer to run?"

"That was impressive but ultimately futile," said the second mage. "My magic, magic cancellation, means that no attack you launch can hurt me."

"That might have been true if I hadn't already launched an attack," Laxus said with a sigh.

There was a flicker to the side of the man's head, and a bolt of lightning struck him from the side from barely a few inches away. He had no time to bring up his magic and found himself hurled sideways, his eyes already rolling back as the lightning flashed through his system.

Laxus shook his head, moving over to check to see the two were still alive. They were, and he sighed before pushing himself back up to his feet, moving through the forest towards where Lucy and Gray had pointed out was the direction from there down to the Temple. _If I've been relegated to dealing with the cannon fodder, I'm going to be supremely pissed off!_

Marching through the woods, Laxus found himself occasionally attacked by groups of what looked like demon-worshiping cultists, almost, further cementing in his mind that this mission was indeed something that Jellal must've been interested in, because it, in turn, was connected to Zeref. _Good. That means maybe even if the demon doesn't break through, I might find something here worth my time._

Moving around a bend in the path he was generally following, he found Lucy standing next to two beings who he recognized immediately as Celestial Beasts. One of them was a giant minotaur-like creature wielding a massive axe and with the coloring of a Holstein more than anything else. The second was a maid, of all things, with pink hair, a small body, and a stacked chest.

He walked forward, smacking aside one of the cultists as he did so, then brought down his foot on another who was trying to get up, smashing him back to the dirt. "I see you were relegated to dealing with the weaklings too," he growled.

Lucy looked up, having just kicked a man so hard he was lifted off the ground, then smashed the man with an elbow that caused his head to fly sideways, taking the rest of his body with it, thankfully. She shrugged. "I actually prefer it this way. Gray has a bone to grind with that leader guy, and I'm not nearly as into destruction for destruction's sake as Natsu…or Erza either, though please don't tell her I said that."

Laxus cocked his head at that, and Lucy shrugged again. "He said he had an idea to destroy the Temple in order to stop the Moon Drip from dropping on the Iced Shell."

"Makes sense," Laxus mused. "More sense than I'd expect from him most of the time. But then again, he does seem to have some decent enough instincts when he bothers using them."

At that point the two celestial beings had finished with the rest of the cultists, and the giant ax wielding creature shouted, "We're done, Mistress Lucy! Does that mean I can see those lovely udders of yours!?"

"Not at all," Lucy said happily. "Thanks for your help,Taurus ." With that, she pulled out a key and thrust it forward, causing the being to disappear with a moo.

"I, too, am finished, Hime-sama," the pink haired maid said, curtsying. "Does that mean it is time for punishment?"

"You're a former rich girl, and you have a kinky maidservant. I like where this is going," Laxus mused, looking at Virgo thoughtfully. "Punishment?"

Lucy blushed hotly. "That's, that's just her!" she stammered. "I didn't even…the only thing I said was that she could dress me as a Hime, nothing more! Everything else is just her own delusions!"

"Well then, in that case, I will disappear for now, Hime-sama," Virgo said with a small pout on her face. "And it is not a delusion. Rather, it is a lifestyle choice."

Laxus laughed while Lucy continued to blush hotly. "Why don't you head back to the village?" he said after recovering. "I finished off a few of their mages, and you can tie them up and wait for the rest of us."

Lucy scowled but eventually nodded. "Fine. Though I'll warn you, Erza went ahead, and I don't know if she was looking to help Natsu and Gray or find that Ultear woman."

"Let's hope for the first," Laxus muttered, waving her off and stomping on his way slowly through the woods. "If Erza can't put aside her suspicion and antipathy for Ultear, their fight could probably level this entire island."

"So scary!" Lucy muttered, shaking with fear for a moment before she turned resolutely away from the temple.

Laxus was still pushing his way through the woods, up the slight slope of the tiny mountain towards the temple, when the top of the temple exploded outwards and reverberating roars were heard. He stopped then and couldn't stop himself from smiling. He then pulled off his headphones and stowed them in his small Requip space, flinging off his coat and hanging it on a convenient branch.

An instant later he disappeared in a blast of lightning, appearing further up the slope, then disappearing again, continuing up and up until he landed on the remains of the top of the mountain, staring at the two demons there. Nearby, Gray pushed himself out of the rubble, while Erza was already attacking one of the demons.

"You want to explain what happened here?" he asked, looking over to where Natsu had just pushed out of the rubble, carrying Ultear on his back.

 **OOOOOOO**

Just before dawn, Gray and Natsu had left the village, one after the other. Gray had hoped to leave and intercept the enemy mages before they could attack the village, if that was their aim, but also to seek out Leon and confront his fellow Ice Make user. Natsu had followed him for a time, but then broke off when Gray called him out, agreeing with the Ice user that this was his fight. "Just don't shame the name of Fairy Tail!" Natsu ordered, holding out his fist.

"Heh, never doubt it!" Gray said, thumping the Dragon Slayer's fist with his own before turning and moving up the mountain.

Watching him for a moment, Natsu cocked his head thoughtfully and then smirked. "Idea!" With that Natsu moved off in a different direction, entering the temple mountain thing (Natsu wasn't certain where one began and the other ended, or if it even mattered) and then began to move through the temple, marking out a few pillars.

"Natsu Dragneel?" a quiet voice asked, but Natsu had already turned, staring into the dark.

A beautiful, black haired woman moved out of the shadows, her body covered by a black cloak. "I'm Ultear of the Magic Council. Hopefully Laxus and Scarlett told you I was around?"

"They did, though they didn't say you were so good at sneaking around," Natsu said before shrugging. "What're you up to?"

"Trying to follow the masked man, the one called Zalty," Ultear said, scowling. "He's very slippery, though. I had hoped to find a boat or however he had gotten on the island, but I lost him."

"Yeah. That bastard, he's the reason Gray and I lost to these assholes," Natsu said, ignoring the fact that it had actually been their lack of teamwork that had been the real cause for their retreat. "He fires out these kind of, not quite there sword things. If they hit they don't leave a mark, but you feel a lot of pain. Between him and that Leon guy, they were able to beat us off."

"Hmm.… You didn't hear any spellwork?" Ultear asked.

"Nope," Natsu said, already turning away and moving toward a pillar. "Now, butt out for a sec, lady. I got an idea of how to stop these idiots' plans right now!"

As Ultear watched, Natsu smashed the pillar. Above them the temple started to shiver like an earthquake was happening, but the Moon Drip kept falling down onto the ice deep within the temple, if at a different angle. "Okay!" Natsu yelled happily. "One more time!"

"I don't think so!" said a voice, and suddenly there were dozens, hundreds of barely visible swords flying through the air. Natsu yowled in pain, then blanched as a dozen large ice cats came towards them.

But they melted as Ultear stepped forward, her hands flaring with magic. "Flash Forward!" she said calmly, smirking at the masked man. Her magic, Arc of Time, could reverse or accelerate the time of things, and she had just flashed the time of the ice lions forward so they melted. "You're called Zalty, correct? The Magic Council has a lot of questions for you. Come along quietly, please."

"I thought I sensed more than one mouse running around tonight!" the man said, cackling wildly. "Unfortunately, I have nothing to say to lackeys of the corrupt magical system! I will always fight the man, man!"

 _Oh, dear. Meredy's overdoing it a bit,_ Ultear thought with an internal giggle, keeping her stern façade up with difficulty. "If you won't come with me peacefully, I'll have to use force!"

"Ooh yeah, count me in!" Natsu roared, forgetting his original plan, his hands igniting with fire.

"Come and try it!" Zalty replied, and dozens more Sensory Swords appeared all around her, flashing forward at both of them. Ultear just dodged around, , while Natsu smashed the swords away, though he still gritted his teeth each time his hands touched them. But this allowed him to close the distance, forcing Zalty to dance backward.

Again 'Zalty' used the magic she was 'borrowing' from her Sensory Link to Leon, lashing out with lions, tigers, and even an ice dragon which made Natsu go, 'Ooo!' But he still destroyed them as he could, while Ultear tried to close, her magic seemingly having a range limitation.

As they did, the Moon Drip finished it's work. The Iced Shell prison around the two demons cracked, shattering in places, and Deliora began to move, shattering still more as it let loose a roar. "RAAAAGGGHH!"

The roar was so loud that Natsu paused in his attack, and he held up his hands to his ears. This let Zalty hit him with another attack, a large yellow ray of some kind of magic that rocked Natsu back.

Ultear retreated instantly, moving away from the fight. "I have to Revert the Iced Shell on those demons! Hold Zalty here, Natsu!" This was actually a bluff: Arc of Time couldn't affect anything organic, and that included the spell Iced Shell, which was essentially Ur in ice form. If she could, Ultear might well have reversed it enough to free her mother, if only to kill Ur for abandoning her.

"Oh no you don't!" Zalty shouted, leaping forward over Natsu, closing with Ultear. Ultear twisted around, her hands flaring with magic, but her attack—Natsu didn't see what it was—missed, hitting a nearby pillar and turning it into dust and sand.

Zalty, however, closed his hand, lashing out to touch Ultear's forehead, and she rocked backwards with a scream of pain as Zalty intoned, "Sensory Sodom: Overload."

Natsu howled, smashing Zalty in the side with a fiery fist, but he simply rolled with the blow. "HAHAHah! You're too late, Fairy fools! Far too late!" With that he disappeared around a corner in the temple, and the temple around them began to collapse.

 **OOOOOOO**

Now as Laxus watched, Natsu pushed Ultear behind one of the rocks in a probably vain effort to protect her from attack. "I don't know what that guy did to her," said Natsu. "It looks as if she got a jolt straight to her brain or something. And don't ask me what the two icicles were up to. Erza just appeared a few seconds before you did; said she had been clearing out cultists."

"Some kind of attack magic," Laxus said with a scowl. He could do something like that if he concentrated hard enough, sending an electric pulse straight through a person's brain like that, though most of the time it really wasn't needed. "It takes time to set up, but there's little you can do to defend it."

"Maybe," Natsu said, then he turned back and grinned wickedly up at the demons. "Now I'm getting all fired up!" Setting his feet, Natsu brought his hands up to his mouth and roared, "Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragon's Roar)!" aiming at the fist of the gray-skinned demon as it swung towards Erza.

But while his assault connected, the magical attack didn't do anything. The demon's fist plunged through the fire, dissipating it and only getting light burns on its hand for its trouble. That was enough to gain the demon's attention, though, and it turned to them.

Laxus decided to get involved then too, and flash-stepped straight up into its face, launching his own roaring attack. "Rairyu no Hoko (Dragon's Roar)!"

The demon stumbled back, screaming with pain as one of its eyes burst under the amount of electricity that it had just taken, but it still struck out with a fist faster than Laxus would've expected, catching him in the side and hurling him away. As he flew through the air, Laxus righted himself using his flash-step again to get back, by which time Natsu had closed the distance and was trying to wale on the creature, launching himself high into the air with Happy's help to attack the demon's chest and upper body as well as its stomach.

But the kid just didn't have enough magical power to punch through the demon's tough hide. And with one of its eyes gone, the demon was now concentrating on protecting its face with one hand, protecting its eyes, which seemed to be a distinct weak point. As Laxus attacked once more, Natsu was slammed down, flattened like a pancake by a heavy blow.

This, however, made the demon overextend, and, instead of smashing into the demon's main body, Laxus attacked that arm. "Rairyu Tenmetsu Tsume (Lightning Dragon's Flashing Fang!)" he snarled, the lightning magic coalescing in his hands and then spearing out in the shape of a sharp fang made of lightning, a slight rotational aspect to the blade.

Nearby, Gray had been partially caught by a kick from Deliora and hurled backwards, his ribs broken. Gray might have been incredibly durable most of the time, but he'd already gone through one heck of a fight against Leon, who lay unconscious nearby. Because of that Gray's magic core was near empty, and his body had been run ragged.

He was also facing a nightmare from his past which had ravaged his life not once, but twice, and had seemingly walked through everything that anyone had thrown at it. So he could, perhaps, be excused for thinking that even with Laxus and Erza there that this was a fight they couldn't win, even as Erza's attacks made Deliora stumble backwards. "Get back, everyone," he said, coughing blood from his mouth as he brought his arms together, facing out towards the two demons. "You, you can't kill them. They're too strong! I, I need to.…"

Suddenly Erza was there, moving back from where she had just sent dozens of blades buzzing around Deliora's head. Before Gray even realized she was there, Erza thumped Gray on the back of the head so hard he nearly collapsed, ignoring his wounds. "Enough of that! We are Fairy Tail mages! We do not sacrifice ourselves like that, especially needlessly!" She glared up at the demon, twin swords in her hands as she stood there in the ruined form of her Heaven's Wheel Armor. "Can you not feel it? Both of these demons are far weaker than they should be. We can deal with them."

As if in answer to her words, the demon that Natsu and Laxus were fighting shrieked in enraged pain as the lightning blade Laxus had created sliced deep into the side of its elbow. The arm hung uselessly at its side after that.

Even as Laxus hastily flung up a lightning shield to protect him from a blast of magic from the demon's mouth, Natsu rejoined the fight, battered and bleeding, but still going strong. "HOOWA! That's the way! Cut it down by inches! I'm getting totally fired up now!" Around his entire body a conflagration burst into being, and he slammed bodily into the demon, his punches smashing and blasting apart the demon's chest in chunks and pieces.

"You see!" Erza shouted in delight, watching as Deliora finally decided to ignore the blades dancing and flashing around its face. "We can do this!"

Before she could go on, she hastily Requipped her armor. "Wingblade Prototype!"

Her armor shifted suddenly into something that could only vaguely be called armor. It was now a gown with shoulderless sleeves accompanied by a flower petal on her left hand. From the armor's back rose five large blades in the shape of a loose set of feathers attached via thin, unarmored arms which moved under her direction. The swords that made up the clearly unfinished armor's wings could be twisted and shifted into a limited shield. She held it in place against a blast of magic from Deliora which had been fired toward her and Gray. She gritted her teeth but held it there, wincing as the attack went on, the shield failing in places as the swords came apart under the heat of the beam. But when it ended, she twirled, the remaining blades of the shield flying out and slamming into the demon at points. Thanks to the armor not having any of the enchantments on it she had wished for it to, they did not with much penetrating power but they did at least stick into the demon, eliciting another pained roar.

"Requip: Sea Empress Armor!" Erza shouted even as she leaped over a kick that caused Gray to scramble out of the way. In midair she shifted into this new armor, like the last one, an unfinished prototype. The armor was barely there, but more closely resembled a swimsuit with extra bits rather than armor.

The breastplate seemed to be designed to resemble seaweed and barely covered Erza's remarkably ample chest with thin chains hanging from it over Erza's exposed parts and another along the belly with a fifth chain visible around her neck which, in turn, was guarded by a large collar. This 'breastplate' merged into the pauldrons, which were also green plates decorated by grey, fin-like spikes. This armor did have gauntlets which covered Erza's forearms and connected to elbow guards made to look like shells. This left her biceps clear along with her stomach and thighs, though her privates were covered by a long cloth connected to the bikini bottoms by a pair of fasteners shaped like sea stars.

Despite its unfinished nature, however, the offensive power of this armor was near where she wanted it to be, the form of it being two swords. One sword was made of water, and it lashed out into a long, whip-like shape that caught the demon in the fist, slicing deeply and redirecting the blow into the air before returning to a normal longsword shape. In Erza's other hand was a sword built like a claymore, almost, but made of crystal, its blade shimmering in the sunlight.

The sight of the water attack drove Deliora mad for some reason, and it attacked with another thundering roar, its hands flashing out towards Erza, but she dodged through its attacks with ease, despite them coming so quickly from so large a monster. She then smiled grimly, remembering a story Ranma had told her. _He'll be so angry he missed this._ "That's right, beast. I can use water magic like the one who wounded you so much, who forced you to flee all those years ago! Now I will finish the job."

The demon roared, enraged, and attacked even faster, but Erza still dodged around the attacks, taking to the ground occasionally but mostly staying in the air, the Sea Empress Armor giving her the ability to fly. It actually had been supposed to let her swim without breathing, but the armorer had gotten it wrong. _Not that I'm complaining at this point!_ she thought ruefully as she gathered the magic needed for her own attack. "I will finish this in one attack, beast!"

Nearby, Natsu and Laxus had seemingly switched places at this point, with Laxus blasting away at the demon's chest, his lightning enhanced fists cratering the beast's gray hides as Natsu had been smashed aside. But Natsu was still game, and he had learned from watching Laxus. Instead of once more attacking the demon's body, he aimed at the back of one of its knees. "Karyū no Yokugeki (Fire Dragon's Wing Attack)!" The attack, while not having been shaped as well as Laxus's, was able to sear through the skin and burn away the tendons behind its knee. The demon screamed, but before Natsu could get fully away, it had twisted around, smashing a fist down into Natsu that flattened him against the ground once more.

"Brat must've built up an immunity to that kind of attack," Laxus muttered before pressing his attack, dodging under a blast from the demon's mouth toward him.

At the same time that that fight was coming to a close, Erza had gathered enough magical energy for her own. "Crystal Sword: Penetrating Wave!" she shouted, hurling her Crystal Sword forward. At the same time her other sword, the one made of water, disappeared. From the hand that had previously been holding her Crystal Sword came a geyser, thrusting the sword forward with all the power of a tsunami, condensed into a thin beam of water. The Crystal Sword, with its special property of being immune to damage from water-based attacks, zoomed forward faster than even she could see.

It slammed into and through Deliora's throat, and, upon impact, its magic once more did its job, translating the Water magic by thrusting it forward and around the point of impact. This, in turn, cut, or rather, exploded, the demon's neck from one side to the other. The now decapitated Deliora barely had time to gargle a scream before the light of its fell life force disappeared from its eyes, its body collapsing to the side.

At the same time Laxus landed between the ears of the gray-skinned demon. Grabbing at the horns with both hands, Laxus roared out, "Rairyu no Gekido Raiun (Lightning Dragon's Raging Crescendo)!"

From the heretofore clear sky came first dozens, then hundreds of lightning bolts, converging on Laxus where he pumped them straight into the demon, electrocuting the demon . The demon screamed as its other eyeball popped and screamed more as its brain fried under the amount of electricity Laxus was pumping through it.

An instant later the screams died as it continued to shudder from aftershocks. Falling to the side, the demon's body swiftly began to dissipate into the greasy smoke that all demons seemed to create after death.

Hopping away, Laxus landed next Natsu, smirking down at the battered Fire Dragon Slayer. "And that is how we do it!"

"Showoff," Natsu muttered, pushing himself to his feet irritably, while nearby Ultear started to stir. "You wouldn't have been able to do that if I hadn't weakened it for you."

"Keep telling yourself that," Laxus said with a smirk.

Gray stared in shock at Laxus and then Erza, who didn't even look winded all that much, and shook his head, his words the same as the hidden Meredy's along with one other, hidden, watcher far, far above them. "Amazing! So this is the power of a Fairy Tail S-class mage?"

Meredy shook her head under her mask, already moving off to the small spit of land at the far edge of the island where her small boat had been hidden away. _Dangerous. Those mages are dangerous. I must report all this to Master Hades._

"Hmmf. It would appear some humans, at least, might put up a fight once it becomes time to cleanse them," said the third voice who had so accidentally joined Gray and Meredy in a chorus. Kyoka stared down at the mountaintop and its blasted, shattered surroundings, then shrugged and started to fly away. "But, then again, I don't have to watch over that incompetent Deliora or Master Geer's experiment any longer, so I will take this as a win. Even if I am under orders not to reveal myself."

Later, as they walked through the woods, Ultear told them about the man that she had met up with, with Natsu collaborating what she was saying.

"So either this guy was involved with Jellal or is in the same kind of business," said Laxus thoughtfully. "But you didn't get a look under his mask?"

"Not at all," Ultear said with a shrug, looking over at Natsu. "His odd brand of magic took me by surprise while I tried to use my magic to rewind the Iced Shell's time."

Natsu shook his head but then added, "I got a smell of him, though, and it was weird. It smelled almost like iron and flowers. Weird mix, right? I mean, even Erza doesn't smell like that."

"Are you saying he could've been a girl under the mask?" Ultear asked, evincing some shock at the idea. "I didn't feel any chest or anything when he pressed against my back."

"Transformation magic, perhaps," Laxus said. "It would make sense. Even if you can transform your body, your smell doesn't automatically change that much. Regardless, I'd bet that Ranma will be interested in it all."

"He would have been happier if we had captured these mages! This Leon fellow and his helpers, at the least," Ultear objected, glaring at Gray. "You had no right to just let him go as you did."

"Bah, the man had lost and then seen that Deliora was defeated without any input from him. For a man like Leon that's more painful than any amount of jail time."

"That's not your call to make!" Ultear replied sharply, but then sighed and turned away. "Still, I would say we learned quite a bit for Ranma."

Later, after a bit of a showdown with the people of the village who turned out to actually be peaceful demons, something that shocked most of them, the group made their way back to the ship. "I still say it was wrong for us to take the reward," Erza muttered.

"They were the ones offering it, and we are S-class mages, and we were going to take this mission anyway. I don't see what's the problem here," Laxus muttered back, hefting some of the cash in his hand. "Besides, don't you need some more ready cash to pay for the repairs to your armors?"

Erza twitched as that shot went home, then sighed and nodded, looking over to Lucy who was rubbing her hand against the Golden Key cooing at it gently. Happy, too, was looking at that and shook his head. "I know you're fat, Luigi, but I didn't think you were disturbing too!"

"Shut up, you damn cat!" shouted Lucy, making to stomp on him. "And I am not fat!"

"Help me! She's going to stomp me flat with her fat foot!" Happy wailed, racing away to hide behind Natsu.

"Serves you right," said Erza and Ultear together before glaring at one another and then away.

Lucy went on quickly in an effort to make certain the two women didn't come to blows. Lucy had learned to err on the side of caution with that sort of thing when it came to Erza, though she had no idea why the redhead hated the councilwoman. "You never mention a woman's weight, especially if she isn't fat in the first place!"

"Then what do you call those?" Happy asked, pointing at Lucy's breasts. "Aren't they fat?"

"They're a very special kind, made to seduce and make men crazy," Laxus said with a smirk, causing Lucy to cover her chest with her hands and Erza to smack him upside the head while Ultear giggled.

This all went over Natsu's head, but he shook his head and shouted, "Come on! Laxus, you said I could challenge you later, right?"

"Never said anything of the sort," Laxus said, teleporting past Natsu, grabbing the back of his head, and slamming it down into the ground the same way he had the night before.

Leaving him there to twitch, the rest of them moved on to the ship in the distance, Ultear shaking her head. _Fairy Tail mages are such an odd bunch. Fun, though._

 **OOOOOOO**

Several hours travel by horse from Mermaid Heel's headquarters, many of the local rivers all merged into one right underneath a waterfall. Under the waterfall the water was a deep pool, but the pool was also rather shallow around the edges, allowing for a small underwater seat. It looked almost like it had been man made, if haphazardly, along the edges. There was also a large cave behind the waterfall, the floor of which rose abruptly halfway through to connect to another cave where a small living area had been created over time.

In the water by the edge of the pool sat a demon or, rather, one demon with two bodies. The two of them looked almost exactly alike. The only thing differentiating one from the other was that one had green eyes, the other blue. They both had sky blues scales covering them from top to bottom like some kind of fish, the stomach and face scales being a lighter blue and consisting of finer scale. Long, pointed ears made of scales extended backwards and upwards from their heads. They had pointed, fin-like protrusions along their forearms and lower legs, and a stocky tail rose out of the water behind them, shining with the same blue scales mixed in with shiny metal plates like rings along their length. As one turned to grab a fish and bite off its head, it revealed both pointed, sharp teeth and what looked almost like angel's wings on its back.

Nearby on the bank stood Seilah ofTartaros , dipping her foot in the water as she looked at the two demons. They looked back at her, both sides waiting for the other to speak. It was Seilah who broke the uncomfortable quiet. "Greetings, Halphas. I come from Master Mard Gear with an offer to welcome you intoTartaros."

"We know what you are," said one of them before the other took up the tale. Truly, the two demons were one being, and why they bothered with having two bodies at all was a mystery, although Seilah had a theory

"We have heard of you through the rivers that feed into our territory. What we have heard…"

The first one took up the conversation. "…Is not to your credit. You are all fools…"

"…Fools," emphasized the second one, causing Seilah to start twitching a little. This back-and-forth speech was most irritating, especially when added to the insults. "Fools who serve that mad creature Zeref. Or that magic creation of his, Mard Gear."

"We are older than you," said the first one, its tone somewhere between content and unconcerned. "Older by far. We will…"

"…Continue to be here long after you are all gone. The blood,…" the blue-eyed demon, the first one said.

"…Sacrifice," they both said as one, teeth flashing. "Is all that matters. This is,…" the green eyed one said.

"…Our territory. We will not leave it, and every thirty years we will destroy anything within. Animals, monsters, humans…"

"…Humans~~," said the second one, giving the word an odd lilt as if it was savoring it. "The finest sacrifice, the most blood, the most power." Again they sighed as one, like a gourmand savoring a treat.

Seilah frowned. She, her lover Kyoka, and several of the others had argued against approaching these two or, rather, this one demon, the demon Halphas. It was not, as it bluntly stated, a creation of the great mage Zeref like those demons in Tarturus, beings of the books he had created. Rather, it was one of several dozen or perhaps more, original demons, who had been around far longer than Zeref.

Master Mard Gear theorized that these demons were created by the gestalt awareness of humanity at some distant time in the past, their awareness somehow coming into being either through some kind of metaphysical threshold being passed or perhaps the local gestalt centering on an item or token, much like gods. The item or token theory certainly held true in a few areas, and Tartaros had had some luck gathering such. In the case of others, such as Halphas, it was a place they were linked to.

This place in particular had been the site of a large…Seilah hesitated to call it a civilization, a tribe would perhaps be the better word. In any event, they had been a very ugly group of blood worshipers who took power from blood and believed in a water deity, feeding the blood of willing and unwilling sacrifices into the pool here at the base of the waterfall. How they did this and what their rituals could have been, no one knew. That had been long before even the days of the Guild Wars here in Fiore, long before the continent had even been abandoned. Seilah had supposed Halphas had been a deity in those years: the kind that embodied to separate, directly opposing one another but still seen as part of a single deity.

For a moment Seilah thought about that, about the ages that had passed and what this demon might have seen. She felt interest stir within her, but it was abruptly halted as the demons spoke again in their eerie, disturbing, and very irritating back-and-forth.

"Blood is the key," said one Halphas body, looking at her, its eyes beginning to gleam red.

"Blood is the key," said the other, its own eyes gleaming. "Your blood, little demon, would serve just as well."

"That blood would cost you. Your story would come to a very abrupt end," Seilah said, bluffing slightly. While she knew that she would be able to put up a fight against these two if she transformed, she didn't know if she could win. The dual nature of this demon would give her quite a bit of trouble even **if** in overall magical power she could win. _On the other hand, my curse should work on them,_ she thought to herself, staring at them angrily.

They seemed to realize that too and subsided back into their pool, their lips curled in contempt for her and their pointed teeth once more on display. "We will not joinTartaros. We will not speak to…"

"…One such as you again. If, perhaps, that mad creature comes to us himself…"

"…We will then speak with him and, perhaps, even agree. So long as…"

"…We get enough blood."

"But only if he comes here to treat with us…"

"…personally," they said as one.

"The fact that you cannot meet him where he is now is, of course, also an issue," Seilah said caustically. "Your story is all to easy to understand in that area. You are tied to this little pool and cannot leave your territory even if you wanted to."

The two demons growled angrily in unison, standing up abruptly. This revealed their full bodies, which were androgynous. As they left the water, their bodies transformed slightly, into one male and one female. The female's features shifted into those of Seilah herself, while the male's features shifted through dozens, then hundreds of faces as they glared madly at Seilah. "Begone, demon! Your blood would make us far stronger, and we **hunger**!" they said as one.

Seilah's eye twitched, and she held up a hand, gesturing with two fingers towards them as her curse's power appeared around her hands. "Stop," she ordered.

They paused, their bodies trembling, then slowly began to move, and she made a hissing noise deep in her throat before leaping into the air. "I will go and convey your message. Just do not think for one moment that Master Mard Gear will be as accepting of your arrogance as I was."

With that she flew off into the distance, leaving Halphas alone. They stared first after her and then at one another, their bodies twitching suddenly into gender neutral forms as they broke out of the hold her curse had created on them with ease. "Fool," they said as one, then paused, staring at one of the rivers leading out from the pool. "Someone comes!" one went on, though now there was no difference between the two.

"Someone powerful," said the second one, an aura of power flaring up around both of them as they took to the sky, winging their way towards the incoming humans. "Blood!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Leaping up from where they had just been following the river, Carla clamped onto Ranma's back, her wings flaring out as Wendy used her own magic power to boost herself into the air and Mirajane activated her Satan soul, flying up through the treetops to get a better idea of the lay of the land. They stopped suddenly, staring at a woman flying towards them. Ranma gestured for Carla to drop him, and he landed lightly on a treetop while Mirajane landed nearby with Wendy.

"She looks familiar," Wendy mused, scratching at her chin. "I think I've seen her somewhere before".

"You have?" Ranma asked, looking at his little sister quickly. "Where?"

"I don't know. When I was a lot younger I think, before we made our treehouse down in Bellum, for certain."

"That is a few years back," Ranma teased, ruffling her hair even as his eyes latched onto the woman. She had seen them too, and, though she hesitated at the sight of Mira, she slowed her pace, staring down at Ranma impassively. He simply blushed, remembering how their last meeting had ended, and waved a hand. "Um, hey, Seilah. You're…not the demon reported in this area, are you?"

"I am not," she said, confirming to Mirajane that she was, in fact, a demon, and that the two of them knew one another, which was something she didn't particularly like. "Are you here to end this demon's story?"

"I am," Ranma said, his body tensing subtly. "Is that a problem?"

"Not at all," Seilah said with a shrug. "Halphas is rather arrogant and most irritating, almost human in that regard. If you could end its story then that is all to the good in my eyes. Even you humans would benefit from it, and I, for once, would not care about that aspect either."

She blinked and looked down at Wendy as the young girl spoke up abruptly, a smile on her face. "Oh, I recognize you now! You're the woman I met at the festival in Joya. I still think your horns are pretty, miss."

Mira chuckled at that, and Seilah seemed to smile. She nodded politely to Wendy, then looked back at Ranma, her eyes narrowing. "Are you somehow following me?"

"Nope," Ranma said, then shrugged. "There was a bit of a kerfuffle on the Wizard's Council for this country; one of its members was a traitor. He was interested in this Halphas, and that, in turn, grabbed my attention."

That caused the woman to frown. "I see. Then, in that event, we have no conflict unless you wish to make one."

Mirajane growled. "You're a demon! How can we trust your word? You might just wait around in the area until we do your dirty work, taking out this Halphas demon, and then you can try to swoop in and fight us while we're weak."

"A logical strategy and assumption," Seilah said with a nod, taking no offense and, in fact, being amused by it. _I sense demonic type magic in her somehow, yet she is also human. A hybrid, perhaps, or is her magic of a type that lets her manipulate demonic energies? No, the sense of a demon is too large for that, almost as if she has a soul of a demon in her thrall.… A Takeover soul, Demon type, then? Very dangerous, and discovering such a one makes this mission worth it even without getting Halphas to join us._

"However, it is also based upon a false presumption. I have met this one before," she said, gesturing at Ranma, "and I know that he is beyond me."

Mirajane looked over at Ranma, who coughed and looked away a little, a blush on his face. She frowned at that, then looked back up at Seilah, who was also now looking away feeling blood rushing to her face for some reason she could not fathom. "I see…" Mira growled. "Then I would suggest you keep on flying, devil girl! Or else I just might want to see how **I** do against you."

Seilah shrugged and floated higher into the air. "I will not wish you luck. Whoever wins this, myself and my master will win."

Before anyone else could question what she just said, Seilah was racing away as fast as she could fly. Which was very fast indeed, Mirajane had to admit. She then turned to glare at Ranma. "So, that would be the human-shaped demon you met before? Is there any reason why you're blushing at the moment?" she asked tartly.

"Indeed," Carla said with some amusement from where she had been standing, silent, during the exchange. "That is most unusual for you."

"I don't think this is the right moment for this conversation," Ranma said brightly, pointing ahead as something else flew towards them. In the distance the two bodies that composed the demon Halphas could be seen, its scales gleaming in the light of the sun. "I think were about to have violent-type company."

Mirajane turned in that direction and scowled, seeing the two demons winging their way towards them now. "If there are two, why did that bitch a moment ago speak about this Halphas like there was just one? Fuck it, we'll continue this discussion later," Mirajane growled angrily, sweeping away to the side through the air.

Once more Ranma felt back whorls began to appear all over his body even as he could feel the battle in his body once more becoming a three-way war. It was slightly distracting, which impacted the new ability to read his opponent. But he knew from experience that it wouldn't be enough to really slow him down. Balancing lightly on the treetop that should never have been able to take his weight, he stared ahead as the demons came closer. "Wendy, Carla, get high! Come down and hammer them if you can, but stay clear until we have an idea of the powers this demon possesses and it's certain Mira and I need help."

Shifting back to her Exceed form, Carla hopped up onto Wendy's back, sliding into the special harness there, her wings flaring out as Wendy pushed off of the tree branch that she was standing on and flared high up into the sky. For a moment the two demons paused, then one of them soared forward towards Ranma, the other angling away towards Mirajane. "Divide and conquer!" Ranma shouted. "Let's assume they are weaker apart."

"Fine by me," Mirajane shouted back, then began the party by shouting, "Soul Extinction!" A bright blast of purple and black magical power shot from her clawed hand only to be met and then battered to the side by a similar energy blast from one of the demons.

Even as one of their bodies blocked that, the demon narrowed its four eyes, scowling angrily. That type of blast told it much about one of the mages facing them: a mage that must have taken over the soul of one of its fellows, a demon that had been created by the darkness in humanity itself. _The human must pay for that!_

Ranma brought his hands together and launched a Moko Takabisha towards the demon coming towards him, watching as it attempted to bat the ball aside. But the ki blast had quite a bit more energy in it then its size presaged, and ki wasn't magic, not quite. The demon was only able to make it explode short of where it would have impacted its face.

The blast blew that portion of Halphas's body off course, singeing its scales lightly. And, before it could regain its balance in midair, Ranma was on it, having crossed the intervening distance in a single leap, smashing into the thing. A hard blow to the face caught it solid, and then a point blank "Soryu no Tsume (Water Dragon's Claw)!" ripped into its wing, which immediately began to regenerate.

The demon snarled, enraged, clawing at Ranma with one hand while energy built up in the other before trying to blast him with a point-blank spell which looked like an Evil Spark.

But Ranma grabbed it by the shoulders and flipped himself up and over the attack, bringing his leg down in a kick that took the demon in the face, sending it flying backwards.

Yet the demon in front of him didn't seem discouraged or even hurt by the blow. Instead, it shifted its body entirely, its wings becoming larger and more leathery, its body shifting from what had been asexual into something more mannish its mouth also becoming covered by blue scales. Its body's weight also seemed to grow, its hands enlarging along with its tail.

From every finger and from its tail came blasts of magical energy, coruscating through the air. Ranma dodged most, but the one from the tail seemed to be heat-seeking, and it tagged him in the side, flipping him up and around in midair to crash through the trees. He pushed off quickly, though, flying upwards again and gathering his own magical power to lash out with a, "Soryu no Kyojin Panchi (Water Dragon's Titan Punch)!"

But the demon's hands quickly shifted back into what they had been before. It too gathered water energy, meeting Ranma's blast with one of its own. The two giant water fists, one made to look like a Dragon's claw, the other a full demon's claw, similar yet different at the same time, strove against one another in midair over the forest, both of them straining against one another.

Elsewhere Mirajane and the demon facing her flew around one another, hitting, then moving away. Lashing out with magical power, zooming over the forest and then up, then down, and all around in what looked for all the world like a dogfight of some kind. If jets had the same maneuverability as helicopters plus their own natural speed, of course. Devil Sparks, Soul Extinction, and other spells crisscrossed the air between them, with Halphas conjuring up a shield of water energy around one of its forearms, using it to block the physical blows coming in from Mirajane. It then used its other hand to create a cascade of darkly distorted water, blocking out Mirajane's view of the demon for a moment.

When she blasted her way through, the demon was seemingly gone, with Wendy and Carla in its place, scowling down at a hole in the forest below them. Mirajane looked in that direction and then ducked under an attack from this seeming Wendy, her elbow flashing into the creature's chest and hurling it away. "Did you really think I would fall for that!?" she shouted aloud, shaking her head. "Really! You stink of dark magic, and Wendy's about as pure as any aura I've ever felt!"

The demon's form shifted, becoming something like the form now facing Ranma, except this one still retained something of its feminine frame, with a slight curve to the chest. Other than that they were exactly identical, complete to the now glowing red eyes, which fired a beam of energy towards Mirajane. She blocked it with her forearm, wincing as the heat of it seemed to burn the scales of her green-scaled forearm. She looked up in shock as the demon closed, grabbing her head and hurling her down into the ground. Mira righted herself, but the demon flew over her, blasting down at Mira with both hands, darkness magic from one and some other magic that Mirajane had never seen before, although it looked something like Jellal's Cosmic Magic, from the other hand.

Mirajane couldn't dodge all of the attacks, and she howled as one of them smashed into her knee and the other one ripped into her wing, sending her tumbling downwards. _Shit! This demon is strong! I'm going to have to break out all of my tricks here._

An instant later, as the demon moved to continue its attack, it was struck but from behind by a "Tenryu no Hoko (Sky Dragon's Roar)!" which hurled it downwards to smash into the trees near Mirajane. Wendy followed up with a kick to the face and a shout of, "Air Dragon's Mighty Stomp!" The condensed wave of air pressure that she had created underneath her foot, which would've hurled her upwards in one of her giant jumps, normally, smashed into the demon's head and hurled it sideways through several trees. It eventually crashed into a large boulder, which cracked under the impact.

"Now, Carla!" Wendy shouted, landing next to the wounded Mirajane.

At her cry, Carla shouted out her own attack, flying down towards the demon. "Cat Fist claws!" she shouted, her ki claws appearing and slicing forward even as she kept her distance. Four crescent shaped claws that looked to most like magic flew towards the demon.

Sensing the deadliness of the attack, the demon raised up a giant shield via its water magic which absorbed the blow. An instant later the demon flew through previously solid water like it was so much air, its fist lashing out in a punch aimed at the cat-girl's chest.

Somehow Wendy got between them right before the blow could land, grabbing the demon's wrist and halting the attack. She flipped up and over it to land a kick across the demon's face with the boom of a cannon going off, the sign of another Air Dragon's Mighty Stomp going off.

But this time the demon was ready, its body having shifted into a larger more powerful form. It took the blow without flinching, hurling Wendy down to the ground where it lashed out with a magic blast. It caught Wendy in the chest, and she yelled aloud in pain but rolled away from it even as the blast continued to try to track her.

And then Mirajane was in the demon's face, a hard blow to that face halting the magic attack. "Evil Explosion!" she roared, and a point blank magical attack blasted this thing off of its feet again, shattering much of the surrounding trees and searing large portions of the demon's skin. Yet, even so, the demon's healing ability came to the rescue, healing the damage even as its scales shifted slightly, becoming darker and harder.

Undaunted, Mirajane kept up the attack while Wendy and Carla regrouped, coming in from either side. It occurred to the demon then that splitting its attention between them like this had not been the proper thing to do. Each segment of it was slowly getting overwhelmed. Its shape shifting magic was able to deal with some of the attacks by forming into armor that could match them, but the number of magical types it was facing negated that, and its shifting entirely into other forms had been unable to throw its opponents off their stride. That left simply wearing them down, and the demon didn't think it could do that separately like this.

As the demon fighting Ranma was thrown backwards from his magical assault, it shifted form, becoming smaller and faster with several more wings forming out of its legs. In this new form it flew around Ranma, dodging his attacks and moving to aid its fellow.

"Oh, no you don't!" Ranma shouted, landing lightly on a tree branch and then roaring out, "Soryu no Takameru Ho (Water Dragon's Boosted Step)!"

Just as the smaller demon was about to strike Wendy from behind, Ranma caught up to it, a punch to the back of its head hurling it over Wendy's head to land by its fellow. Ranma landed next to his sister, who looked to be wincing a little, holding her chest. Ranma growled angrily, then nodded to her. "Spread out! Take them from all sides! And Wendy, use **it**!"

Nodding resolutely while wondering how the heck a nice conversation with the pretty horned lady had turned into such a dangerous fight so quickly against these other demons Wendy gathered her internal magic. Breathing in deeply, Wendy took in the air of the battlefield while Ranma, Mirajane, and Carla took the fight to the demons for a second. As she did, her body began to glow.

Together, the two demons worked like a single unit, guarding, defending, and attacking all as one. This didn't mean that the three attackers couldn't get in any attacks, but it was becoming far harder, with the demons' ability to work together almost canceling out Ranma's abilities to sense their movements and his general speed advantage. Worse for the attackers, the demons' ability made certain that any damage done to one was covered by the other until the damage healed. Even as the land around them started to be destroyed by the magic released—lines of earth carved out, a crater appearing all around them—the two kept going.

Mirajane, in particular, found herself hard-pressed to keep up and snarled as another blow got through to her face, making her jaw clench and blood to flow from a cut on her lip. The next punch to get through nearly caved in her ribs, hurling her backwards. "FUCK!" she howled, then flipped in the air, her talon-like feet digging into the ground as she brought herself to a halt, her eyes beginning to glow as she began to concentrate. _Time for a power up, I think!_

At the same time Mira was thinking that, Wendy had finished gathering her magical power to her and shouted, "Sky Dragon Force!" A pillar of energy appeared around the little girl, and her features changed abruptly. Her skin became whiter, with scales appearing here and there on her forearms, back, and ankles that were shaped like wings, her hair turning light purple at the same time to match her eyes.

An instant later she charged forward, slamming bodily into one of the demons even as it tried to shift its form to become heavier and more solid. A punch was barely blocked, the blow instead shattering the fin along one of its forearms. Another blow caught it in the open mouth, shattering teeth. That blow hurled it back, causing it to smash into the other demon's back.

That demon turned, lashing out at Wendy, but she ducked under the attack, kicking out hard and taking out its leg as Ranma came in, smashing a blow to its face, then roaring aloud as he brought up his other hand. "Soryu No Doriru Kagitsume (Water Dragon's Drilling Claw)!"

That attack ripped off one of the demon's arms, causing it to let loose the first noise it had made since shouting for blood when it first closed with them. It screamed in agony even as the wound began to heal and another arm slowly began to pop out from where it had been torn off.

"Keep it up!" Ranma shouted.

The other demon came back into the fight then, lashing out at both Dragon Slayers with water attacks, but Ranma roared, opening his mouth and sucking the water attacking them into his mouth. It tasted foul, so freaking foul, the most disgusting thing he'd ever tasted this side of Akane's cooking, like stale iron, curdled blood and fermented rat. But Ranma was able to keep it down and used it to power his next attack while also putting as much of his own magic into it as he felt he could. _Who knew I'd ever_ _be thankful to have gone through eating Akane's cooking?_ "Soryu no Hoko (Water Dragon's Roar)!"

His attack was like a tsunami in miniature, coupled with a twisting maelstrom. It slammed both demons away and through dozens, then hundreds of different trees and boulders, the two demons crashing and tumbling away. They both screamed then in pain and raw anger.

But the attack didn't kill them! Even as their arms and pieces of their heads were torn off by the attack, they started to heal. As Ranma's attack ended the two of them began to blast out Demonic and Cosmic energies, tagging both Dragon Slayers and Carla who had just been flying down to try and attack them from behind.

The attack smashed Carla in the gut, hurling her out of the air with a cry and knocking the cat unconscious. Wendy gasped in pain, but, thanks to her Dragon Force, she was able to take the blows just as Ranma could, and they raced forward with Ranma exchanging his magic attacks with the demon.

An instant later between one step and the next, Mira roared out, "Take Over Soul: Sitri!"

The Satan Soul instantly faded out in a flash of flame, out of which Mira strode in a new form. In this body she wore a blue and white dress coat over a similarly colored body suit. The coat had a large black collar, and the dress was closed around the body suit by two belts around her waist, but open beyond that. Mira had also grown horns on the side of her head, thick yellow horns with slight points. Her hair had also grown tremendously. Her claws had shrunk, replaced by claws that looked like they were crossed with gauntlet.

"Evil flame!" A ball of fire so bright it seared the eye was launched towards the demons. One of those demons twitched around the other, firing up a giant wall of water. The two attacks created a huge amount of steam, so hot it forced even Ranma and Wendy back.

It also allowed the two demons to try to break contact and use their shape-shifting.

"Where did they go?" Wendy asked, glaring angrily around her. She didn't like to fight, but she had joined in the fight initially knowing that Mirajane had been getting pushed back, wanting to give her some help. Now her friend was down and injured, unconscious, and Wendy was beginning to take this fight very seriously indeed. A tiny part of her also liked to show off her Dragon Force. It gave her a nice little feeling of pride inside that she was able to do something her Nii-chan couldn't.

Ranma scowled, shaking his head. "Use your senses, Wendy. They can shape shift; they might have shifted into a tree or rock or something. That's new," he said as an aside, looking over to Mirajane as she landed next to them.

"It's my most powerful Take Over soul," said Mirajane, glaring around her, her voice deeper and more resonant than it had been before, and she smirked. "Besides, if you want to fight water, you need to bring the fire."

"I don't think that actually works, but whatever. It must by Fairy Tail logic," Ranma said with a faint chuckle, taking stock of Wendy's injuries and the number he'd taken before they'd healed, thanks to his own ki healing. This demon was tough and skilled, and letting the two of them link up was obviously a mistake.

Sniffing the air, Ranma frowned in puzzlement, one of his eyes being covered in black lines for a moment as he stared around them. Just as he was about to point, Wendy pointed in a different direction, shouting, "There they are!"

One of the demons had been trying to imitate a tree. That was the demon Wendy had spotted, able to sniff it out. Demons smelled different, and this one, in particular, smelled otherworldly. Wendy idly wondered why that was, since what she had smelled of Seilah had smelled nice, in a sort of cloying way.

The other demon had shifted into a snake, of all things, slithering around behind them before transforming back into its demon form. As Wendy and Mira were about to launch attacks at the tree, it attacked from behind. But Ranma had seen lines of some kind of energy feeding into the tree and the snake moving around behind them and turned. He grabbed the punch as it was about to hit Wendy, flipping himself upwards into a kick that caught the thing in the face, hurling it backwards.

Both girls twisted in that direction, and the tree suddenly shifted, between one second and the next transforming into the demon's body, hurling itself forward.

It caught Mirajane in the back, smashing her into Wendy and rending at Mira's cloak, tearing it into strips despite the magical defenses on it before she turned, her steel claw clad fists lashing out with more speed and power then the demon had previously seen from her. It caught the demon on the chin, hurling its head backward before a flame blast nearly seared a hole in the demon's chest but for its last minute dodge, instead flash-frying a chunk of its side.

Then Wendy grabbed it from the front and smashed it down into the ground, headfirst over her shoulder.

But the demon didn't seem to notice the impact against the ground, its hands flaring with cosmic energy, one beam of which caught Mirajane in the chest, the other which caught Wendy in the head, hurling her backwards with a cry of pain. Ranma turned with a snarl, his own hand filled with magical energy as he clamped it down onto the demon's chest, the piercing fang this time ripping through the demons chest and out the other side, causing both of them to keen in agony, that demon stumbling backwards even as it healed from a shot that should've killed it.

"Do we have to kill them both at the same time or something?" Mirajane shouted, leaping over Ranma to engage the demon he had been fighting a second before. Behind her Wendy howled, sending a point blank Tenryu no Saige (Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang) into the demon which had injured her, trying to follow up on Ranma's attack. She was hurt but still very game, and her Dragon Force gave her as much durability as Ranma had.

Maybe. I.…" Ranma frowned, staring at whatever the hell his Devil Slayer magic was trying to tell him. Overlaying his normal sight were red lines. They throbbed as Wendy's attack hit home, nearly slicing one of the Demon's legs off despite the demon having shifted its scales to a form to try to deflect her Air element. But as Mirajane smashed the demon she was currently fighting, the one line between the demons separated enough for Ranma to see a very thin line moving elsewhere. "What the?…" Then the Halphas body currently fighting Wendy pushed through her assault to strike at Ranma, and he had to dodge to one side, still thinking hard.

"I've got an idea!" Ranma shouted, a magically powered version of his old Amaguriken attack hurling the demon back, its body broken in hundreds of places for a moment. Not bothering to press his advantage, Ranma turned away, racing off even faster than he had been running before to get to this area in the first place. "Hold them off here for a bit!"

"Wait, what?" Mira shouted in return, taking a blow to the side of her head that did little but twist it around. She turned and slammed a fiery, magic infused hand into the demon, scorching its scales black and then deeper. A blow of cosmic magic took her in the chest, making her release the Halphas's body she was fighting and double over in pain, but she rolled to the side to avoid another blow that had just been about to take her in the chin.

Snarling in fury, Wendy (and boy, was Mira having to reevaluate her!) hurled the demon she'd been fighting into its fellow, letting Mira push upright and launch her own attacks. "Trust Ranma-nii! He knows how to fight and spot weaknesses better than anyone! He's spotted something!"

Halphas, however, was not stupid. It too realized that the most dangerous threat had retreated from combat for a reason, and, worse, he was racing towards its pool. Without any change in expression, one of them began to back away, but Wendy wouldn't let it. She zoomed into the sky faster than it could and dove down, hammering into it with a "Tenryu no Yokugeki (Sky Dragon's Wing Attack)!" The condensed hurricane slammed the Halphas demon into the ground, shattering the area around it for over a hundred yards in every direction. The attack would keep it pinned into the ground as long as Wendy kept it up. The other Halphas-body turned and, instead of helping its fellow, broke off, racing around them and towards Ranma.

"Oh, hell no!" Mira shouted. "Evil Fire Flare!" she howled, both hands thrusting forward. The attack slashed out like a crescent, red, purple and black. It took the Halphas demon from the side, slicing deep into its hastily enlarged form, cutting one of its legs right off and deep into the knee of the other leg. Even as it fell, the demon fired back, the blast taking Mira in the chest, but, thanks to her Sitri form, she just took it, barreling through the attack to close the distance. "You're not going anywhere!"

Ranma trusted the two of them to keep the Halphas demon off him, racing away towards where the line of red his Devil Slayer magic saw lay out like a filament in the air. The land he raced through was now changed, thanks to the fight: shattered, broken, burning, and scarred. But the rivers, he noticed, hadn't been affected. Not that he cared about either of those observations right now.

The red line dove into the water of a pool underneath a giant waterfall, and he stared at the deep, dark water. For some reason the water here looked darker than even the deepest ocean depths, and he scowled angrily, wondering what the heck was going on here. Despite not knowing exactly what it was, however, Ranma had an idea of what to do about it. First he shattered a few nearby boulders, hurling them into the stream beyond the waterfall, cutting off the water for a moment. Without a thought he jumped into the water, triggering the change, then pushed her head down into the water, her mouth wide.

It tasted foul. _No, that was an understatement,_ Ranma thought, fighting back her gag reflex. It tasted as if Akane had somehow mixed all her creations into one monstrous meal and then forced it down Ranma's throat. It was so foul she couldn't even think of words to try to describe the flavors except for the word tainted. It was tainted, wrong and fundamentally vile in a way Ranma had never run into before. That didn't stop Ranma from sucking all the water she could into her mouth. She then spat it up and out of the pool, and did it all over again.

It took Ranma three times, but she eventually emptied the pool to find a stone of some kind in the bottom of the pool. It was in the center of skulls and other bones, which carpeted the stony bottom of the pool. Raging, Ranma hopped over to it, her hands lashing out with her own Neko-claws, thinking it might be immune to magical attacks, especially water-based ones.

The stone wasn't cut by her ki claws. Instead, it just shattered like brittle glass. There was the sound of a tortured scream and an explosion of suddenly released power, hurling Ranma into the side of the pool with enough power to embed her in the rock, making her cry out in agony. But whatever spells that had connected that rock to the Halphas demon were severed instantly.

The Halphas demon screamed now in pure rage, trying to break off their fights and regroup, but despite the one having just broken out from under Wendy's attack, Mira closed with them, slamming one of their bodies into the other and snarling out a "Soul Extinction!" The beam of power slammed into and through both of them, ripping out the chest of one and the stomach of the other. And this time, this time they didn't heal. This time they felt it, and both fell to their knees, slumping to their sides.

A triumphant grin on her face, Mira marched up to the dying demons and leaned down, grabbing their heads, one in each metal-gauntleted hand. "Take Over!"

Wendy landed nearby, gasping and shuddering, her Dragon Force dissipating within seconds, leaving her so weak she could barely stand. "Oh, my. I, wow, I really do not want to do that again."

This was a sentiment that Ranma could fully appreciate. While the actual fight hadn't honestly pushed Ranma all that hard save in the magical attacks, taking in the tainted water had really taken it out of her. It had somehow fought Ranma in a way, the taint attempting to use her Demon Slayer magic to twist her in turn while also fighting off her control. But she had done it, and now, as her Devil Slayer magic dissipated, Ranma wearily climbed up the forty feet or so of stone before getting to the seat-like area around the side of the pool. She then pulled herself up onto the embankment where she lay for a few seconds, then pushed herself up to her feet and wearily made her way back the way she had come.

The redhead found Wendy first, wobbling on her feet, and caught the young girl before she could fall, pulling Wendy up into her arms. "Did, did I do good, Ranma-nii?" the tired girl whispered, nuzzling into the redhead's chest, very happy that Ranma was in his softer, more squishy female form right now.

"Yeah, imouto, you did it all right! We won," Ranma said, cuddling the younger girl for a moment before looking over her shoulder. _Gonna have to come back when I feel up to it to destroy that pool more permanently. I can't sense any more demons, but some things just should not be allowed to exist._

He looked over to Mira, who had made a crutch for herself before coming out of her Take Over: Sitri form. Once she had canceled it, some of the injuries Mira had taken had made themselves known on her normal body in the form of a horribly bruised knee, thigh, and side. Despite that, there was a shine of triumph in Mira's eyes as she moved to lean on Ranma's free side, while Carla moaned in pain on her back. "Well, that was fun. We should head back to Mermaid Heel now. I think they definitely owe us a few rounds of drinks for this day's work."

 **End Chapter**

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Two-thirds of this chapter I loved, while a third I hated. I absolutely loathe having to write out bits that go near to the original like I had to here but that aren't so different as to be fun. It's like pulling teeth. On the other hand, everything else, I think, went very well. Please, as always, tell me what you think, and I hope you enjoyed it!


	12. Chapter 12

I can't draw so the originals ain't mine.

Merry Christmas and Happy fourth night of Hanukkah everybody. A bit late for the first, a bit early for the second, but such is the way of compromise. This is one of two _Making Waves_ chapters I'll be posting this month here, with the other being posted on New Year's Eve. This allowed me to concentrate on my Patty on presents: _Heroes of the High Seas_ , a pair of teaser chapters for a My Hero Academia and One Piece crossover, and a teaser chapter for a new Highschool of the Dead/Ranma crossover called _An Aunt's Touch_ as well as the latest _Making Waves_ chapter. If you want to see those, think about going over and signing up.

Warning: This is a bit of a segue chapter. That doesn't mean it isn't important, since it is a segue chapter to the next two chapters and the issues therein, but don't expect major developments or huge fights in this.

Thanks go to _justlovereadin_ ' for his work as FT expert and small mistake guy and to _Hiryo_ for looking at this for me. The month this first came out I wanted _Michael_ to concentrate on _**FILFy**_ , given how many mistakes there were in the last chapter, and given that he wouldn't have had enough time to do both.

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 **Chapter 12: Rivals and Trolling**

Ranma and Mirajane carried the two comatose forms as they moved through the woods back to the guild, leaving behind the decimated, blasted land of the fight against Halphas. Ranma had to stop occasionally as her stomach rumbled at her, and she swayed, almost visibly weakened, though not so much physically as mentally and magically. Something in the pool she'd drained was both feeding her Devil Slayer magic, and fighting her ki and Dragon Slayer magic. It was losing thankfully, but it was giving Ranma 'her' first actual stomachache since arriving in this world.

Man! This is as bad as some of the food Akane forced me to eat! Freaking crazy blue-haired enemy of all that is good and tasty," Ranma groused. "Damn it, this is so not an experience I wanted to feel again."

"Hah, that Akane must've been some kind of cook," Mira said with a laugh. "I've seen Natsu eat practically anything you could set on fire, and he's never had a reaction like this."

"Well, one time she tried to make curry with chicken. Instead of adding salt, she added sugar. The rice looked black. The chicken looked as if it came pre-chewed. The dressing itself was practically alive, literally moving away from the spoon as you tried to eat it. The first time she tried to make cookies, not only where they shaped oddly, but one of them was bad enough to knock me on my ass," Ranma reminisced.

Mira rolled her eye. "You're pulling my leg. No one who's ever cooked could ever mistake sugar for salt, you'd know the instant you tried it yourself."

"She never taste-tested her own food." At Mira's still skeptical look, Ranma went on, his eyes locked in a thousand-yard stare. "At one point, she tried to experiment. She put peanut butter on salmon and then thought that adding fresh cut diced okra to rice plus Tabasco powder would make it taste good. Her cooking was a lethal weapon. I still sometimes have nightmares about it."

"That's freaking disgusting. I still don't know if I believe you but just, stop talking." Mirajane said, shuddering and moving away.

They soon came within sight of the tree-boat that was the guildhall of the all girl's guild, Mermaid Heel. As they did, cheers broke out, shouts and exclamations nearly waking up Wendy from her sleep. Ranma shushed her, watching as Carla climbed off Mary's back, and shifted back into her human form.

She thoughtfully stood there, pushing some hair out of her face, as she looked at the women swarming out of the large treehouse towards them. "Was our fight with that demon so visible?"

"It was," said Orca, holding the door to the guild open. "Hey you lot, stop crowding them and let's get them inside." Her guildswomen obeyed, though a few were still shouting questions or congratulations towards them.

As the trio entered with Ranma still carrying Wendy, Orca explained. "We saw a lot of flashes, and even heard some of the sonic booms that you were all letting out, a few tongues of flame, and huge hands of water." She shook her head. "Truly, you Fairy Tail mages are a step above. I would never have thought that demon could be beaten by anyone not a Wizard Saint."

Ranma was too tired, and too busy dealing with his stomach issues to bother correcting the woman on the whole Fairy Tail mage thing. "Let me put this one up somewhere, we need to talk to you about the aftermath of that fight anyway."

"We have a dorm hall in the basement if you want to use it," Orca replied, gesturing to a doorway Ranma thought looked like something a Hobbit would love. "The rooms down there are actually quite nice."

"Hey wait!" said another woman. This one was dressed with a spider theme, had green hair done in drill shapes, and was quite tall. She was standing next to a short almost rotund woman, who was grinning wildly at them. "You have to tell us that about that fight! It really did look like something out of a Wizard Saint fight!"

Ranma and Mirajane shrugged at that, but Ranma shook her head at Orca's question. "No, I'll put her up on the balcony for now. And as for the fight, Mira can fill you in if she wants."

Soon enough Wendy was situated on the balcony allowing her a very nice view of the surrounding forest. Pulling out a sleeping bag, Ranma gently lifted Wendy into it, closing the zipper. Carla skipped past him exchanging a tired nod as she too got into the same sleeping bag with Wendy.

Down below, Mirajane was already describing what they had found out about the demon Halphas, to which Orca listened intently, nodding as she heard about the strange sacrificial pool. "I'll send out a dozen mages to destroy that pool this very day!"

"Destroying it might not be enough," Ranma said with a shake of her head, sitting across from Mira and slumping down to rest her head on the table tiredly. "I have no idea how long it took for the magic to feed into the water, and considering that it was in a river, we can't ignore the idea that it might be a very fast process. I'll go and divert the water somehow elsewhere up above the waterfall. Destroying that pool is only the start."

"We have other mages that can do that," Orca assured the redhead. "Don't worry, by the time we're done we'll have erased that place and whatever it was used for from existence."

Ranma nodded leaning back and rubbing her stomach for a moment, her hand moving up to knead at her eyes. "Okay," she muttered to herself. "That demon was different from any of the others I've fought. It was smarter than most, had a healing factor and was also human-sized. It was almost like a mix of the other three forms, but I think it's a type three."

"What is a type three, and I find it very disturbing that you've run into enough devils to want to categorize them," Mirajane with a mock sympathetic shake of her head, the glint in her eyes giving it away.

"How did you get your first devil's soul?" Ranma asked instead of answering.

Mirajane winced but answered readily enough, if in a very broad manner. "A demon attacked our town, and I was able to somehow defeat it. With that, my magic activated, and I took over its soul." This was a very limited summary of an event that left her ostracized and forced her and her siblings to leave town as the peasants thought she had been cursed, but she didn't feel like going into all that right now.

"And it didn't have a name, it wasn't a giant?" Ranma asked.

"It had a name, Satan! It called itself All the world's Evil," Mirajane said with a growl. "It even spoke occasionally, taunting me and shouting about how I'd be a most flavorful morsel."

"That was definitely a type three too," Ranma murmured to herself, then shook her head. "All right, and your other one, the one with fire powers? Also, what do you get when you Take-over their soul?"

"Sitri? She was some kind of volcano demon who worshiped by locals in a she will smite us if we don't believe in her kind of way. A young boy in the town was able to get out a message to the Magic Council about it, when his sister was going to be sacrificed to the demon. I beat her down and took her soul," Mira said, grinning. "From the three I've taken I've only gotten their powers and a certain amount of magical energy added to my core. Nothing from their personality carries over if that's what you're worried about. Well, except that I am a bit more prone to violence whatever the soul I'm using." Mira chuckled then became serious. 'Now freaking answer my questions!"

Ranma nodded slowly. "Okay, here's what I think. There are three types of devils in the world, devils, demons whatever you want to call them. Maybe we should use one term for one type, and the other for the other two? Whatever." Ranma shook her head concentrating once more. "A type three is a sentient…" she paused thinking "maybe a concept? Call them are sentient concepts, centers of religion in some fashion involving blood sacrifice, or just simple faith. Some of them can be sentient like Halphas, some of them can be more bestial like the Beast or this giant shark thing I ran into in Caelum."

Smirking Ranma cracked her knuckles. "Thing was used to being the baddest bastard in the water. Boy, was it surprised." Shaking her head Ranma went on. "But whatever their intellect is like, there's no doubt that these 'devils' are created, almost, from the humans who worshiped their images or whatever."

"That makes sense," Orca said, having made no move to leave as the two of them talked. "There are Gods out there after all, so stands to reason that there'd be devils created in the same fashion."

Ranma blinked. "What? There are actually gods out there? Geeze, that sounds weird just saying it."

Orca shrugged her shoulders. "There are weirder things out there, trust me," she said dryly. "There's even a magical branch lost magic obviously based on there being gods around, God Slayer magic, a Lost Magic like your Dragon Slayer magic is supposed to be."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Ranma said and then she sighed. "And if I do, it'll be just my luck have to fight one of them."

Elsewhere the member of Grimoire Heart named Zancrow, sneezed loudly, feeling as his head had just been blown off. "Damn, 'scuzeee…" he trailed off as he looked up, noting that he'd sneezed on Master Hades, whose one visible eye was twitching as he slowly stood up from the table they had all been eating at. "Oh fuck me..."

"Then there are the intelligent human sized demons, who seem to have some connection to Zeref, if only through the second type." Ranma went on.

Elsewhere, it was Seilah's turn to sneeze. Then she blinked, crossing her eyes in order to attempt to look down at her own nose even as she flew on. "What was that?"

"What do you mean by that?" Mira asked intently.

"Seilah was here to talk to Halphas, and she was there to observe Lullaby. That means whoever she is with, they've got some interest in other demons, and as for the Zeref connection, I've crushed more than my fair share of devil worshiping cults, who had their own little totems that could've created devils. Those items were all created by Zeref, so maybe intelligent devils like Seilah were created by him too?"

At that point everyone in Tartaros sneezed, then stared around them in shock, wondering whatever the heck that had been about.

"So why would they bother with that though? Numbers maybe? Or something else?" Ranma said to herself, again kneading her eyes with her knuckles, thankful that her stomach's pain had finally started to subside.

"And how strong is Seilah?" Mirajane asked, trying to look as if the answer didn't matter to her at all and failing utterly. For some reason the giant breasted and gorgeous demon girl had gotten under her skin.

"That's a tough question, considering my Devils Slaying magic means I'm immune to her main power. She can do this thing where she can order items, plants and maybe people to move to her will. I felt it try to latch onto me it occasionally when we fought, but it didn't work. I think you could probably beat her one on one, but if you tried to fight here with a team, she'd turn them against you and it would make it much more difficult." Ranma replied. "Mainly though she seems more of a support character than anything else."

"And she didn't say anything? Didn't give a hint as to what their purpose was?" Mirajane asked going back to the original topic somewhat.

"No, she just said she was observing, and then she wanted to test me, but I'd bet she made that part up on the fly once I found her. Hell, I only got her name because I taunted it out of her." the redhead laughed. "I think she didn't like to be called horny girl."

"And why did you call her that?" Mirajane asked, glaring at Ranma as if the shorter girl had offended her somehow.

"Because she's got horns?" Ranma said with her head cocked to one side. "Why else would I've called her that?"

Mirajane sighed, and smacked her face with her hand. "Of course. I was just asking for that one."

Ranma nodded, then suddenly hot water was spilled over her from behind as a voice shouted out "Oh-my-gosh I'm sorry! I wasn't looking where I was… what the heck!?"

Ranma growled, wiping at his face and staring around only then realizing that everyone around them, all the guild members who had been looking at the two women, had just seen his change. And judging by the faces some of them had begun to make, this wasn't going to end well. _Oh crap!_

"A man!" Yelled one girl. 'He must've snuck in here under some kind of illusion! "

"Pervert!" Shouted more than one guildswoman, as the female mages around him started to launch spells. "Get him!"

Ranma rolled to the side and hurled pillows from the chair he'd been sitting on, knocking two girls flying. Then he rolled again, coming up and lashing out with a quick and light kick to a woman standing there, sending her staggering back into three of her fellows. Before they could write themselves, or the others correct their aim, Ranma had ducked out of the hall.

Outside Wendy had woken up from the commotion and now was looking over the side of the top of the balcony giggling and laughing as the ladies of Mermaid Heel boiled out of their guild and started to attack Ranma in earnest.

"Wendy, give me a hand here! They've all gone crazy!" Ranma yelled up at her.

"Okay," Wendy replied, then slowly began to clap, while Carla tried her best to look disapproving of both Wendy's response and what was going on below. In Ranma's estimation, she failed miserably.

"Oh you're going to get it later," Ranma growled smacking aside one of the women watching them fly towards where Mirajane and the others were standing around the entrance. He followed this quickly by using a punch from the suddenly shrunk and much more fit looking girl who'd been talking to the spider-themed woman and was then in the air, lashing out as lightly as possible all around him.

Mirajane had followed the rest of the ladies out and was talking to several of them, wiping away a fake tear even as her eyes glinted devilishly. "It was so horrible! He forced me to keep his secret, and every night he transformed back when we were in the tent and… and…"

"How dare you do something like that to Mirajane!" roared more than one voice, having easily filled in the blanks there just as Mira had intended. Suddenly the fight went from a farce to an actual fight, with many of the ladies showing no compunction to avoid aiming below the belt or at Ranma's face.

Ranma of course had heard Mirajane pouring fuel on the fire, and growled angrily, pushing aside his desire not to actually injure any of these women to punch one straight back at the instigator. "That's it! If you want a flight you'll get one you silver-haired bitch!"

"Bring it on a red," Mirajane roared back, transforming into her Satan Soul and knocking the unfortunate and impromptu missile to the side, ignoring her squawk of outrage and pain. "I've wanted to smash your face in for a while anyway!"

 **OOOOOOO**

Elsewhere Seilah met with her fellow demons in their Guildhall of Tartaros. This was a massive floating square currently high above the mountains of Joya, higher and deeper into the crags and mountains than any human would ever venture. The square in turn was completely covered with forests and other environments, along with the large, very crude looking temple-like structure that was the sea of Mard Geer, head of the Demons of the Books of Zeref.

The longhaired, somewhat affable-seeming guild master lounged on his throne, his eyes pinning Kyoka where she stood. "So, the Iced Shell **did** damage and weaken the demons within that is good to know. And I thought the gray skinned totem demons I created by studying the originals had some promise too, their element resistance is quite high. "And yet you say this Laxus individual was able to get through it with his lightning?"

"Yes master," Kyoka said with a nod. "I watched the entire fight, and I believe that neither the blonde lightning user nor the Scarlet woman was fighting to their fullest against Deliora and your…creations."

Seilah blinked at that, hiding a small smile. Boring as they were, she had read thousands of human books. She knew the meaning of the term Scarlet Woman, and wondered if this red-haired woman had somehow irritated her sexual partner, or if she had made the joke without knowing. _Either would be most amusing._

"And you Seilah, you ran into this Ranger that has interfered in our plans before?" Mard asked, bringing Seilah's attention back to him. "The one that nearly killed Deliora years ago?"

"I did, Master Hades." Seilah responded with a slight bow of her head. "However, the demon Halphas was there, and had already responded to the Rangers presence. If I had stayed, it would have become a three-way fight between the Ranger and his party on the one hand, myself on another and the demon a third. It could well have killed me if I stayed."

Mard simply nodded, while the others looked on uncaring. Not even her lover Kyoka showed any kind of emotional response to that statement, not that Seilah had thought they would. Such things were for humans after all. Instead, she simply went on. "Afterwards, I believe that the Ranger probably won. However, there is a deeper issue here."

"Indeed," Mard intoned thoughtfully. "How did they discover Halphas's existence so quickly? Further, news of what was occurring on Galuna Island should not have gotten out to anyone not since that experiment began. I thought our servants within the Council's organization had deleted all information about the demons like Halphas, and kept any request for aid from the island form their ears as well."

"I have thought of this, on my way back master, and I think I know what occurred. We are, after all, not the only spoons stirring this soup." All of her fellow's twitched at that. No demon had the ability to cook, and many of them had become to both envy humans and resent them for that simple ability.

"Further, the Ranger's words pointed in the direction of an agent of one of our fellow Alliance members: he said that there had been a traitor on the Council itself, who had an interest in demons. And the activity on Galuna Island was a joint project after all." For some reason, Seilah had to stop herself from referring to the Ranger as just Ranma. But that would have been far too friendly an address given the fact they were bound to become true enemies at some point. And when that thought occurred to her it too made her feel… oddly sad.

Mard leaned back thinking. "That little toy of Brain's," he said with a nod. "This does sound like his entire operation was, what is the term, rolled up? And by the last report I saw, the black haired wench was still in place, so that rules out Hades. Yes, that makes sense."

"Could it have been deliberate then?" Said a fourth demon speaking up for the first time. He had the look of a lizard-man crossed with a shark almost, but with dark purple scales and a horn rising from his head, with another horn, seemingly made of metal, jutting from his chin. For all his bestial appearance however, his words and manner were calm, almost dignified. "Could they be trying to make certain we don't become too strong?"

"Quite possibly Torafuzar," the master replied agreeably. "In which case, have our tools be on the lookout to help point the filthy human mages in the way of the other filthy human mages we've been forced to ally. If they kill each other, then we will profit."

Abruptly the master twitched, his eyes boring into Seilah as he asked, "this Ranma fellow, how dangerous is he?"

"So dangerous you should send some of us to kill him right now," Seilah said, fighting back a small flush at the memory of the kiss they'd shared a few weeks ago. The memory of that and his touch on her horns made her analysis oddly hard to give voice to, but she did so anyway.

"Truly? Even if doing so would force us into the open when we are not ready for it?" the master asked sardonically. Yet his look made it clear he was expecting an answer.

"That I cannot answer. The Ranger dealt with me with kid gloves when he found me when I was observing Lullaby." That wasn't something she liked to admit, after all she was a powerful devil, but Ranma, **the human** , she forced herself to change that thought, had astonished her with his speed and adaptability. "And," she said aloud, "his unique Devil Slayer magic made him utterly immune to my curse as well as giving him the ability to somehow predict my attacks. Whether the first ability would carry over to any of your curses I cannot say, but the possibility is warrant enough for concern."

There were mutters at that, that idea being one that only Mard Geer had heard of before. "He is fast, quick to adapt, has a very interesting bag of tricks given his Devil Slayer and Dragon Slayer magics, and is simply very, very dangerous." Seilah finished.

Master Gear nodded thoughtfully at that, then looked at a map of Ishgar on a nearby wall. "With our agents scattered throughout Fiore's Magic Council's organization, we can direct their attention where we want it to go, and further, we know what Brain's goal is, foolish as it is. Kyoka, I want you to make your way to where this Nirvana structure is being stored. Wait and watch, and if the opportunity arises, take it."

"To do what master?" Kyoka asked, wanting it spelled out, an eager, almost ecstatic smile on her face.

"To kill this Ranger fellow and any other mage you can on either side of course," Mard Geer said simply. "I will send two others with you I think, just to make certain. Seilah of course, and one other. I will have to think about that assignment in the next few days. For now, get messages to our agents, I will want them able to follow up on anything that could possibly be used to turn the Magic Council's attention away from our own activities."

 **OOOOOOO**

Ranma and Mirajane found themselves on the trail once more that evening, having been kicked out of Mermaid Heel after the fight, despite Ranma's attempts to explain his curse to the gathered ladies of the guild. Mirajane's laughing in the background proved to everyone that at least her portion of what had been going on had been meant as a joke, and seeing that the curse was real rather than a mere illusion had set many of the girls back on their heels.

Yet between the two of them they had basically put half of the Guild into traction, only stopping their own fight when Orca shouted at them to do so at the top of her lungs with Wendy's help. After which she kicked them out of the Guild.

On his back, Wendy was once more asleep her head pillowed in his hair. "I just hope she doesn't start mouthing at it again. Dragon Slayers going through teething issues is not fun," Ranma said, hopping up into a tree branch to stare ahead, not even noticing Wendy's weight, something that still took Mira by surprise occasionally.

"It looks like Orca was right, I can see the path winding around two hills out there, then towards what look like train tracks where we can probably hitch a ride. There were no train stations anywhere nearby, but getting onto a train without one of those was relatively easy for any mage worth his salt, In Ranma's opinion. Or at least it should be Ranma thought, hopping back down looking to where Carla stood beside Mirajane. "I think we should rest on one of those hills, and catch the train in the morning. That way I can at least have some light to run beside it with, while you two and sleeping beauty can board the train."

"Sounds like a plan Mira replied, though she looked as if she really wasn't paying attention, not even commenting on Ranma's idea about running beside the train like she would have.

"What's wrong?" Ranma asked, leaping back down to the path and moving on at his normal ground-devouring rate.

Mirajane kept up with some difficulty, shifting into her Satan's soul and flying beside him for a few wing beats before she replied. "Orca offered to organize a transfer for me from Fairy Tail to Mermaid Heel and have me be her successor, the next guild master. Have to admit, I never thought of that in the future for me, but the idea would have a certain appeal"

"Bossing people around, deciding who can go on what adventure, and not going on one yourself?" Ranma asked, his nose wrinkling.

"Making certain that everyone in the Guild is trained, making certain they don't bite off more than they can chew, going on missions when I can which I do already and more importantly yes having that authority!" Mirajane said loftily. "Is that so wrong?"

"Not wrong, just not something I'd have fun with. And I don't see you leaving Fairy Tail anytime soon anyway." Ranma replied.

"You have me there, on top of leaving my family behind," she admitted. "Still, 15, 20 years down the line? When Lisanna and Anna have kids and Elfman's found an actual, real-life girlfriend and spends time with her rather than staring at his own biceps? Maybe I'd prefer to move on rather than be the spinster aunt."

In all honesty, Mira had brought the subject up to see what Ranma thought about the idea of thinking that far in the future, and she was sadly not disappointed. Ranma understood **responsibility** , but he would never aspire to have **authority**. The ranger emblem got around that issue, allowing him to take control, or simply move through whatever blocks there would have been a no for a normal person looking into the same issues, without actually giving him authority over other people.

As if conjured by her thoughts on that topic, Ranma's brooch began to quiver and shake, then glow indicating an incoming call. Ranma paused, pulling it off and setting it down on the ground, waving Mirajane back out of the pickup range. "King Toma, I'm here."

An instant later, the image of King Toma Fiore appeared in the air above the brooch. Nodding at the Ranger be began to speak. "Ranma, I understand that you and Councilwoman Ultear were going to look into some missions that Jellal put into the system? Did you find anything more about his long-term plans? And what other underworld contacts he might've had?"

"Has Ultear checked in yet since our meeting in Akane Resort?" Ranma asked. "And did you understand everything I told you about the battle in the tower? I really don't want to go over all the old information."

"She hasn't checked in yet, but she recently sent a message to the council that my agents overheard telling she was back ashore at least, and had run into someone named Zalty who she thinks might be part of the Oración Siete for some reason. After that, contacted the Magic Council to demand more information…again. Given how they tried to withhold information from me one would think that they forget they work for me, not the other way around," Toma said tartly. "They eventually told me about your suppositions and concerns about the missions you were investigating. Imagine my horror when I learned that both of them had to deal with demon sightings! The fact you are alive at all pleases me no end, but what did you find!?"

Ranma nodded and filled them in on his portion, after which he asked, "Did Ultear say anything yet about this Zalty guy you mentioned? That could be a better angle than me trying to pick up the trail from that giant snake. Further that won't lead me to any further underworld contacts, if I can do it at all it'll lead me directly to wherever Cobra and Midnight have holed up, maybe not even the rest of their guild."

"If Jellal was actually serving their aims both in the Council and with that, that accursed tower," Toma said, grimacing visibly in the image at the thought of what had been going on inside the tower of Heaven before going on, his voice resolute. "Then they have already declared themselves an enemy of my kingdom. But that is for later. I want you to come to Crocus, I want to speak to you in person."

Ranma's eyes narrowed. "I don't want any medals or anything, that's not what this is about right?"

"No it's not. I just want to speak to you in person, get your personal impression of Ultear's idea about Zalty while you share your views on your mission against this Halphas creature, as well as what you think personally were Jellal's goals, and how you would rate the Oración Siete in term of a threat to Fiore and Ishgar as a whole. If you could be here by sometime tomorrow that would be ideal."

"I suppose I could do that, but you know that part of how Rangers work is anonymity right? I won't just walk up to your front gate or anything like that." Ranma warned. "If you've got any excitable guards, I'd warn 'em to expect someone trying to sneak past. Some kind of security review or something maybe?"

Nearby Carla slapped a hand over her face, having assumed her human guise, which she much preferred to her normal body. When Mira looked at her, Carla gestured her to lean down, which let the very short blonde cat-girl whisper in her ear. "Ranma led Wendy and I to sneak into the king of Bosco's palace when the man insulted Ranma during a report after a meeting there a few years ago. It wound up with four of his guards tied up like targets and the king needing a doctor for a burst blood vessel."

While Mira fought back snickers, Toma has already replied to Ranma's statement with a chuckle. "You're not the first Ranger I've dealt with, I trust you'll find your own way in. In fact, I insist on it, it would be an interesting test of my guard's abilities."

"They're not going to like that, your majesty, but consider it done," Ranma said with a grin.

Toma rolled his eyes, but cut the connection without further discussion.

"So are going to Crocus instead of Magnolia then?"

"I think so," Ranma replied ruefully. "And here I figured just calling in a report would have been enough. But I'm afraid that means we probably shouldn't wait for a daytime train. At least going by the map, Crocus is at least twice as far from here as Magnolia is."

"If going by train I suppose," Mira replied with a shrug. "Let's go."

The two of them raced through the forest for the rest of the evening, reaching the train tracks at around one, the train tracks laid out ruler straight across the land here, torn out of the forest. Once more consulting the map they turned roughly southwest, racing along the tracks until they came to a fork where the tracks they were following joined further tracks heading in different directions. The map came out once more, and by the time a train came by at around two in the morning they were ready, hopping with ease out of the dark before entering quickly. Ranma bought their tickets, and they all bedded down for the night on the train.

By midmorning, the train was pulling into the Crocus's train station, and Ranma found himself being shaken out of a mediation period by Wendy. "We're here Onii-chan," she said, and Ranma stood up, ruffling her hair while looking at her suspiciously, as he put his pipe away once more. "You're looking a little too chipper for having been stuck on a train Wendy-chan, even with the Dragon Seed. Did you use Troia on yourself and not on me?"

Wendy looked a little shifty, and Ranma noogied her head gently, before gesturing her off the train after the rest of the passengers. "That'll teach you to be so selfish." Beyond that though, he was more than willing to let the little girl use that spell on herself whenever she felt the need. Traveling on mechanical devices was much worse for Wendy, and Ranma in his female form, then it was for Ranma in his male form.

Crocus, was large, larger than Magnolia by at least twice again its size. Its buildings were equally larger, but everything they saw had an almost festive air to it, with every other house at the very least having flowerbeds here or there some dotting the roofs or even covering them entirely. Flowers were literally everywhere and here and there in the distance you could her strains of music over the normal hustle and bustle of a city. It was a beautiful place Ranma reflected, if a little ostentatious for him. Carla and Wendy on the other hand immediately decided they liked what they were seeing and they went around arm in arm to look at the flowers, the stalls, and into the stores as they went.

"Can we go exploring?" Wendy asked, looking back at Ranma from where she had just been given a pink flower for her hair by a kind old lady running a stall.

"What's the matter imouto? You don't want to make the acquaintance of another prince maybe? Afraid he won't be as cute as Rose's kid?" Ranma teased. At Wendy's surprised blush he laughed. 'What, you thought I didn't know of your little crush? The Great Ranma sees all!"

Wendy blushed a bright red and she huffed, turning away. "Baka Onii-chan!"

"Actually King Toma has a daughter, possibly a little younger than Wendy herself," Mira supplied ruffling Wendy's hair. "So if you go with Ranma, you might make a new friend."

Wendy shook her head, still blushing. "No thank you, I'd rather explore I think. And, well, most kids my age are kind of silly anyway."

Before Mira could reply with the fact, it was well known that Princess Hisui was something of a genius and very mature for her age, Ranma relented. "I can trust the two of you to look after one another so once we find a hotel to meet up at, just in case my meeting takes the rest of the day, you can go off. Just try to stay off the rooftops, this is after all Fiore's capital, they might not exactly be pleased with someone climbing all over them."

"That's rich coming from you Mister Rooftop Hopper!" Wendy shot back, then laughed as Ranma picked her up, grinning at her face-to-face.

"I'm so proud, give me another few years, and I'll have you taunting and teasing with the best of them."

"That's a horrifying thought," Carla replied equally dramatically.

Eventually they found a motel that had rooms, but as they were about to enter, they saw Bisca coming out of it, tilting her hat with one hand so that it blocked the sun. "Yo, Bisca!" Ranma said, waving his hand.

Turning in the direction of the shout, Bisca spotted them, and came over with a smile exchanging a hug with Mirajane, and a handclasp with Ranma. "What are you doing here?" Mirajane asked as she pulled away from the hug.

"Alzack and I took a job to hunt down a groups of monster trainers who'd set some barely tamed Vulcans loose on the nearby farms. They were very good at hiding in the woods, and none of the Rune Knights could find their trail," Bisca replied with a tight, almost strained smile.

"Wait," Ranma said, blinking in astonishment. "Vulcans can be trained? Those giant ape-like beasties with the bad attitude and the egos?"

Bisca laughed, turning to walk with them into the hotel once more. "Barely, and they certainly aren't anywhere near what I'd find interesting or cute enough to spend my time on. They're not what you'd call pliable either, but they can be made to acknowledge the human trainer as the leader of the pack. We sometimes see criminals using them as dumb muscle. What about you, what brings you to Crocus, and with Mira too?"

"We just finished a job, I don't know when the last time you checked in with the guild was, but we were on a long-term job to take out this Tower, which was being run by a corrupt Council official. He put in a few missions into the logs that Ranma here thought were interesting, and might've been able to tell us more about his long-term plans. I honestly don't know what we learned on our end, except for the fact that he's interested in demons, which we already knew," Mira said with a scowl.

"I take it you fought them then?" Bisca asked, looking back at the other woman.

"Yes, I have a whole new soul to show for it too!" Mirajane replied with a grin. "I can't wait to show Erza and the others too I suppose, but mainly Erza. I'd bet now I could bitch-slap her into next week!"

"I imagine it's suitably scary then," Bisca said with a smirk, leaning down to ruffle Wendy's hair who was looking between Ranma and the door into the hotel with a pout. "They have a lot of toy stores in that direction about three blocks down," she said pointing to the left side.

Before Wendy could run off, Ranma grabbed his little sister's shoulder and Carla quickly got in front of her. "Now wait a minute, you'll need money, and I want to make sure that you know the name of the hotel, okay?"

Wendy nodded, then repeated the name several times and Ranma handed her a coin pouch. "Remember our rules about toys, they have to be small and durable," Ranma said. "Unless," he paused thinking, "keep to that rule for what you buy, but if you see any other toys you like, have them set it aside, and we can come back later. We're going to spend a few months in Magnolia whatever else happens so we can buy some more toys, and have them shipped there, right?" Ranma wasn't about to use his valuable Requip space for toys, and Wendy hadn't learned how to use Requip very well, neither of them having much aptitude toward that magical school.

Mirajane nodded at that as did Bisca with faint smiles on their faces, and Wendy grinned. "Leave it to me!" With that, she and Carla headed off

"Still think you're not good with kids?" Mira asked.

"That was easy," Ranma shot back. "I was giving her what she wanted, and just keeping control of the purse. You can't always judge how good someone is with a kid from a snapshot like that.

"Where is Alzack?" Mirajane asked as they finally entered the hotel, having blocked the door for a young couple. The young couple immediately pushed past them, heading up the stairs, while Ranma moved over to deal with the innkeeper.

"He's turning in the mission card and talking to our client," Bisca said, her previously happy attitude diminishing slightly.

Mirajane looked at her quizzically. "What's wrong?"

"It was just a mission again!" Bisca nearly growled. "We then stayed here together, but there was nothing. We had dinner in the inn instead of a restaurant, he didn't try to flirt with me he didn't even hold my hand when **I** initiated it! Am I just unattractive or something?" She finished disconsolately.

Mirajane smacked her upside the head. "Leave that kind of game for when you're talking to a man, they don't know better. You know you're attractive Bisca, but if you don't feel enough towards Alzack to make the first move yourself then I don't know what to tell you."

"I did make the first move, didn't you hear me?" Bisca interrupted. "I tried to take his hand while we were walking through the town, he blushed stammered and shook me off, saying we couldn't while we were on a mission, which we just finished! I even tried to give him a hug after we ate, but he just returned it, with a blush on his face and didn't, you know, try to even kiss me on the cheek or anything. I don't know why he's so afraid, but I am at my wits end."

"Ouch," Mirajane muttered, shaking her head. "So there's no spark there any longer between you?"

At that point Ranma returned to them, twirling a key ring on one finger. "Okay, I've got a room, Mirajane are you going to stay here and wait for me and Wendy or head back to the Guild too?"

"I'm definitely not going to simply sit here and wait for you," Mirajane said bluntly. "I'll take the next train to Magnolia instead. I'm anxious to get back to the Guild and see how my sisters are doing, and if anyone is giving them a hard time about finally getting together with Natsu, including our brother. And if he's not minding his own business…" Mirajane ended on a growl, an aura of pure darkness appearing around her. "I'll have to teach him to not stick his nose where it doesn't belong."

"And there's the old Mirajane we all know and fear," Bisca replied, poking Mirajane in the cheek.

Her aura disappeared as if it had never been, and Mirajane smiled beatifically at them. "Mah, I don't know what you're talking about."

Both of her listeners rolled their eyes at that one, but shook her hand and watched Mira leave the hotel foyer afterward, before Ranma patted his stomach. "So, do you know where a good restaurant is around here?"

Bisca nodded, and then looked at him with a smirk growing on her face. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"Since we've only talked once before this, no," Ranma replied with a grin, reaching over lightly to push her shoulder. "I don't think you'd be that easy. But friends can have a meal together can't they?"

"Good answer," Bisca said with a laugh, linking her arm with his and leading Ranma out of the hotel.

They soon reached the restaurant she had chosen. It was a nice place with an outdoor dining area, and a view of several of the city's fountains to one side. Ranma liked it and complimented her choice, then had even held her chair for her. "What a gentleman," Bisca said with a smile, letting her hand run down Ranma's forearm as she sat down.

"I've got my moments I suppose. I've been told that little things like that matter you know? I think I even understand it, it's to make you feel special or something like that," Ranma said with a smile, moving his hand slowly out from under Bisca's. _Huh, I'm getting kind of good at this whole flirting thing. Thank you ladies of Melona's. Now if I only had a better idea of what kind of girl I was interested in. Jenny's talk was kind of helpful I guess but not enough._

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, as it's supposed to be a big secret from men, but yes. It's not about you being chivalrous or deferring to us, or putting us on a pedestal, I'm a tough woman and I certainly don't want to be part did all the time. But it is nice for you menfolk to acknowledge that yes, we are the fairer sex at times." Bisca replied.

"Won't get an argument from me," Ranma replied. "I might be a woman half the time, but that doesn't mean I know all your secrets. Anyway, you once said you're a good tracker, right?" Ranma asked to get his mind off that issue, and the fact Bisca had just inadvertently flashed him some of her cleavage. "How would you go about tracking a flying snake?"

"What? You're going to have to unpack that a bit," Bisca said, taking her hat off and placing it to the side.

Ranma watched her hand move through her green tresses for a moment before again across from her, shrugging his shoulders. "It's a long story. How much of it do you want to hear?"

"How about you start from your discussion with the Council?" Bisca asked. "I've not been back to the guildhall since you left in your Erza guise." Bisca still wondered how Ranma had talked Erza into going along with such a thing.

Bisca hadn't realized that Ranma was a Ranger before this. Nor was Ranma in any great rush to tell her or anyone else just yet.

Ranma nodded agreeably, and then began to explain how he had basically trolled the Magic Council which made Bisca laugh. Then he explained about Siegrain/Jellal and how he had basically hunted the false Councilman down once he had broken his cover in an attempt to kill Ranma.

At that point the food arrived, and Ranma took a few spoonsful of soup before continuing. As the Water Dragon Slayer, soups always tasted better than solid foods and this was no exception. "Anyway, at that point I decided to call Erza in to help because she had apparently been someone of specific interest to Jellal, and it turned out to be the right idea later on. There's this whole background between her and the man who had been going as Siegrain that it's not my place to share. But she brought along Natsu, Levy, and Mirajane."

"Levy?" Bisca interjected at that point, blinking rapidly. "Really? I would never have thought she'd be all that interested in a combat mission like this, especially such a high caliber one."

"I think it was more because they needed Levy's help with transportation," Ranma replied. "But she did pretty well, took out a lot of the cannons in the tower itself, and then helped a lot with the wounded and the small fry besides. She might be the greatest support mage for a Dragon Slayer but that doesn't mean that she can't fight if she wants to."

Despite Ranma's words, Bisca was grateful that Levy had gotten through what must've been a hard mission without meeting any of the more powerful enemies on the other side. "Okay, so where does this giant snake come in?"

Ranma went on from there as the two ate, with Bisca asking some questions as he described the fights, how Erza had finished off Jellal, and of course of the two enemy dark mages that had gotten away, if not unscathed. He finished by describing the giant snake whose bite had taken Mira out of the battle as well as he could, given that he had only seen it for a bare few seconds total. Most of his description he had gotten from Natsu and Happy.

"So… poisonous, can conjure up wings like Happy, not intelligent enough to speak, right?" Bisca mused, listing off the salient points. "But very poisonous and intelligent enough to at least be trained and act on nonverbal cues. That's an alpha predator wherever it goes, and it might well attack other alpha predators if it's just passing through their territory. It'll need to eat," she said definitively. "Snakes normally are pretty good at being able to store energy, they can digest entire rats or what have you inside them and slowly digested, but something that large won't be able to do the same thing. Its flight ability will take a lot of energy if it's like Happy and Carla's, and its sheer bulk will demand more, kind of like an Anaconda only even larger. So if we find out where the trail began, I think I could follow it by tracking areas, which have recently lost their alpha predators. Is that the plan?"

"I don't know, I don't know what the king wants to talk about, but I don't have any other leads beyond this Zalty guy, and that'd be even tougher to follow. I'd like to figure out what the heck that tower was supposed to be for, what Jellal was to the Oración Seis, it should be Seis not Siete now, but more importantly? There are kids, children and teens, who disappeared during Jellal's time as the Tower's owner. We know at least the two members who fought us were once kids in the tower, but what happened to the rest?"

Bisca shuddered at that. "You realize the Oración Seis, fair enough on the name change, will most likely have moved on from whatever base they were heading towards at that point right?"

"Yeah I know, but maybe we'll find something, some piece of information to learn their long-term plans."

Bisca leaned back in thought, popping another bite of her sandwich into her mouth. "You've taken out dark guilds right?"

"That's part of why I am an independent mage," Ranma said with a laugh, still not wishing to discuss his Ranger status with Bisca, let alone in public. "I'm not constrained by the rules of the Magic Council."

Bisca nodded. "I think I might have a better idea. Have you ever taken out a dark mage guild that was affiliated with the Balam Alliance?"

"I have," Ranma said with a nod. "But that's not saying much, since at this point most of the dark guilds are affiliated with one alliance member or other. The Oración Seis seem to have gone for a mixture of quality and quantity, Tartaros is all about quality and I think Grimoire Heart is about quantity. I've smashed more dark guilds affiliated with them than the others anyway."

"But is there anything physical about those mages that told you they were allied with the alliance?"

"Yes, each of them had a mark on their wrists or ankles," Ranma said with a nod. "Are you telling me I should just go hunting for dark guilds randomly?"

"No, but there is a dark guild that I've heard rumors of in this city since I arrived. Give me a few hours while you're meeting with the king to look around for more information about it, and I'll get back to you. If that doesn't pan out, then I'm fine with going with you on this hunting trip." Bisca said.

"Sounds like a plan. But for now, tell me more about you and Fairy Tail. What do ya do for fun? I get the impression Erza teases people for most of her entertainment, what about you?" Ranma asked.

Bisca laughed and as they continued to eat their meals the two traded questions, and a few more, far shorter, stories. They were still talking as they stood up from their table and a young man dressed in a somewhat similar manner as Bisca came around a bend in the street. He spotted the two of them walking and chatting and frowned, feeling a pang of something go through him at the sight. He walked up to them, leaning over the railing to speak to Bisca. "Hey Bisca, I have our money from our job, do you want your share now? Or should I drop it at the bank? And who is this?"

"Alzack," Bisca said, blinking having honestly forgotten the man was around. She smiled at him though, resting a hand lightly on his shoulder and gesturing to Ranma. "Alzack, this is Ranma. I think Mirajane and I spoke about him at one point?"

"The Water Dragon Slayer, right?" Alzack nodded, reaching over to shake Ranma's hand. Ranma smiled back and gripped his hand companionably while Alzack tried to bear down and squeeze the other man's hand, giving him the universal glare that meant 'back off she's my girl'.

But Ranma had already turned away, looking back at Bisca and didn't even notice the man was trying to squeeze his hand before he pulled away. "But are you certain you'll be able to pick up the trail that snake that way? I mean I realize it's a huge snake, but surely it can eat on the wing."

"No," Bisca said with a shake of her head, "you don't understand how animal hegemony works. In any area, there is an alpha predator. A wolf pack for example would be a level below that, but so high, that even the alpha predator wouldn't want to mess with them. But there different types you see…."

From there Bisca went on, and Ranma nodded occasionally asking questions, until he became convinced that yes, Bisca knew what she was speaking about and Alzack breathed a sigh of relief, seeing as the two seemed to only have a professional relationship.

"So, this fascination with animals, is that why you have an entire room full of them?" Ranma asked. "So well-trained, that there'll all domesticated even ones that shouldn't be? Wendy mentioned those, and specifically said something about a giraffe?"

Bisca blushed, looking away. "Well everyone has a hobby, and animal care is mine. It's gotten me into a trouble a time or two, and feeding them is always forcing me out on missions even now, but I wouldn't trade my furry friends for anything."

Chuckling, Ranma stood up. "It was nice meeting you Alzack. Bisca, I'll see you back at the Hotel after I'm done meeting with my employer. If Wendy and Carla return, make sure they eat something? Wendy can get really cranky if she accidentally misses a meal, and Carla needs almost as much energy as the two of us to power her magic. She also took a nasty thump this past mission."

"I'll see to it," Bisca said with a smile, a smile that widened further when Ranma paid for their meal, and walked her out, and around the restaurant interior then out to meet Alzack outside again.

"What was that all about?" Alzack asked as he watched Ranma walk off, trying hard not to sound jealous as the two of them moved off toward the hotel.

"He was asking me for help in trying to track this animal that a few dark mages used to escape after his latest mission run," Bisca replied, not wanting to go into the full story with him. It was far too long, and after all, every time someone retold a story, it lost some of the impact.

"And that's why he took you to a restaurant?" Alzack asked.

"We went to the restaurant because he was hungry, and because I thought this restaurant looked good," Bisca replied curtly.

"So what, will you go back to the Guild and ask permission or will you just go off with this random wandering mage?"

"Are you jealous?" Bisca asked somewhat sharply now as she turned to him, moving in front of him so they both came to a stop.

"I don't… why would… I that is… maybe?" Alzack stammered, a little embarrassed at being called out about it. "I mean you and I… well…"

"You and I Alzack?" Bisca asked, stepping up closer to him, watching him blushing almost look away. You and I what? As far as I know, all that's been between us is some stammering, on both our parts admittedly, attempts to flirt a little, but not a lot, and a lot of missions with nothing else not even a **single** date! I tried to hold your hand last night," Bisca said, the anger and hurt now clear in her voice. "And you didn't return it, you shook me off! If you can't even see your way to holding my hand in public, where do you think our relationship will go?"

"I…" Alzack blushed "I don't that is, I'm just not ready to, we're friends and I don't want to…"

Bisca looked rolled her eyes. "Come on," she said, gripping his wrist and pulling him along. At least he was fine with that even though he was blushing. "You have until we meet back up with Ranma to decide what you want to do.

When they reached the corridor leading to their former rooms, where both of them had left their packs she pulled him to a stop. "Alright, moment of truth time. Do, do you, w-want to be my, my boyfriend?" Bisca asked, stammering now that she had decided to take this step put persevering even as her face suffused with a blush to match any she had previously. "Are you, are you going to be able to give me dates, to flirt with me, to give me something like romance?"

In reply, to her blushing and incredibly emotional plea, Alzack could only stammer, "I, I can try!"

"Then," Bisca said blushing a little more if that were possible. "Why don't you kiss me right here?"

Alzack stared first at her, then around them, looking back to the front hall of the hotel. "Bu, but, really? There are so many people here…"

"Why should that matter?" Bisca said, cocking her head to one side, "I mean I'm not asking you to take me to bed or anything." Alzack is blush was now atomic at that, and Bisca too was looking as if her head was going to explode. After a moment of silent blushing and some stammers from both of them, Bisca asked rather plaintively, "Don't you want to kiss me? Am I that unattractive?"

Unlike Mirajane, Alzack took this statement at face value. "No you're beautiful! I mean yes I'd like to kiss you. Your just putting me on the spot is all."

"Well I, **we've** been dancing around this for months now! I'd like to see some progress… please?" Bisca replied said, sounding tired now, her blush slowly dissipating. "I just want a kiss, is that too much to ask?"

Alzack continued to blush for a second before gaining control of himself, breathing in deeply, and then nodding resolutely. "A, all right."

He put his arms around her, and Bisca did the same, placing her hands on his shoulders, willing her slight trembling away. Here it was, the moment of truth. The moment where she learned if there really was a spark between her and Alzack, or if the relationship the two of them had been trying to build was based more upon simple friendship and similar interests than real attraction.

Hesitantly Alzack leaned in tilting his head slightly to the left, and she matched him, tilting her head as well to her left. Their lips met, and pressed together, as Alzack tried to enfold her in his arms, while Bisca concentrated on the kiss. Eventually they pulled back, and Bisca's eyes opened, her brow furrowing. Alzack in contrast was happy and smiling. "How, um how was that then?"

It was okay I guess for your first kiss… that was your first kiss right?" Bisca asked, sounding a little clinical to Alzack's ears.

"It was yes but um, only okay?"

"Honestly?" Bisca asked, now stepping back and pulling at her hair a bit. "Cana was a much better kisser."

"Wait what?!" Alzack yelped, trying to keep an image of Bisca and Cana kissing like that out of his mind, to concentrate on what was more important, the fact it had actually happened and what it might mean.

"Oh come on!" Bisca said with a laugh. "You can't tell me you didn't know about her, everyone knows that Cana is a kissing monster! She's even kissed Erza and Mirajane for goodness sake. In fact I think the only girl that she hasn't kissed yet is Lucy."

"Oh," Alzack said both relieved and aroused at the images he was getting before his disappointment became strong enough to push them out. He looked at Bisca closely, asking hesitantly "So what does…"

"We'll see," Bisca said though inwardly Bisca thought she already knew the answer. There should have been some kind of spark there, and there hadn't been. The kiss had been okay, but that was it, nothing more than that. That might've been why she said what she said next. "Maybe you should ask her for kissing lessons?"

"That was possibly the harshest thing I've ever heard," Alzack said with a muttered, looking away. He was getting the distinct impression that he had waited too long for Bisca, and she had now moved on to someone else, if only in terms of her attention. "Well, maybe I will do that but I still want to come with you if you're going to hunt this Dark Guild of yours down. You might need help."

"I doubt it," Bisca said with a laugh knowing how strong Ranma was just by the way Mirajane had spoken about him and the fights he'd described. "Still, you can come along if you want. She said, deciding to throw Alzack that bit of a bone. _After all, I don't know if I'm interested Ranma either just yet, I mean he's certainly attractive and fascinating, and funny, a good conversationalist,_ _but I'm not interested in him! Definitely not yet. After all we've only talked a few times. I'm not that easy,_ Bisca thought, turning to enter her room.

 **OOOOOOO**

Barely a day after they had finished the job on Galuna Island to her exacting standards Erza led her fellow guild-members and the irritating council hanger-on back to Magnolia. When they arrived though, all of them looked around in confusion at the response form the townsfolk. Normally the Magnolia citizenry would be welcoming to at least Erza and Lucy, if not Laxus because he was a bit of an ass, and Natsu because he destroyed things, or Gray because he stripped. But instead of the usual looks of amusement, worry, disdain or welcome, now they were looking at them in something like pity.

"I wonder what they're going to do about it?" whispered one woman to another, leaning close like gossiping housewives.

"It is sad isn't it? I wonder what they'll all do?" The woman's confederate replied.

"Shh!" said a man nearby. "They've been away, they don't know, and I for one don't want to explain what happened to them, especially that group of hotheads." With that, he moved away, heading down a small side street. The women fell silent, but made no move to follow, simply watching the now confused Fairy Tail mages and Ultear walk down the street, garnering more looks as they went.

"Something's off," Laxus stated the obvious, to which everyone else nodded. "Let's pick up the pace."

What was wrong was easily apparent the moment they came within sight of the Fairy Tail guildhall. Normally the guildhall was cheery, noisy, and colorful. Now, all of that was still true except for the noisy part, and the fact that the guildhall had several large steel pylons smashed into it from every direction like giant spears. "What the hell!" Natsu shouted, racing forward.

He was followed by the others, all of them just as angry, though Laxus in particular was seething, little bits of electricity coming off his body at intervals. Ultear brought up the rear, one eyebrow raised in unseen amusement as she wondered what was going on here.

"Gramps, what the hell happened," Natsu shouted bursting through the front doors. But the moment he turned toward Makarov he found himself smacked aside by the guild master.

"This," Makarov said, waving his hands at the large steel spikes they were visible from the inside of the hall, "this is nothing. Some punk from Phantom Lord came over and vandalized the place. Who cares? And you, Natsu have something much more important to worry about right now!"

"Leave the flame retard for now Gramps. I care," Laxus growled. "This is our Guildhall! And you're just going to let them come in here and do this without doing something to them?"

"It was an attack made out of anger," Makarov said, still sounding calm despite the fact his grandson had lifted him up and shaken him with those last few words, smacking aside his hands and hopping back down to the tabletop he'd been sitting on. "I bet Jose has already heard that you're being considered to take over Siegrain's Wizard Saint position."

As Laxus scowled at that Makarov went on. "Two Saints in the same guild, especially the one he already considers a rival? No, Jose will boil for a bit, then he'll calm down and things will go back to normal. Besides," Makarov said mockingly, smacking one of the steel pillars "this is good steel. I bet we could sell it for quite a bit."

"This is showing weakness Gramps not strength! I understand why you're doing it, no one wants a war, but this could only be the beginning." Laxus growled, sounding calmer, but not exactly happy all the same. 'Besides how did it even happen in the first place?"

"Bah, the steel-using brat came by in the dead of night after everyone had left, so there was no one here to fight back. And if they do try to escalate from here, if they come seeking blood instead of simply vandalizing, then we will make war not a moment before."

"I don't get it," Natsu shouted. "This is our home, old man! How can you sit there so calmly?!"

Erza shook her head. Having calmed down far more quickly than any of the others she now sat down, looking at Natsu coolly. "What is a guild?" she asked. "Is it the building? Or is it our conviction? Is it our desire to stand together against anything? That is what it is to me. This building matters not at all."

"Oh yeah," Cana said from one side, pausing in her drinking to smirk over the giant barrel she was drinking from. "Well they also attacked Fairy Hills."

Her back straightening Erza growled, suddenly shifting into her Heaven's Wheel armor. While it had lost some of its intimidating aura, the glare on Erza's face and the fact that her eyes had suddenly gone red and begun to glow with hellfire, more than made up for it. " **They die**!"

"Just kidding," Cana said, then grunted as Erza smacked her on the head sending her to the floor.

"That wasn't funny!" the redhead huffed.

Cana rolled her eyes but had to smile as some of the gloom and doom the guild had been showing when they entered had disappeared. The last vestige of it dissipated as Anna and Lisanna entered from the kitchen, carrying trays of food, their smiles widening happily at the sight of Natsu.

In return Natsu rushed over to them asking, "Are you all right, you weren't here when this happened were you? If either of you were hurt, I swear I'll burn Phantom Lord to the ground!"

Lisanna kissed him on the lips lightly, before pulling away letting her sister do the same, even as they set down their food and ignored the fact that their older brother was standing nearby. "We're fine Natsu, thanks for worrying about us though."

"No PDA please!" shouted more than one voice, while others simply booed or hissed at Natsu.

"Screw you!" he shouted, turning as his hands lit up with fire magic. "I don't even know what that means!"

Cana hopped up from where Erza had smacked her and moved behind Lucy, squeezing and rolling her breasts from side to side. "Public displays of affection, like this~~." She cooed, as Lucy gasped, blushed and squirmed. "Lonely souls who don't have a girlfriend and have a snowball's chance in hell of getting one don't like it when their pathetic nature is rubbed into their faces."

"Gah, Cana, stop that!" Lucy's shouted, trying to break free and not having much luck.

His magic disappearing form his hand, Natsu watched this with a small frown as he cocked his head. _I know she's stronger than that, that Lucy Kick of hers is deadly! Why can't she get out of it?_

Shaking her head Erza moved to pick Cana up by the back of her very spare shirt, pulling her back and sitting her down elsewhere. "You know it's all right to just tell her no," she said addressing Lucy.

"I have, it doesn't work as you can see!" Lucy replied hotly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then you need to tell her more forcefully," Erza countered.

"I think that all only works for you Erza," Lucy sighed. "Besides, I think it's just her being friendly…?" The fact that she ended on a questioning note said Lucy wasn't at all certain of that. And in fact, Lucy was uncertain if she wanted it to be that way, though Erza didn't realize that.

This was heavily reinforced when she blushed bright red a moment later when Cana winked at her, and the lush moved back to where she had been sitting next to Lucy. "So," she said companionably, nudging the other girl "What did you lot get up to? And how did Gray ever talk you into taking an S-class mission without permission?"

Ultear sighed having looked at all of this and shaking her head. "I will return to the Magic Council. If Phantom Lord is actually going to seek conflict with another guild that will fall on our shoulders to try and head off. I also have to report back to them in person about the mission we just performed, and this Zalty character."

At Makarov's look of question, Ultear waved his interest away, keeping her rear away from him almost automatically as she moved to the door. "Laxus and the others will tell you. Until next time Fairy Tail," she said with a smile, turning around and quickly leaving.

As she did, Laxus grabbed his uncle's arm when it had begun to stretch towards her rear. "Bad Gramps," he muttered. "Let's not get the Councilwoman on our bad side again, okay? Do you need a time out?"

"Stupid brat," Makarov muttered pulling his arm free. "Such things should be savored no matter who the target is."

"Like you could savor anything at your age," Laxus said with a guffaw, only to be smashed upside the head by a Titan-sized fist that sent him hurtling sideways into and through one of the guild's walls.

"Is that any way to talk about your elders, brat?! " His disreputable grandson dealt with for the moment, Makarov turned to the others. "As for you Happy, Natsu, Gray and Lucy, prepare for **that**!"

"Actually I vote that we wait on that until Mira, Ranma and the kid come back." Laxus said zapping out of the rubble of his passage through the wall without any visible sign of injury. "I think he'll get a kick out of it."

"Oh come on, Gramps, do we have to go through with **that**?" Grey asked shivering, as Natsu blanched, trying to hide behind a giggling Straus twosome along with Happy.

When even Cana sighed, Lucy screamed, "Seriously, what is **that**!?"

"You will go through with **that** , Or else I'll send you to the Magic Council with orders to make you their scribe for a month! Your handwriting needs help anyway." Makarov shouted at Gray, ignoring Lucy's question. The blonde was incensed when everyone else did too, none of them answering her questions about this horrible punishment she had coming.

Outside, Ultear had gotten into a carriage that she had called ahead for, smiling politely at the driver. 'Home to the council, Frogger, but don't bother going too fast, I still need to edit my report."

"Yes miss," the frogman sitting on the driver's seat replied.

Inside the carriage Ultear's smile turned real as she sat down across from Meredy, who had gotten into the carriage with the Frogger none the wiser. She tapped the side to indicate the man should get going, then looked at Meredy, who nodded, indicating with her hands covering her ears that the man wouldn't be able to hear them.

With that done, Ultear leaned back and looked at her young charge with interest. "So what did you think of the Fairy Tail mages? And were you able to spot any sign of that mysterious flying person that was watching the island earlier?"

"I did near the end of the battle against the demons," Meredy said with a nod. "Again, I think she was a woman, but other than that I cannot tell you anything. She was flying high, far higher than I would think that most mages could go though. And she was just standing there."

"You mentioned that before," Ultear mused, then shook her head. "And your impressions on Fairy Tail?"

As if she had been hand asked to hand over an essay, Meredy pulled out a sheath of paper, and handed it over while she spoke. "Impressive. The S-class for Fairy Tail is well beyond what the term habitually means for most guilds. I believe Scarlet, Erza, is strong enough to be a Wizard Saint like Dreyar, Laxus. They killed those demons easily, and could probably have done so even if they hadn't been weakened by the time in the ice. Nonetheless, I do have some ideas on about their powers and how Grimoire Heart can counter them if we need to…"

 **OOOOOOO**

As Bisca and Alzack were having their discussion, Ranma had made his way towards Fiore's royal castle. Situated in the center of the city, it was separated from it by an outer foundation that rose several stories over the other buildings of the city. Ranma supposed it was a manmade version of the spire that held the Magic Council.

Ranma moved around the place until he found a spot that looked to be out of the way enough to be clear of guards for the short time he'd need to climb over the wall. _I can't just use the Umi-Sen-Ken here, that would be cheating and besides I don't want to terrify the guards here, just give them a little wake-up call if need be_. _Getting in without leaving any evidence behind, walking straight past people without being seen, that would be a whole other level of freak out._

Even without his cloaking ability Ranma was remain unseen as he climbed up the outer wall. The people down below didn't look up, and there were no guards along the balustrade up top and Ranma climbed up without any difficulty. Up top, he knelt down in the ley of a large potted plant and looked around for a few minutes, before shaking his head regretfully. "So, no spells or anything to warn them about intruders? That's rather sad."

The castle beyond was a massive mansion. It was somewhat square-sided but its roof looked uneven, with a few crenellations here and there, flat rooftop there and rounded portions, finishing up with a tower in the center that looked like something more at home as part of a church. As Ranma peered upward, he even saw some of that tower was being held up by pillars. Between the real castle and the outer balustrade of the foundation was a sprawling garden, with numerous fountains and lacrima lampposts.

Shaking his head at the blatant sign of wealth that royals tended to gather around themselves, he made his way rapidly through the gardens towards the main building. He moved like a ghost, shifting from one bit of shadow to another, not so much hiding as simply avoiding attention. This progress was halted by a voice shouting from a small bench he'd missed in a curve behind a rose bush. "Excuse me, you there! You do not resemble any of the guards or gardeners I know of, and you definitely are not dressed as a servant either. If you are a thief of some kind, I regret to inform you that the guards in the palace are most formidable. It would be best for all concerned if you simply left the way you came in."

Ranma turned and to look at the speaker and blinked. Contrary to the image, the calm, measured tone and choice of words gave him the speaker was not an old lady, as in someone past their thirties. Instead, it was a young girl, possibly fourteen or so standing with an incredibly haughty look on her face. She was short, had a white dress that fell down to just above her ankles, green hair of a color lighter than Bisca's and tied up in an uncomfortable looking bun and stood there glaring at him sternly, her hands twitching on her arms where she had crossed them over her chest.

On her brow, she wore what looked like a small crown of some kind. _What're those things called again?_ Shaking that thought off, he grinned, sending a chilling opportunity. "And who exactly're you little miss?"

"I am a princess Hisui and I am asking the questions here intruder," she said sharply, pointing a stern hand towards him now with a somewhat familiar looking key in it.

But before she could do anything with it, Ranma was in her face, plucking the key it out of her fingers looking at it that way and that. "This is one of those whatchamacallit, Celestial Keys right? The kind that summon spirits form another world or something?"

"Give that back at once," Hisui shouted her haughty look giving way immediately, but Ranma held it up over her head.

"What's the magic word?" Ranma teased.

"Give it back or I'll have the guards execute you!" Hisui retorted, then kicked him in the shins. An instant later she hopped away, holding her foot and wincing in pain.

"Yeah, that wasn't smart really. UM, are you okay?" Ranma asked, leaning forward to take the young girl's elbow in his hand, holding her upright when she looked to be about to lose her balance.

"Grrr, just, just give it back you, you interloper you!" Hisui growled rubbing at her sore foot but now making no move to wrench away from him.

Ranma rolled his eyes, but turned as someone shouted, "Milady are you okay? I heard a shou…intruder get away from the princess!"

A man had just rounded the corner of the mansion Ranma had nearly reached possibly having just stepped out of a door there. He was a well-built man of near Ranma's own height with spiky black hair that made Ranma think of a Saiyan for some reason and an equally spiky beard, darkly tanned skin and was currently wearing full plate armor, it's shoulders marked by large pauldrons that stuck up like shields. Seeing Ranma with Hisui he charged forward, a longsword coming out of its sheath at his side as he raced forward.

"Ah, so there are actually guards here, I was beginning to wonder," Ranma quipped charging forward. To the shock of both Hisui and the man the man's first blow went wide as Ranma leaped up over it, landing as light as a feather on the man's blade. "Nice sword ya got here man, though it ain't worth much if you can't hit what you're swinging at."

From there he ducked and dodged around, always landing either on the blade or the man's shoulders, never throwing an offensive blow. He wasn't here to fight after all, just having fun at the moment.

A few minutes into his fun though, another individual showed up. This time it was a woman came out from a nearby maze, grumbling irritably and looking behind her as if she was thinking of how best to destroy the maze somehow. She was a very good looking, if young, woman of around sixteen or so, with a distinct Minstrelian look to her features, lightly tanned skin, and was currently wearing a long dress with a breastplate over it. Despite that, her curves were such it was clear she was well on the way to becoming a great beauty.

Turning away from the maze she looked a little confused for a moment before racing forward, her hands sparking with magic only to stumble to a halt as she got close enough to get a good look at Ranma's face and seemed to recognize Ranma. "Ranma!"

At that shout Ranma turned, absentmindedly grabbing the guard's arm and flipping him to land with a resounding crash to the ground, stunning him for a second as Ranma moved away. Then he blinked as he slowly recognized the girl who had just teleported herself forward. "Minerva? Wow, you're looking good, but what're you doing here?"

"What is going on here?" the Princess asked, looking between the man who Ranma had so easily dealt with and Minerva. "Minerva, you know this man?"

"Yes your Highness, this is Ranma, the man who saved me from the scumbag that called himself my father." Minerva replied with a smile. "I'd wager he's here for some other reason than stopping by to say hello. He has a job as…"

Ranma interjected quickly. "I'm sort of a troubleshooter, if you know what I mean." There was no way he wanted to openly talk about his Ranger status in public, even in a place like this. If Ranma had learned one thing while rubbing elbows with the high and mighty on this world, it was that servants were everywhere, and there were few nobles who really noticed them.

"I see, and you are in my father's employee then?" Hisui said her eyes widening as she seemed to make the intuitive leap to what he was implying from what he was saying. Ranma reflected that the young lady really was quite smart, even if her experience and ability to read people left much to be desired. "But then why did you sneak in? Why did you not simply tell me, rather than assault me as you did."

"Assault!?" Shouted the as-yet unnamed guard, only for Ranma to smack him upside the head, sending him back to the ground.

"Get your mind out of the gutter. I took her golden key when she threatened me with it, then she kicked me in the shin and you two arrived, that's all." With that thought Ranma tossed the key back to the girl, and then winked at her. "Well for one thing, picking on you looked like fun. And for another, a lot of what I do, needs to be done on the down low. The more people who know about me less I'm able to actually accomplish."

"That actually makes some sense I suppose," Hisui said with a sigh, all of her bluster disappearing.

Ranma nodded then looked at Minerva. "Seriously, Minerva what are you doing here? I heard from Rose you had left Bosco, though not why, and that you'd come to Fiore to join a guild."

"Ah, well, as you know I had been getting training in my magic for some time, so that did look like a good idea. But when I came to Crocus, I wound up helping to put down a kidnapping attempt of Princess Hisui, and she offered me a position as her personal bodyguard. Given the fact it came with room in the castle, board, and access to their library I decided to forgo joining a guild to take her up on the offer." Minerva replied, then looked a little sheepish. "Um, as to why I left Bosco so quickly…"

"Minerva put the crown prince into the hospital wing when he flirted with her in a drunken stupor," Hisui interjected dryly.

"Ouch, well, I wouldn't mention that if you meet up with Wendy at any point, as she rather likes him. I think he's a bit of an ass personally, but then again he's a teenage boy so it kind of goes with the territory." Ranma replied.

"You were a teenager when I met you, does that mean you were an ass too?" Minerva asked with a giggle, which caused Hisui to blink in shock and look at her friend and bodyguard in surprise. Minerva had never giggled before, laughed yes, but never giggled.

"I don't think I've ever grown out of being one frankly." Ranma said with a nod towards Hisui.

Hisui smiled back, almost unwillingly. Ranma was a rogue, but he seemed to be a likable enough one. "Well, I have no doubt that my father is waiting for you somewhere Ranma. Arcadiosdo get up. And please, show him the way?"

"Of course Your Majesty. Come on you," Arcadios growled.

Ranma rolled his eyes, but followed Arcadios as willingly as he was able to do anything someone else wanted him to do. Inside though, Ranma was pleasantly surprised to discover that Toma wasn't willing to meet with him in the open, rather Ranma was taken to the King's own personal suite of rooms. And Arcadios, despite glaring at him with every turn, led him through the palace without anyone else seeing him.

Eventually Arcadios opened the door for Ranma and bowed him through the private chambers. "Don't think your attitude will be forgotten here! We take the defense of the castle seriously, and the defense of his and her Highness. Be respectful in tone, and make certain you address His majesty appropriately, or you'll have to deal with me."

"Oooh is that a threat?" Ranma said with a laugh, stepping up into Arcadios' face. "I don't respond to threats, and as for calling him his Majesty, why? He isn't my king."

The door behind Arcadios opened, and Toma stuck his head out. He was a short fellow, almost as short as Makarov if nowhere near as old. At the sight of the head of the palace guard glaring at Ranma and vice-versa, he shook his head with a sigh. "You Rangers, all of you seem to have an overinflated opinion of yourself, or a highly jaundiced view of royal families. I'm not certain which."

"As rangers were supposed to call people out on their bullshit, so I suppose it could be both," Ranma said with a grin, stepping around the suddenly twirling guardsmen who had just been about to go to one knee. "And the less you tell your people about me, the better frankly. I don't need this guy or anyone else to try to tell me how to do my job. Or are you telling me that Jardan put up with this?"

Rolling his eyes once more but didn't reply. After all, as fixated on numbers and bookkeeping as he was, Jardan had even less liking for unnecessary pleasantries than Ranma. Toma gestured into the room. "Come in and let's get started I doubt anyone wants to spend more time on this discussion than we already have to."

Ranma entered and found himself a large library, but one with only one door, and a single desk set directly in the middle. Around it were several soft chairs, and the king flopped into one of them, gesturing Ranma into another as he picked up a report and then a lacrima, setting it on the table. He began to tap it with his fingers, and suddenly several images appeared in a half circle above the table, showing four different faces, each face coming out of a difference facet of the jewel.

One of them Ranma recognized as Ultear and the others looked like members of the Council to him, though he recognized one of them, the short guy who seemed to be a friend of Fairy Tail. Ultear sent him a smile and he returned it, before examining the others closely, leaning back in his chair as Toma began. "Gentlemen, now that the crisis with this Jellal traitor has been dealt with, I would like your impression about Jellal, how he was able to get in the Council, and what his long-term goals could have been."

The four Council members looked at one another, then one of the two that Ranma didn't recognize spoke out. He looked to be a tall man, with stern features and an eyepatch under a large wizard's hat. "Your Majesty," he said, his book voice rough and businesslike, "I have the pleasure of being the new Council head. My name is Gran Doma."

"Yes, yes," Toma groused waving Gran Doma to silence. "I allowed you all to have internal elections as to who would be your new head, someone from a lower position risen to it rather than from the Council itself so long as you picked someone who I could work with. At the moment, it is not looking good. Now get on with it! This Jellal was a clear and present danger to Fiore in its clarity, not just to your Council's credibility. Which, I shouldn't have to add, is in the latrine at present!"

Gran Doma winced but nodded. For some reason he sent a glare Ranma's way, but it was imminently ignorable washing off of Ranma like water off a duck's back. "Very well. Judging by what material evidence we have found and the previous existence of the Tower, we believe that Jellal was on the Council in order to enact a single specific plot. He wanted us to eventually find out about his Jellal persona, then using his Siegrain alter ego he wanted to try to force us to attack the tower via the Magic Council's secret weapon, Etherion."

Toma spluttered back, looking shocked, but Ranma slowly nodded. "That actually makes sense. That tower was built almost entirely of Lacrima. It could have absorbed the attack. But what would he have used the power for? It can't have been because of all that dream crap he fed the other former slaves."

"Actually we think that was exactly what it was about," Ultear replied seriously despite her lips twitching at Ranma's tone. "They felt that with that power, they would be able to revive Zeref, who would in turn lead the world to paradise. "

"Where the idea of a dark mage leading people to paradise came from I have no idea," Ranma said dryly. "Everything I've seen connected to that asshole tells me that he really didn't care about anyone else, only his own experiments and even then not often. Yeah he was powerful, but he was a complete dick who seems to have had a demon fetish and was also possibly insane. So whether or not he is still alive somewhere, or can be revived, or brought back from the dead or whatever these idiotic cultists believe, is rather beside the point. Why anyone thinks he would actually do anything they ask him to is beyond me."

Ultear twitched, her mouth working, as if she was trying to laugh, or at least that was how Ranma viewed it through the Lacrima. In reality, she was trying to keep a scowl off her face, and her hands had tightened clenching on the sides of her chair out of range of the pickup. _How dare he?! How dare Ranma make fun of Zeref, make fun of all of us who believe in him! Zeref was the most powerful mage of all time! And once we have revived him to his full potential, he will lead us in recreating the world in our image._

Despite that however, Ultear did have another thought, a thought that said: _Ranma is right, how are we going to force Zeref to make the world in our vision? How exactly were you going to force him to help you overpower your Arc of Time spell to remake the world as you want to? Perhaps Master Hades has another reason in looking for the Keys…_

"They believed it, they believed it so strongly, that it was only Jellal's own actions, which convinced them to believe they had been lied to." Eyepatch said stiffly. "However, we have confirmed that Jellal was in contact with not only a few of the Oración Siete but their actual guild master, Brain."

"Um, that should be Seis not Siete, now. They've lost a member remember?" Ranma interjected, a grim smirk on his face.

"What information do we have about the Oración Seis?" Toma asked, nodding agreeably at Ranma's correction, which even the others simply nodded at save for Ultear who let a wicked little smirk flash across her face.

Pulling out a sheaf of paper, Gran Doma began to read. "In all actuality, we have more information about Brain than any of the others, our agreements with the espionage services of the other nations of Ishgar have served us well here. Although it's odd that no one knows what his magic is, while everyone knows what the rest of the group use."

As everyone looked at him he went on smoothly. "Brain, former name unknown, he assumed that name at some point in his past. He was from Seven originally, and was found to have tremendous magical potential when young, based around mathematics at the time it's said, but how that came about or if is in fact true, we do not know. He rose through the ranks of Seven's court mages, until he took the place of one of them, and then effectively retired after convincing the then-king, the current king's father, to give him funding to create a Magical Research Society, which took several years to get off the ground. Eventually it was destroyed in a magical accident, which totaled the entire institution."

Gran Doma shook his head. "Nearly 3 weeks after that event he became known as a dark mage after killing several investigators that wanted to question him about the incident, and making out with at least two of the children that had been entrusted to his care because of immense, out of control, magics. The others all died thanks to the explosion."

Hearing all this Ultear twitched for the second time in this meeting, almost glaring at her fellow councilmembers, something that Ranma did catch, but didn't really care enough about to think about. _Brain?! Brain was the bastard who experimented on me!? Master Hades, could he have known about that? Did he know we are allied with the man who tortured and experimented on me when I was younger?_

"Beyond their powers, and some hints about their looks thanks to Ultear's work on identifying what they looked like," Gran Doma began.

"You mean my work right?" Ranma said with a grin that was all teeth as he looked at the man. "Or did nothing of my original report filter down to you?"

The man glared back and Toma harrumphed to get everyone's attention. "Gentlemen, we are working on this together. If you cannot work with the Ranger, then I will demand that the Council find someone who can to take your place."

"He is an unaffiliated mage Your Majesty, I realize he is a Ranger, but the Ranger system is one that is easily corrupted their being beyond our control. Having such a powerful mage out of our control is unacceptable if we are supposed to make certain the law is obeyed."

"We're supposed to be out of your control so we can actually do the things you can't, cross borders, hunt down Dark Guilds, find problems you lot are missing, and generally speakin' just gettin' shit done," Ranma said leaning back and crossing his legs, putting his hands behind his head the picture of insouciance while even his accent had changed to show this. "We answer to the King and Queen of course, not you lot. We're living through the cleanup of one such problem, or would you have been happier if Jellal had gone through with his plan?"

The man glared, but didn't say anything.

"Enough," Toma said with a sigh. We're not here to talk about Ranma or the Rangers, we are here to talk about the Oración Seis. How many dark guilds are affiliated with them?"

"At least eighteen others spread throughout the peninsula," Ultear said promptly. "It was higher, but those eighteen are the only ones still active. Ranma and his attack group dealt with three at the tower. Two of them have been hunted down and eliminated in Pergrande some undefined time in the past few months, and another in Minstrel".

"I have to imagine that they would have taken action against Minstrel or Pergrande if they were in a position to move as an entire guild, but the beating Ranma and the others dealt out, especially the death of one of their members, has probably made them a little cautious for the foreseeable future. They don't have access to a healer after all, and healing magic is the rarest sort." Toma mused.

We've been in contact with the mages in seven, Bosco, and Caelum to make certain that they keep an eye on their own healing mages, just in case," said the one who liked Fairy Tail.

"Putting aside his alliance with the Seven morons, the one thing that we need to know: why was he researching and interested in demons and Zeref," Ranma interjected. "Remember there's that too. What did you find on your mission Ultear?"

Ultear relayed all the information she could, and Ranma frowned. "This Zalty guy, you really think he's another member of the Oración Seis?"

"According to the report I've seen, one of their members has an ability to change form apparently. That one's name is Angel, and she's known to imitate or indeed entirely transform herself into other people, whereupon she is able to use their magics, something thought impossible before." Ultear replied

"So the Oración Seis in turn could be interested in Zeref, and more specifically his demons," Toma said with a frown. "That, that isn't good. In fact that is a danger that needs to be addressed. If they somehow figure out a way to create demons like Zeref did, then not only Fiore, but all of Ishgar could be in danger."

Smacking his tiny fist down on the side of his chair, Toma nodded abruptly. "Very well! I as king Toma of Fiore ask you Ranger Ranma if you will take on the mission of finding and bringing to justice the Oración Seis. Whatever their interest in these demons, whatever the 'wish; they were going to use the tower for, they must be hunted down and stopped."

"Your Majesty I counsel caution on this," said Gran Doma sending a glare on his way when he made to speak. "This is an incredibly dangerous idea. These six mages are among the deadliest in all of Ishgar, worth a battalion of Rune Knights each! And they have a veritable army of other dark guilds answering to them. It could lead to outright war."

"Their numbers wouldn't matter," Ranma interjected. "Those are just guilds that pay them fees, protection money and stuff I suppose, and they've been forced to take a step back from protecting them thanks to their losses, which means we'll just have to figure out where the Oración Seis are and take them on."

"And that means a team of mages or others in order to do so," Gran Doma said again. "How many of those would we lose in this mission?"

"That is a risk, but one I feel we have to take," Toma replied firmly. "Ranma do you take this charge?"

"Can I recruit mages from multiple guilds for this mission? I'm confident in my own skills but to take on six bastards as strong as or stronger than that asshole child-beater at once is kind of beyond me," Ranma asked, not happy about admitting that but seeing no way not to.

"Yes in fact we would prefer it that way, in that manner no one guild will be badly weakened with their members out of circulation, or if they die while under your command, as they might," Gran Doma said severely. "I still believe this is folly Your Majesty. It would be best to discover more about the Oración Seis Siete before we act against them."

Toma smiled thinly. "As you are so against the idea, you and the Council need not be part of it. Ranma will be acting as my personal representative and will have nothing to do with the Council."

At that Gran paled, and the other two spoke up quickly. "That's not necessary Your Majesty," the short guy said quickly. "We fully agree with your desire to act against the Oración Seis. However we should be aware that the Oración Seis might have spies watching the guilds. Instead I think we should send a blank S-class request to the guilds then tell them to expect a 'government representative'. That will be vague and yet garner their interest without anyone knowing what is really going on until Ranma briefs them."

With a smirk towards Gran Doma's Ranma nodded. "I'll start recruiting when I get to Magnolia then. I'll bring at least two mages from Fairy Tail then I'll pay a visit to Iron Rock Jura and a few others maybe."

"I wonder," said one of the councilmen who had been silent this entire time. "If the Balam alliance will be able to sustain itself with just two, or if that in turn will cause conflict."

Now that it came to it, Ultear was wondering the very thing. There had been an uneasy peace between the three of them and distinct different realms of influence. How that would change with only two of them in direct opposition for control of the underworld, she didn't know what would happen. But despite her own misgivings, she had her orders and would see them carried out. _Still I wonder if I can finagle a reason for me to go and take part of the fighting. I owe Brain, and now that I know that, he's going to pay in blood!_

After leaving the small library, Ranma followed the guard through the palace again, once more neither hearing nor seeing anyone else around them. Soon they entered a small out-of-the-way supply room, and the guard moved to a series of small birdlike statues, picking one up and holding it out to Ranma. "You know how to use one of these?" He asked condescendingly.

Ranma rolled his eyes but disdained from messing with Arcadios further and took the messenger bird from him, tapping it twice on its head. Inside the statue, the series of small lacrima activated, and the embedded spells slowly started to power up. After a moment the birds eyes open, and it chirped "a message, a message, please record after the beep...BEEP!"

At that, Ranma began to speak quickly. "Hey Sparky, this is Ranma, I don't know if Mirajane will have reached you guys just yet, but don't go anywhere, unless of course you want to miss out on going Alliance hunting. I should be there within a day or two, but I'm following up a new lead on where they might be. I won't want to move after them though without a full team, I've been told from on high that that would be a very good idea, and then I can pick whoever I want from any guild to accompany me. Sounds pretty fun, right?"

With that he tapped the birds head again, and intoned, "Take this to Laxus of Fairy Tale in Magnolia." With messenger birds, you had to speak clearly the name of the city, and then the name of the individual they were supposed to search out, or else they just wouldn't go anywhere. And sending them from one country to another was impossible, no messenger bird could contain enough mental capacity to have more than a few locations embedded within it. Ranma had been forced to listen to the rants about that from a trio of enchanters in Seven a few years back while Wendy was helping at a local hospital.

"We'll want that back you know," the guardsman grump, watching it fly off of Ranma's finger, its wings a blur as it moved to the window he had opened. "Those are expensive!"

Ranma shrugged, and gestured for Arcadios to lead him out of the Castle without another word.

Heading back to the hotel, Ranma found Wendy and Carla there at a table in the foyer. Both of them were pouring over what looked like a giant puzzle of some kind, with thousands of tiny little puzzle pieces. "Before you say anything," she said looking up at it with a bright grin "It's reusable, it has 12 different images that we can put it together as, and as long as we have the box, it has a return spell embedded on it somehow."

Wendy held up the box, and Ranma looked closely at it, seeing it was actually covered with lacrima dust-infused paint. Looking at the pieces, he saw they two were similarly painted. "And how much did this cost?"

"All of the money you gave me," Wendy said with a shrug. "I thought it was well worth the price."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "All right, if you're happy with that I suppose that's fine. He nodded over to where Bisca and Alzack were sitting, waving at him. Sitting down with the two of them he asked, "not going to join in?"

"Puzzles aren't really my thing," Bisca replied with a smile. "Unless they're of nature scenes. What they're working on right now is to a view of the city of Magnolia from on high. How'd it go?"

Ranma shrugged. "Interestingly, despite a rather rocky beginning. I met the princess, who is quite mature for her age up here," Ranma said with a grin, tapping his forehead, before gesturing down to his body. 'But not so much anywhere else."

"Ouch!" Alzack said with a laugh, trying to put his feelings about Bisca possibly being interested in Ranma to the side. Bisca may not have said anything, but Alzack knew somehow that it had been her interactions with Ranma that had brought their own interactions to a head as it had. "Hope you didn't say that to her face."

"Even I have limits," Ranma said with a chuckle of his own, looking over at the other young man. "So, you use gun magic too right?"

"Guns magic, criminal tracking and horsemanship are my specialties," Alzack said with a nod.

"So does that mean you were able find those rumors you were talking about before?" Ranma asked looking over at Bisca. "You said something about at dark guild operating somewhere nearby?"

"The nearby part is actually not so accurate, nearby in terms of train distance but that's not saying much," Bisca replied with a chuckle, pulling out a map and laying it between the three of them, with Alzack and Ranma helpfully holding the edges down as she marked out the train route and pointed to the forest where the Dark Guild operated. "On horseback or on foot they're about seven days away from here, deep in one of the forest the train tracks pass through. And going will be immensely slow once you hit the forest."

"I suppose I don't have to ask this but there's no other guild halls near there, right?" Ranma asked.

"Depends on what you mean by near," Bisca said with a smile, pointing to the northwest in that direction about. "About another two stops past the edge of the forest is the guild Blue Pegasus, and in the other direction on a different line, about two day's journey by express train, is Lamia Scale."

"Interesting…" Ranma mused as he filed that name away. Ultear had mentioned that two of the mages that her group had met on the cursed island had mentioned being from that guild to Laxus, and Ranma knew of a mage there that he might want to recruit from Laxus too. "That's the guild with Iron Rock Jura in it, right?"

"That's right," Alzack said with a nod. "We've actually met him a time or two," he said gesturing to Bisca and himself. "A very serious but friendly enough individual, though why he insists on shaving his head I don't know. He and Laxus have had a few run-ins, spars that, well…"

"That cause a lot of damage to the surrounding environment," Ranma finished with a grin. "I know the type. Hell I am the type. Still that's a good idea there."

"Why?" Alzack asked.

Ranma looked around, then leaned in conspiratorially, and both gun mages leaned into, giving Ranma a **very** decent view down Bisca's shirt, but he didn't comment on that, making eye contact with both of them. "With the Oración Seis being involved in what happened with Jellal, interested in Zeref and demons in general and possibly based in Fiore somewhere, King Toma has decided to lift the ban on going after Dark Guilds."

"Given how much damage Jellal might have done and did that makes sense," Bisca said with a nod. "But why were you asking about Jura? Surely that's a job for the Rune Knights?"

Ranma blinked at her and then looked over at Alzack. "She actually said that with a straight face, I'm impressed."

Alzack chuckled, while Bisca raised both of her hands to give them both the finger. "Screw you guys! But I'm serious, going after the Oración Seis, that's incredibly dangerous. You might have to kill, and you might be killed in turn."

"That's why I'll only bring S-class mages along with me," Ranma replied seriously. "And why the Rune Knights aren't up to the task. Although the king made some noise about possibly sending someone along as a representative."

"How long are you going to take put together this team of yours?" Alzack asked.

"I'll start when we get back to the Fairy Tail Hall," Ranma said, changing his plans on the fly. After all, Laxus was a touchy jackass, so it would be better to recruit him first lest he take offense. Then he cocked his head quizzically. "Does your hall have a formal name, or does it just go by the Guildhall or something?"

"Guildhall. Why would we name our home?" Alzack asked with a confused shrug of his shoulders.

Ranma nodded at that. "Yeah I kinda thought it was pretentious when I heard that Mermaid Heel had named their guild house."

He thoughtfully began tapping the map Bisca had taken out. Unlike the map of Pergrande Ranma had, or even his map of Seven or Bosco it wasn't quite as detailed as he would've liked. The king of Fiore preferred to employ engineers to work on continually expanding his trains and roads rather than employing cartographers to map the country's geographic features further than they needed to. But it had most of the features marked out anyway.

His tapping finger had moved from Magnolia to where Bisca had said Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus were then came to rest on the image of a river, moving it up slowly. "And somewhere along here is Phantom Lord."

"You're not thinking of recruiting one of them for your group are you?" Alzack asked in shock. "The only one of them that's even remotely nice is Juvia Lockser, one of their Element Four. She's a friend of Anna's and is powerful enough, but I doubt her guild master would give her permission to work with a Fairy Tale mage even if you have the king's permission."

Ranma shrugged. "Now, I was just thinking of heading that way at some point anyway, I wanted to check out the other 'strongest guild in Fiore' after all," He replied not hinting at why he was going to do so. Alzack had no need to know about his Ranger status after all, and Bisca didn't know about it.

They both looked at him quizzically at that, but Ranma didn't reply. "Now where would this dark guild be operating out of in the forest?"

"Around here," Bisca supplied, pulling out a magic pen and actually marking a circle on the map momentarily. "They need to be close enough to the train tacks to get onto the train, but distant enough to throw off any pursuit coming from the same train. They also need to be deep enough in the forest to let them have some time to warn of people coming. I'd bet they have a few small outposts for scouts at the edge of the forest, but their main camp will be near here, the deepest part of the forest where even hunters and trappers don't bother going."

When Alzack nodded in agreement, Ranma smiled at Bisca, then looked over at Wendy. "Hey Wendy, are you recovered enough to fly, maybe carry a passenger?"

Wendy looked over at him then looked over at Carla, and after a few moments they both nodded. "We could do that Ranma-nii," Wendy said with a nod. "What're we doing?"

"We're going dark guild hunting," Ranma said with a smile.

Wendy nodded at that, asking no more questions and going back to her puzzle. After all, it wouldn't be the first time they did that. And Wendy had always liked puzzles, the foam ones that could be put together into different square shapes that Ranma had bought her years and years ago had been one of her favorite toys until they started to fall apart, but she had never found any others that were quite as durable until she found these here in Fiore.

"Do you want us to come along?" Bisca asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Do you know those woods?"

Bisca nodded, as did Alzack. "We've hunted dangerous animals and beasts through the outskirts of that forest before, and we actually learned quite a bit about the guild there. There's a lot of rumors about them, including what kind of magic the guild uses. Oddly enough, most of the rumors say that they don't actually kill people. They steal stuff from the trains, riches and food. But most of the time they seemed to just lurk on the train unseen, listening to everything and then eventually showing up later to allegedly blackmail people."

"That is kind of weird. And how good are you at sneaking around?"

Bisca looked blank for a moment. "We're both hunters, I think that our ability to sneak around should've been assumed."

Ranma held up his hands in a sign of surrender, and nodded. "In that case, since it's still early, I suggest we get going now."

"We have horses." Alzack said, gesturing to her as himself and Bisca. "But what about the two of you?

Bisca rolled her eyes. "I've already heard about how fast they can move when they want to, let's just go get our horses Alzack, and let's hope their magic horseshoes hold up."

As the two of them left the hotel heading to where they had left their horse's, Bisca asked "Are you sure you want to come along with us? I'd already volunteered, and you know how I feel about dark guilds abusing guns magic."

"I might not feel as strongly about that as you do, but I do still want to bring them to justice." _And besides, I don't think I want to leave the two of them alone together_ , _even if Wendy would be there too. Bisca's showing far too much interest in Ranma for my liking, even if you set aside what happened between us earlier._

Sighing Bisca nodded, and the two of them retrieved their horses, meeting Ranma and Wendy back at the hotel, where Bisca immediately took charge and led them out of the city along the train tracks for a time before splitting off. Alzack stared as Ranma and Wendy kept up with the horses, then shook his head and decided to put it down as a Dragon Slayer thing, before concentrating on following Bisca, who was in the lead.

After leaving the suburbs of the city behind, they wound their way through large swaths of farmland, with Bisca and Alzack waving as they passed a few farmers. Soon enough however, Ranma and Wendy began to leave them behind, racing forward so fast the horses couldn't keep up. "They can't think to keep that pace up for long can they?" Alzack asked, looking down at his now lathered horse. "Wendy I can understand flying like that, but Ranma?"

"Mirajane said he had an amazing amount of endurance," Bisca said with a chuckle. _As well as some other things that I won't mention at the moment about what that endurance could be good for._

About a few hours after that she dropped out of the saddle, walking with her horse for a moment as she let loose a loud whistle. As Bisca had expected, both Dragon Slayers turned, Wendy actually flipping herself in a full 360 twirl in the air, to the consternation of Carla who as was usual, had been acting as her wings. Ranma trotted back, and both Alzack and Bisca were appalled to note that he wasn't even sweating. Indeed, he looked as fresh as they had started.

"What's up?" Then he looked at the horses. Even with their magic horseshoes making them move faster than if they had been sprinting while feeling as if they had walked at a canter, the horses still looked lathered. "Oh yeah," he said blandly, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "That does tend to happen."

"We just passed a farm. We could leave the horses there, but there's no way we could keep up with you at that pace," Alzack admitted rather reluctantly while Bisca laughed at Ranma's show of pride.

"Cool," Ranma said with a nod. But don't worry about keeping up, Wendy and I will carry the two of you, that's why I asked Wendy if she was recovered earlier."

Bisca and Alzack retraced their steps to the farm they'd seen and paid the farm owner to look after their horses for three days, figuring that this trip wouldn't take longer than that, even on foot. The extra money the farmer would make if they came back early would simply be a bonus to make sure that he didn't sell their horses the moment they left.

When they rejoined the two Dragon Slayers, Alzack opted to be lifted into the air by Wendy, with Ranma readily agreeing. Carrying another guy after all was kind of wrong in his opinion. "I suppose I could change into a girl, and carry you that way…"

"Um, no, that would be even more wrong, for me anyway." Alzack laughed and let the little girl latched onto his back, with Carla on hers.

"Tenryu no Takameru Ririku (Sky Dragon's Boosted Takeoff)!" Wendy shouted, air magic appearing all around her legs and back. An instant later, the force of the magic threw them into the air with all the grace of a catapult. Alzack whooped in delight, and then the three of them were airborne, with Wendy keeping them there with her air dragon magic, and Carla directing them as they went, resuming the massive 'jumps' the two of them used to cover ground.

Ranma grinned, turning around percent his back to Bisca. "Shall we?"

Bisca was tempted to force him to carry her in a princess carry, but decided against it, simply stepping forward and putting her arms over his shoulders, blushing slightly as her breasts pressed into his back. Then she blushed even brighter as Ranma reached down and back, putting his hands under her thighs right below her skirt. The feel of his hands on her naked thighs right below her skirt was rather distracting. "R, ready," she said, her voice cracking as blood once more flooded her face.

"Good. Now, hang on," Ranma replied and without another word raced on, picking up pace until he was sprinting along, going faster than even a racing horse would have been able to. And to Bisca's intense surprise, he kept on going throughout the day, just racing on tirelessly. The bouncing and jostling and the feel of his back and hands did to her what it had done to Mira before this, and she felt her body slowly responding.

In this manner the two Dragon Slayers crossed the vast amount of the distance they had to cover in a single day, stopping only once for a lunch. As sunset began, Bisca could barely make out the vast black mass of the forest ahead of them and whistled in Ranma's ear. "My god you Dragon Slayers don't mess around when you want to cover some distance do you? We should probably stop and rest at the edge of the forest though before heading deeper in. And don't expect to move that fast once were among the trees. We'll need to go slowly to make certain we find any hints of the Dark Guild's presence."

Ranma nodded, but they pressed on until they were close to the edge of the forest. This prove to be in error however as it began to rain, the droplets little slivers of silver in the fading light. Bisca blinked as Ranma growled, and began to concentrate his eyes narrowing even as they ran on. His body heated to an unnatural degree, while a vast majority of the raindrops coming towards them began to redirect to either side above their head.

"How long can you keep that up?" she asked. The two of them had talked about a lot of their disparate magical skills, but this was a new one."

"Not for very long," he grunted, still racing forward to join up with Wendy and Alzack, who had just put down at the edge of the forest, both of them shouting about how they'd own, as if the trip had been a race. "It takes a lot of concentration to keep that kind of control up and moving all around you especially when you're moving to."

Before they reached them Ranma sighed, and began to let the rain hit him. Most of it heated up before it hit him, but eventually even that faded and within a few steps, Ranma's curse activated. Under Bisca's arms and legs, the hard muscular back and hands holding her shifted to the lighter muscles of his feminine form.

Of course, the most dramatic change was how the grip she had around Ranma's chest shifted her hands now actually groping her chest. "My, that was rather interesting. Tell me, are these as sensitive as a real woman's or do your nerves remain the same in either body?" she said, squeezing once.

This caused Ranma to flush and turn her head to glare at the green-hair girl. "Don't play with those as if you own them!"

"Just comparing," Bisca said mockingly, moving her hands away slightly, but not before her fingers dragged on Ranma's nipples, causing her to shudder underneath Bisca. _That was kind of fun,_ Bisca thought to herself, chuckling, _Damn, I wonder is that what Cana feels whenever she messes with Lucy?_

Grumbling the short redhead crossed the short distance between them and Wendy's group, whereupon her hands dropped from where they had been supporting Bisca's legs, a clear hint she should get off. She did so, sending a smile Ranma's way and then turning to the other three, saying brightly, "Well, that was interesting."

"It was very fun!" Alzack said with a grin, ruffling Wendy's hair. "I've always wondered what it would be like to fly, and that was even more amazing than I thought it would be.

Wendy grinned back at him, then looked at Ranma questioningly. "Where do we go from here?"

"Deeper into the woods I suppose," Ranma said glaring up at the still raining sky. Wendy had already pulled out a small poncho from her small Requip space. She didn't have much of an aptitude towards Requip, but she could still use it for a few changes of clothing and she and Carla both were wearing them now. Bisca had also produced a poncho from a small pouch, after getting off Ranma's back while Alzack had simply pulled the hood of his desert style coat over his head.

Ranma sighed, but also pulled out his/her Song Silk cloak, pulling the hood up, before looking at Bisca and Alzack. "Do we have a direction to go from here?"

Alzack nodded, pointing out through the woods. "That's the direction of the train, Wendy and I spotted one moving along there in the distance, not with any detail, but it's in that direction for sure. We should head deeper into the woods but at a diagonal from heading straight to the track."

"Sounds like a plan." With that, Ranma led the way through the woods. The rain made it impossible for them to even think about looking for tracks for a while, but that didn't stop Bisca from occasionally climbing a tree to look around them through her sniper rifle's scope. She was a much better long sharpshooter than Alzack, although Alzack's abilities to find and follow a trail in civilized areas, from suburbs and farm to cities, was much better than her own.

Eventually Bisca did start to spot some signs of other people having passed through, which she reported to the others as the rain began to let up. They soon found what looked like an oft-used little hideaway, which would have been used by a scout or guard set here to watch the forest's edge. But by that point it was full dark out, and finding any trail became impossible. "I think we've found a starting point, but in this rain and with night coming on, we need to stop," Bisca reported.

Scowling Ranma shook her head. "We passed a small ravine a few minutes ago. I think we need to retrace our steps to there, create a hide over it and wait for daytime before finding the trail."

After they had helped set it up and entered the tent, both Bisca and Alzack gazed around in delight at the interior of the tent that Ranma and Wendy had. "This is amazing," Alzack said honestly. "Where did you get it?"

"Seven," Ranma said with a nod, while Bisca snorted, remembering how jealous she had been of Wendy's little hold out pistol, and knowing Ranma probably had weapons that were at least as good. "It was expensive, and don't ask me about how much it cost to upgrade some of it later on, but still, it was well worth it."

"I have got to get one of these myself, though I've never been out of Fiore before, could be interesting," Alzack said looking over at Bisca who pouted a little.

"You know I wouldn't be able to afford one, most of my money goes to my friends you now?" She replied to his look with a scowl.

"How many animals do you have?" Ranma asked with a laugh as she moved over to set up some hot water.

Wendy and Bisca looked at one another, giggling and saying as one, "lots!"

 **OOOOOOO**

In the dingy bar that was the Phantom Lord Guild headquarters in Oak Town, the Steel Dragon Slayer Gajeel laughed, smirking around it his fellow Phantom Lord members roared their own laughter. He was a wild looking man with black hair, slightly tanned skin, and metal studs over his eyes with black, ragged looking clothing. "Fucking Fairy fools! They didn't even have any guards on their building or anything!"

"They're a bunch of weaklings! Had they any balls, they would've already been here to pay us back!" shouted another Phantom Lord member.

"Let's face it, Fairy Tail knows we're the really the strongest guild out there! They're just admitting it without coming after us even after what Gajeel did!" Yelled a female voice, which elicited even a greater response from the crowd.

From a third floor observation deck overlooking the main bar area Guild Master and Wizard Saint Jose watched this, with the other S-class mages of his guild, which were called the Element 4. He was a tallish, slim middle-aged man with long, black hair falling straight down to his shoulders and a thin mustache shaped like downward facing horns, a long and sharp face to go with equally sharp seeming eyebrows and pointed ears. He also had nearly black lips, for some reason no one had been brave enough to try to discover. He wore a long gray coat done up tight to his body with a belt and various buckles, tall boots and matching pants, giving him a vague militant look. Around his neck he wore a tie, on which the mark of his Wizard Saint status acted like a clasp.

"Let Gajeel have his fun with the others," he said, with a sneer, his mustache moving rather disturbingly. "We need to keep our eyes on a greater prize. Fairy Tail might be getting too big for its britches with this announcement that Laxus is going to be elevated to official Wizard Saint status, but that is nothing. We can knock them down a peg or two at any time. But welding that to this new job I've found us could bring in more money than the Guild has seen in a decade in but a single day."

"What, really?" Asked one of the Element 4, a man named Sol. He was a very thin man dressed in a somewhat decent brown suit who wore a monocle over one eye, and he spoke with a very odd accent. "What could be so lucrative about attacking Fairy Tail, monsieur?"

"Lucy Heartfilia. A very, very rich merchant princess, and the most recent member of Fairy Tail," Jose said, his lips now twisting into an evil smile. "Her father wants her returned, and made more… pliable… to his wishes in the future."

The other three men laughed at that, and Jose chuckled. "How sorrowful!" wailed the larger of the two men. The only one as tall as Jose, he was wider in the shoulders, a very prominent chin and wore a long green cloak an equally green hat, and a necklace that had a red painted skull on it. He also wore a blindfold, which Jose and the others knew was the way he controlled his magic power. "It is truly tragic for a daughter to run away from her loving father!"

Juvia Lockser did not laugh. She was a blue haired woman with a serious seeming face, midnight blue eyes, and a buxom figure hidden under a coat and dress combo that looked like something designed to be used in the winter. She simply stood there stoically, holding an umbrella over her head and the tiny raincloud raining down over her head. The raincloud was always there these days, especially dark looking while she was around the rest of her guild. "Drip, drip, drip, will the father real pay us that much?"

"Oh yes, and even if he doesn't, we can manipulate events so that even once we hand her over, he'll still owe us."

Juvia nodded at that, though inwardly she shivered at the idea of what that might entail. She frowned deeper however when Jose went on. "Capturing the girl will be your task Juvia. Your Water Manipulation magic makes you easily the best at that kind of thing."

"Master, Juvia has to argue against this," Juvia said, moving towards their master to that she too was standing by the balcony looking down at the rest of the Guild. "There have been rumors of quite a big issue with the Magic Council, which in turn has caused the King to clamp down on them. This in turn will make them come down hard on any Guild acting out. Even more disturbing is the rumor of one of the mysterious Rangers being active in Fiore. Surely now is not the time to act so openly."

"It **is** the time," Jose said bluntly. "The Magic Council will be busy trying to reorganize itself, this Ranger is but a rumor, and even if he was real we could easily avoid him. You simply don't want to attack Fairy Tail!"

With that last sentence Jose's power rose, a miasma of darkness crushing the three of them into the ground, while also sending many of the Guild members below to their knees. "You just don't want to attack Fairy Tail!" he reiterated, his eyes turning black as he stared down at Juvia like she was something he had scrapped of his boot. "Your friendship with that aberration has dulled your senses and your sense of loyalty to this guild. Do not let it make you back away from this task now, or else!"

"Yes master Jose," Juvia replied, her throat constricting in agony both at the pressure, and at what she was going to be forced to do. _Anna, Juvia is sorry but Master Jose, to defy him is something Juvia cannot do._

 **OOOOOOO**

The next day, Bisca woke up to only to find that Ranma had woken up even earlier and was gone from the male side of the tent. She, Carla and Wendy had taken one side of the tiny lacrima-warmer, while Alzack and Ranma had taken the other. Sticking her head out of the tent, she found Ranma outside, shirtless at present for some reason, currently performing an odd kind of push up.

In actuality, Ranma's had lost one set of clothing in the battle against Halphas, both his pants and his shirt having been shredded. He hadn't taken the time to replace them in Crocus, so had no wish for his sweat to ruin another shirt. That, and he figured the rest of the group would sleep in for a bit.

Bisca stared in something approaching awe as Ranma continued to perform his version of a push up. His upper body was in the usual position but instead of touching the ground his feet and legs were held perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Then he pushed himself upward, and then slowly rotated his body first until his legs were straight up in the air, before lowering his body again then lowered himself until his nose was touching the ground before doing it all over again. It was an awe-inspiring sight, both in control and strength, made even more impactful as he muttered under his breath "Nine-hundred-ninety-five," as she watched, followed by "nine-hundred and ninety-six."

Bisca had seen Laxus and Elfman do some exercises in the past, though not as fluidly. More importantly she had seen Gray and Natsu do some exercises too, their bodies being much more her type than the two musclebound members. But neither of them would have been able to do something like this, not so controlled and purposeful at any rate.

At the sight Bisca found herself feeling real, honest to goodness lust for one of the few times of her life. She'd been a fangirl for Ren, one of the Blue Pegasus Trimens before meeting the man in person, and had even been in a relationship once with a rather handsome merchant back when she had been Mulan Rouge and had been traveling across Ishgar. But the lust she'd felt back than paled in comparison to watching Ranma like this.

For his part Ranma had spotted her sticking her head out of the tent, and smirked a little, deciding to put some of his knowledge about how to flirt to good effect. Finishing his thousandth rep, he flipped upright and moved into a fluid kata. It was one designed to build coordination and speed, and had been originally taken from Silat Tari, a version of the Silat school that emphasized fluid movements and coordination. He moved slowly, treating it like it was simply a form of choreographed dance almost, going faster with each iteration slowly working up a sweat.

Watching this Bisca gulped, staring at his muscles and how they move so fluidly, the sweat building up on his skin. Feeling her hands move down her body Bisca snapped out of it, pulling back into the tent just in time as Wendy started to stir.

Over breakfast, both Carla and Alzack wondered why Bisca blushed occasionally as she looked at Ranma, and about the small smirk. Alzack scowled seeing it, wondering what he had missed, and almost glaring at Ranma now, understanding that even if the two of them didn't end up together, it had been her interaction with Ranma that had convinced Bisca to try and push in order to figure out what their relationship could be like. _Curse you Ranma Oceana!_

Ranma blinked as he finished a bite from his breakfast omelet, frowning and looking around. _Huh, why do I think someone just cursed my name? Ah well, at least it didn't feel like someone vowed vengeance on me, that'd be the last thing I'd need right now._

Several hours later after they had spread out from the original scout post Bisca had found, Alzack picked up enough of a trail to follow through the woods. Since going unseen was important now, Ranma took the lead, disappearing under the Umi-Sen-Ken while Carla, of all people, took the lead with the others, moving through the forest unobserved as possible.

Alzack looked at her as they stopped to let Wendy and Bisca climb a tree to scout around their back trail just in case. Counter-tracking like that was a must when sneaking up on human opponents. "I'd heard a lot about you from The Strauss Siblings and Happy, but none of them ever mentioned you being so at home in the woods. Quite the opposite in fact."

Sniffing Carla looked away, a faint flush on her face. "Yes, well, if you go on missions that bring you out into the wild often enough you start to learn things." _And the look Wendy gave me the few times I complained about being out in the woods convinced me that I needed to do just that,_ the blonde cat-girl thought.

Near to midday they started to spot more signs of humans in the woods, traps, a few designed hidey-holes currently empty, and then three observation posts high up a few trees. Ranma spotted those while he was ranging ahead, and came back quickly, finding them looking down at a trail left by several people moving through the woods in a different direction than the one they had been following. The original trail disappeared among the new ones.

Quickly reporting on what he found, Ranma ordered the others to follow him as he began to circle wide through the woods from the observation posts. Doing so took them well out of their way, but they still found more signs of humans being in the area. At one point they even bumped into a returning hunter, carrying a buck on his back and a Magic Gun on his hip. But thankfully even though Ranma had ranged ahead of them once more, Wendy heard him coming and got the others into hiding before the man spotted them.

Eventually, with Alzack and Bisca watching for signs they made a full circle, coming back to a position, which allowed them to face towards the original three observation posts Ranma had spotted earlier. Once they did, they fell back slightly to another small section of the forest where a tree had been knocked over recently, hiding under its boughs for the rest of the day, waiting for nightfall. After all, they didn't want anyone to get away, and a night attack was best to cause the kind of confusion that would let them capture the whole guild. That, and any hunters or scouts that were out during the day would probably return to camp. Even the guards would be tired and cranky from being on watch at night instead of sleeping or drinking or whatever it was Dark Guild mages did at night.

That night they easily bypassed the four outposts, with Ranma noting that two of them were empty now, and Ranma quickly took out the one remaining man, tying him up before following the others. The two Guns Mages were once more having trouble moving through the darkened woods, but they were still moving as silently as possible, so Ranma was willing to put up with their lack of speed.

Eventually they found the main camp, hidden in a large depression artfully concealed by bushes and other things. But for all that, they had been put in an effort to remain unseen from the air, Ranma had been right: there were only a few guards on duty at night.

"All right here's the plan," Ranma said after coming back from moving around the perimeter of the camp. Kneeling on the ground he drew a large circle and then marked around the exterior of the circle a little blue glow coming from one finger so that they could see. "There are two guards here, here, and here."

"Two guards in each space, or separated?" Alzack asked.

"In a single hide," Ranma said. "Each of them is an observation post, but the sight of them at night is limited at best. "I think we take them all out easily enough, and we'll be in, before they know it happened, so long as you two have a way to take people out quietly?"

Bisca nodded, pulling out a long strip of wood, and placing it around her sniper rifle's barrel, smirking at Ranma. "This will muffle the sound, and if we can get in the right position, the light for our Guns Magic won't be seen."

"Good thinking. Carla, you take out the nearest twosome, Bisca, the left, Alzack the right, I'll take out the guards directly across from here," Ranma ordered. "Wendy, I'll want you in the air to attack from that angle. There's nothing like attacking from the sky to demoralize your enemies."

Wendy sighed, nodding but also pouting. "Hopefully after this we'll have some time off Ranma-nii. All this fighting is starting to wear on me."

Ranma nodded. "I'll make a note of that hopefully so Wendy. Regardless, I might be able to get you some time off, even if I can't get myself any." _Not that I need any time off from fighting._ Ranma might not have been so manic about it, but he was just as much of a combat junky as Natsu. Still, he understood Wendy needed some time off.

His response to her point gained Ranma a quizzical look from his sister, but he ignored that for now. "Wait until you see a bright blue light in the sky, that'll be a signal for us to attack." Bisca and Alzack nodded as Wendy climbed the nearest tree, gathering her magic to leap into the air when the signal was given as Ranma moved off.

Ranma moved around the camp taking out the guards there, with Bisca shooting the two assigned to her unconscious from a distance out the ones on the left from that point, and Carla knocking out the nearest ones with Alzack taking the others from close up. Within 20 minutes of them having split up, the combat ended and no alarm had been raised. None of them had even gotten off a single attack.

After waiting a few minutes, Ranma concentrated, his ki appearing in his hand, and then flaring up into the air. As the ball flew he whispered, "Requip, guns!" in a slight flare of magic his hands filled with the weapons he required. A second later he raced forward, fast but silent.

The instant he started down into the depression he saw several men looking up in confusion from the carefully concealed fires. He idly wondered why they were so concerned about hiding from being spotted form on high, but set that aside as he began to fire, taking out two of the men before the others realized they were under attack. "Guns Magic, stun bolt!"

Seeing numerous mages piling out of the tents and the central cabin Ranma closed the distance smirking widely. "Requip, sticks!" His guns disappearing, Ranma lashed out with his escrima sticks, smacking men this way and that.

The guns mages on the other hand stayed at long-range, firing down into camp. Alzack closed to within a hundred paces, his twin guns appearing in his hands as he went. "Guns Magic: Rapid Fire! Guns Magic: Thunderbolt!" From his guns came small bolts of electrical power, arcing into and through many of the Dark mages, including several who had attempted to grab up their own guns.

Ranma watched this with interest, not having seen that second spell before. The difficulty of using two types of guns magic at once was a difficult task too, but Alzack did a very good job with it, taking out several of the attackers as they tried to split off. Bisca too was doing a great job, her shout of "Guns Magic: Snipe Shot!" ringing out before she started to fire. Each shot hit an enemy mage in the head or chest, smashing through more than a few tents to do so.

The defending Dark Mages had three magical types apparently: a sound-based caster type that created attacked which flew through the air like a physical force, reminding Ranma of something out of the Street fighter game. Most of this group tried to break out and attack Bisca under command of a man who shouted, "Get in close and gut the bitch."

A second later he flew backwards, his head sparking and his eyes wide as Bisca retorted, "That's no way to talk to a lady!" The charge did them no good, bringing them out into the open where she could gun them down even easier, going "Rapid Fire!" to do so, though she had to keep moving to avoid their return shots.

The second type was an earth element caster type, which created large fists and hands from the ground, and shot them towards the attackers. But Ranma simply shattered the ones that came at him, getting past them and in the mages faces before they could recover. Bisca and Alzack both had a harder time with those, their guns relatively useless against the large earth fists, but Bisca simply shot past the hands while Alzack, dodged and got in close to take them out form the sides before they could turn their magic back towards him.

But strangely enough, a few of the mages didn't try to fight with their magic. They closed with swords and spears, which was the definition of suicidal when it came to dealing with Ranma. Another group of ten broke out in the direction of Carla, disappearing under some kind of chameleon magic, barely visible in the fires of the camp. However they were still there, their scents and sounds carrying all around them and they met Carla waiting for them with her Cat Fist claws.

The survivors of that attempt to escape and the sonic magic users retreated to rejoin their fellows. But then Wendy dropped on them from above, and the fight ended swiftly under her wide angle attack of "Tenryu no HOKO (Sky Dragon's Roar)!" with her attack blasting out more like a wave than a stream it wasn't very powerful, but it still knocked them off their feet, making them easy meat for the others.

Grabbing up a piece of wood from one of the fires Ranma tossed it to his nearest friend, who turned out to be Alzack. He caught it, and Ranma shouted, "Wendy, back into the sky to make sure that we didn't miss any of them. The rest of us, let's move around and tie these people up."

The next morning dawned with about seventy odd prisoners looking at one another disconsolately as they were forced to sit beside their former tents and cabin. Ranma hadn't found anything incriminating inside, except for a few written out orders, and numerous sheets of some kind of notes. The orders were interesting, but showed nothing he could use to discover where the Oración Siete were hiding out.

"Maybe this stuff has something to do with the mages some didn't use their powers last night," Ranma said with a shrugged tossing a packet of the notes over to Bisca. She caught it, and with Alzack reading over her shoulder slowly nodded. "It's in some kind of cipher, but that makes sense. Still I'd bet one of those mages with the chameleon magic is the one we should question about the Oración Siete. If the Oración Siete were willing to bring this group under their aegis, then they must have had something to offer, in this case, information."

Ranma nodded, looking past them to the group outside. "So how should we play this? Straight up questioning, or try to beat it out of them?"

"I vote good cop bad cop, one of us to put the fear of God into them, the other one to sound like he's reasonable and nice," Alzack said swiftly.

This worked like a charm. With Ranma standing over them, his hands covered with water magic and his eyes blazing with ki (the others thought that too was water magic) and Alzack trying to be the nice one, they quickly got answers. It turned out that this guild, called the Sherwood Men, didn't actually do much in terms of fighting or anything of that nature, which Ranma supposed made sense given last night. Instead, they relied on extortion, exchanging information, gathering information, and outright theft.

A lot of the information they gathered they passed on for free to the Oración Seis in lieu of the normal protection fee and they knew they weren't the only dark guild that did that. There were others, two of which they knew the location of, which Ranma carefully marked down on a map to pass on to the Magic Councils of Caelum and Stella, where those guilds were located.

Then Ranma leaned forward into the speakers face, his eyes blazing further. "But if you think that's enough information to save you, think again! What do you have about the Oración Seis, what's their goal!? What is their interest in Zeref and demons!"

"We, we don't know where they are based or anything like that!" the man shouted, scurrying back into his fellows, who also cowered away. "Gah, get him away from me!"

Alzack grabbed Ranma by the shoulder and slowly pulled him away. "Now Ranma, we've been over this several times, you can't just terrify them like that, you'll never get answers that way. And no, you can't just cripple them either!" he admonished, turning his head away for just a second to hide his grin, since Ranma had indeed threatened to 'twist your legs and arms so they resemble so many pretzels' a moment ago. "Can you tell us anything about their goals?" Alzack asked turning back to the prisoners.

One of the prisoners spoke up cautiously. The Sherwood Men didn't seem to have a guild master, so all of them had been brought in for questioning. "Um, I think they're searching for something in the South East, down in that massive forest there. Something called Nirvana, but that's all we can tell you."

Ranma frowned at that, then nodded slowly, his magic and ki slowly dying away as well as the headache, which had given his act just that bit more realism. "Fine, that'll do for now."

With that Ranma left, heading out deep in the forest, ostensibly to go to the bathroom, but to really call this in to King Toma, who promised to pass the name on to the Magic Council since it didn't ring a bell with him and to pass on to his fellow rulers the names of the dark guilds gathering information for the Oración Seis in their nations.

Several hours later a train passed by dropping off a load of Rune Knights who tramped through the woods rather noisily in Bisca's loud opinion, to take custody of the prisoners. "Will that train take us to Magnolia?" Alzack asked their leader.

The other man, slightly tallish young man with slicked back black hair and glasses shook his head, while his fellows moved their anti-magic circles around the mages they were to take prisoner. "It does not, but we will inform the train station employees in Crocus that you are out here. The next train to magnolia will make a stop where this one dropped us off so they can pick you up as you requested."

"Oh, well, that's nice," Ranma said with a grimace, tapping his stomach with one hand while Wendy nearby, leaned her face down into Carla's hair with a pout. "I suppose I could always just race alongside go and the rest of you lot could wait for the train. I've had about enough of those deathtraps as it is."

"Dragon Slayers and transportation," Alzack said with a chuckle. His spirits had risen during this trip, as it seemed that while Bisca might be interested in Ranma, Ranma wasn't actually doing anything to attract that attention specifically, which meant he still had a chance. While Bisca might have decided that their relationship wasn't going anywhere, that didn't mean he had, and he wanted to see if he could change her mind.

Bisca reached over and hugged Ranma playfully, looking up into the sky. "Come on Ranma, we killed most of the day waiting for the Rune Knights and questioning those prisoners. "Are you telling me you'd prefer to race through the night rather than try to meditate or nap on a train at the same time?"

Leaning against her slightly caused Bisca to flush but not move away, Ranma let loose a semi-playful groan. "Ugh…"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Wendy snarked, looking irritable. "I have a much harder time on trains and other things."

"True, but you can fall asleep easier than I can," Ranma said with a laugh. "But I suppose you're right, some meditation time might help."

"Might help what?"

"Just a little problem I've been having with some of my magic," Ranma said moving away from Bisca and staring down at his hands. "Something I want to solve if we're going to go after the Oración Seis."

"When you do, who do you think you're going to take?" Bisca said idly as they moved away from the roommates, heading towards the distant train rails, where they would find a place to wait out the time it took for another train to come by going to Magnolia.

"Laxus for certain," Ranma said simply, "Erza maybe, Mirajane maybe. Then Jura, and Jenny. Maybe two more S-class mages on top of that?" _Or Natsu, if the others think he's up for it. He might not be S-class, but he's close, and he's a tough little spaz._

"Jenny? Jenny Realight?" Alzack asked in astonishment, a minor blush suffusing his features. Like many a man in Fiore, he had pinups of Jenny and Mirajane, although he hid his interest in both far better than most. "Are you sure? I know she's officially S-class but…"

"She's strong," Ranma said with a nod. "Nearly doubled me over with a punch when we saw one another at Akane Resort. I trust her to be strong enough for this."

"I'm not certain if I should be hurt or relieved that you didn't think of me or Alzack," Bisca said with a chuckle.

Ranma shrugged. "If you want to be part of the mission, I suppose we could use some more hands just in case they have other dark guilds with them when we find them. But no offense to either of you, but I wouldn't want you fighting the Oración Seis themselves."

"None taken," both guns mages replied as one, then looked at each other and laughed at the unintended twin-speak moment. They knew their limitations, and fighting powerful caster mages like those was well beyond them.

The train arrived a few hours after evening fell, pulling to a stop and the conductor getting out nodding politely to them all. "By order of the Rune Knights, I'm hereby stopping to pick you lot up. It's not something we do normally, so I think you should feel a little thankful."

Ranma rolled his eyes at that and leapt up onto the train. "Just get this death trap moving would you?"

The four of them were quickly ushered into a private little booth, and as the conductor called ahead to the engine to get the train restarted, Ranma pulled out some more Dragon Seed and began to smoke it on his pipe, breathing in deeply before puffing out directly in Wendy's face, to the shock of Bisca and Alzack. Before they could ask what he was doing Ranma explained what the smoke did, and then handed Wendy a blanket from his Requip space before the younger girl hopped over into a corner and curled up there resolutely closing her eyes as she tried to get to sleep.

As the scent of the Dragon Seed filled the small compartment, Alzack decided to get some sleep himself, with Bisca soon emulating him, leaning against the inner doorway. Carla just pulled out a book from her own Requip space, a hardcore magical theory book that was far too dry for Ranma or Wendy to enjoy. Ranma however grumbled, as did Wendy as the train began to move. Wendy clenched her eyes tight and breathed in deeply once more, letting the Dragon Seed help her even as her stomach worsened.

Ranma grit her teeth and closed his eyes, but not to sleep, since he knew that would be impossible. Instead he started to meditate, thinking about the current mission he found himself on. _I wonder how long this mission will go. Hell, I wonder whether I'll end up dealing with all the Balam Alliance one after another. If so I no longer have a choice, I can't keep on trying to simply use meditation to figure out this issue with the three-way war I've got going on in my body._

 _Dragon Slayer magic: incredible durability, strength, and offensive magic. But for some reason my body is rejecting it, and has been since I was given it. I gotta wonder why that is, but can't do nothing about it. Demon Slayer magic, extreme ability to read demonic opponents, immunity to specific spells from the buggers, though not their physical attack magic, and of course again my body tries to reject it, like it's a virus, though at least there I know why and it can't come out without a demon nearby._

Ranma had noticed during the last fight that he had begun to feel hate, a whole lot of hate and rage, along with a desire to destroy, the issue made worse when he drank in the tainted water of that cursed pool. But he had simply overcome it by ignoring those emotions entirely, having seen them as simply the water trying to infect him or empowering his Demon Slayer magic further.

 _And then there's my ki. Strength, slows the process of aging to a crawl, durability, but not as much as Dragon Slayer magic, though I could be wrong about that since they are constantly_ _ **fucking**_ _fighting one another! Healing well above anything the other two can give me, and endurance, which at least the other magics don't negate, for the most part anyway, plus it's the one I think I've pretty much mastered as much as I can without facing another ki user again. My ki senses… there I can use it, but finding magic users is a bit tougher than it would have been if they were using ki._

His stomach lurched for a moment as the train slowly went around a bend in the tracks but he continued to think about his current issue even as the conductor's voice came over an intercom, informing them they would be pulling to a halt soon due to an issue on the tracks ahead of them. _Okay, so let's try this: removing the ki from my arm, so that my Dragon Slaying power can 'win' there, see what happens. It should be theoretically impossible, but when have I ever let that stop me._

With that thought, Ranma concentrated on his ki reserves, feeling the pulse and flicker of them through the pressure points in his body, the veins in his flesh, the cells of his skin. Then he glanced down at his left hand and before the idea that maybe he should wait on this until the train stopped moving, he began the slow process of redirecting the ki from the limb into the rest of his body.

Luckily for Ranma, the train had stumbled to a halt thanks to some rocks, which had fallen onto the tracks. However workers from the train were already out and working on it. Bisca stood up, looking at her fellow travelers and smirked, saying, "I'll go see what they are up to, make certain it's a natural stop."

"Thanks Bisca," Ranma murmured, not looking at her but aware enough of his surroundings to reply. "I'm a little busy trying to play with my, um, call it my internal magic, or I'd come with you."

Bisca chuckled. "I noticed when you started glowing Ranma."

"Wait, what?" At that Ranma opened his eyes, only to watch her leave the little booth, smirking over her shoulder at him.

"Yep, you were glowing, bright blue and gold, kind of pretty too." She quipped, giving him a wink before the door closed, noticing as she did that Ranma had allowed his eyes to flick only once down to her rear before concentrating on her face. _Hmm, I rather like that, interest and control._ With that thought she moved to the front of the train, hopping off at the forward most entrance and moving to the workers, her rifle appearing in her arms.

Looking over at the other three Ranma found all of them asleep, even Wendy and rolled his eyes. _Well if no one is awake to be bothered by it, I'll just see what I can do here._ With that he went back to his meditation, slowly redirecting the ki in his arm back into the rest of his body. It was kind of painful at first, but as his ki was removed from his arm, Ranma could feel his Dragon Slayer magic filing the arm.

There was a shift of something, Ranma felt it for a second and suddenly as Ranma opened his eyes and looked down at his he gaped. "Holy hells, was not expecting that…"

His voice woke up Alzack, who blinked opened his eyes and then stared. "Erm, am I still dreaming?"

"Nope… this is really kind of um, real but..." Ranma fell silent, flexing his clawed and dragon-fied arm, staring at the claws that looked sharp enough to carve steel. _Hell, at least now I know why my ki is fighting my Dragon Slayer magic. It really is a virus, if you take it too far the Dragon Slayer magic takes you over! Fucking Typhon, what the hell did you do to me you old bastard?!_

Wendy came awake then, only to shriek. "Ranma-nii! What happened!?"

That shriek broke Ranma's concentration on ki and keeping it out of his arm. It flooded back in with a vengeance, and Ranma grunted, biting back a scream as his arm tried to be both dragon forelimb and human arm at once. In way it was like something he had experienced the few times he had been in hot or cold water and then splashed with the opposite temperature. That had up to this point been the most painful thing Ranma had ever dealt with. But this was the same thing, but in a far more violent way. The scales of his dragon arm tried to fight back, and there was actual blood spurting in places as the two powers within Ranma's body fought for control of the limb.

"FUCKK!" he growled out as Wendy leaped forward, trying to grab at his arm.

Bisca came back then, growling irritably and placing her rifle in her small Requip space as she opened the door only to go to her knees next to Ranma and Wendy. "Oh my god what happened!?"

"I don't know! Hold him down, I need to cast some healing spells!" Wendy said, her hands glowing green and white but she was unable to hold onto Ranma's arm to direct the spells.

Alzack leaped forward and between the two of them he and Bisca held Ranma's flailing, wildly transmutating arm in place to let Wendy perform her spells, with Carla looking on in shock, unable to help. Ranma for his part concentrated on the internal battle, directing his ki and eventually pushing the Dragon Slayer magic back to its previous level in the limb in question.

Eventually his arm was back to normal, though Ranma had lost all feeling in the limb, something akin to if the limb had a tourniquet wrapped around it. But Ranma knew the feeling would come back, he could feel the ki within refilling itself from the rest of his body. "Well, that was an um, interesting experiment."

"What did you just do!?" roared everyone all at once, with Wendy's being the strongest voice by quite a bit. Her lips trembled as she fought back tears and her eyes blazed with anger at Ranma's blasé attitude toward what she thought of as a major issue.

Sighing and sheepishly pulling at his pigtail, Ranma explained what he had been doing, and why, though he explained his ki away as his original, primary magic, which was based around self-healing rather than go into detail about how it was a nearly entirely separate energy source. As he did, feeling came back to his arm, and Ranma sighed flexing the limb this way and that.

Bisca frowned taking his hand in hers and staring at his arm as he flexed it, blushing as Ranma's fingers squeezed hers. "So, um what you're saying is that if you take your mastery of your Dragon Slayer skills to a high enough level you actually turn into a dragon?!"

"But I don't wanna!" Wendy wailed, her fear for her Onii-chan replaced entirely with fear at the prospect of transforming like that.

"I don't think so Wendy, I think it's just me." Ranma said ruefully. "I've told you all along that Typhon tried to speed me through my training, and was an old dotard of bastard too. I'd lay odds the old fart neglected to do something or add some kind of special training or magic to his training me because he wanted to get me as far along as possible. You and Natsu should be fine. Laxus too, given he ain't a natural Dragon Slayer. Me though…"

"That makes some sense," Bisca said, releasing Ranma's hand and standing up, moving back to her original seat as the train finally started to move. The two Dragon Slayers immediately began to look ill, and Ranma whipped out his pipe once more and relit it, tamping in a new load of Dragon seed. As they did, she looked at Ranma thoughtfully. "I've never heard of magics fighting against one another like that, let alone inside someone's body. Still, I think we might know someone who could help."

Ranma looked up in interest at that as Alzack smacked his fist into his palm. "That's a good idea actually! Porlyusica is a master healer, and of meditation magics. There's nothing she doesn't know about the human body, and how to figure out how magic can affect it. I bet she could help a lot. Maybe figure out some way to force your magics to work together, without the Dragon Slayer magic overwhelming the rest, or maybe she knows a way to banish the Demon Slayer magic at least. That magic doesn't sound like it's worth the cost to me."

While Wendy looked interested in meeting another magic healer, after all she had only met four of them throughout all their travels, Ranma slowly nodded. "She's what, your guilds healer then?"

"She is, though she never comes to the actual guild hall. We need to go to her. Porlyusica doesn't like other humans all that much, and stays to herself deep in the woods. Still, she's one of the best." Bisca affirmed, with Alzack nodding along. From there they both went into stories about how this or that guild member had been healed by the pink-haired healer.

As they did, Ranma slowly nodded. "Well then, I suppose we have another reason to set down roots for a bit now. I need to solve this issue, but the only solution I've come up with has some serious downside. I don't know how much anyone else can help me but at this point I'll try anything!"

 **End Chapter**

* * *

So, a lot of setups in this chapter, though not much depth. On the other hand, the next two chapters will have both comedy and violence galore. Won't say much for fear of spoilers, but let's just say that Ranma gets to punch another Wizard Saint LOL.


	13. Chapter 13

Canon is my plaything. That is all.

This has been edited by both _Justlovereadin'_ and _Hiryo_ , but that means there are no doubt small mistakes throughout. Though hopefully not enough to harm your enjoyment of the chapter.

* * *

 **Chapter 1#{Deliberate, no jinx here LOL}: Picking Your Poison Poorly**

Despite his and Wendy's discomfort, the train continued on through the night. The group arrived in Magnolia evening the next day. The previous night's scare forgotten for now, Bisca giggled as the two Dragon Slayers leaped out the train's window to get off the train that much quicker. When they both threw their arms up and shouted, "Freedom!" she and Alzack both laughed aloud.

"Are you sure all of you Dragon Slayers aren't related somehow?" Alzack said as he and Bisca joined them more sedately, even using the door and the small stepping ladder to exit the train. "A family-based motion sickness problem would make much more sense than it being some kind of byproduct of your magic."

"Ha, ha," Ranma said, glaring at the Gun's Magic mage, while Wendy shook her head at the very idea of all of them being related like that. One combat junkie for an Onii-chan was enough in her mind, whatever fun times they'd had together. "That's like saying all Guns Magic users come from the same clan."

Then he smirked, reaching out to thump Alzack on the shoulder. "Although, I have seen a Guns Magic user that dressed the same as you do with the whole poncho thing. If that's what you've got to look forward to in the future man, all I'll say is you better watch what you eat."

Alzack spluttered at that, while Bisca rolled her eyes and moved to stand with Wendy and Carla. "Come on, let's head to the guild."

As they moved through the town the Fairy Tail mages noticed the stares and looks they were getting, just like Erza and the others had the day before. They exchanged a worried glance, while Carla and the two Dragon Slayers followed, not noticing the looks as Wendy speculated on what kind of apartment they could get for the rest of autumn and winter. Ranma on the other hand was wondering if Erza would be up for a spar, and if Natsu had finished recovering from his magic poisoning.

This attitude abruptly changed as they came within sight of the Fairy Tail guildhall. Despite the efforts of some of the guild, there were still two large iron spears sticking through the building like it was a shishkabob. "What happened!?" Bisca asked, as she and Alzack raced forward followed by the others.

Bursting in, they calmed down somewhat as they saw the usual crowd of guild members, talking and laughing like normal, simply moving around the metal pillars stuck through the guild hall. That let Ranma get the first word in edge-wise as he entered after them smirking at the old man. "Can't say I approve of your decorations old man, what's up with that, or is this some kind of hint to your guild that they need more iron in their diets."

"That was lame," Laxus said with a roll of the eyes, not moving from where he sat at the bar, going drink for drink with Cana. Turning in his stool he watched as Ranma talked to his grandfather.

Bisca rolled her eyes and ignored Laxus, moving quickly into the guild and heading towards several of her friends to talk to them. She tapped Ranma on the shoulder as she left, getting a wink back before Ranma turned his attention to Makarov, who was sitting just back of the point of one of the spikes near the bar, holding a stein of half his own size. Behind him, Ranma could see Lucy and a few of the others he knew including the stripper, who he glared at until he began to pull on a shirt, but not Erza, Mira or Natsu.

"Bah, it's just a young brat flexing his muscles. Phantom Lord has always had issues with Fairy Tail, thinking they are stronger than us larger than us, bah as if such things matter," Makarov slurred form where he

"Oh, Phantom Lord huh?" Ranma said, looking around and nodding. "Don't they have their own Dragon Slayer? A metal Dragon Slayer? I might have to look him up sometime, see if he knows anymore about where the Dragons went than anyone else. That, and I got some business to talk to their guild master with."

Makarov's eyebrows rose and when he talked next there was no sign of the copious amount of alcohol he had taken in. "What kind of business would that be?"

"Nothing much, just following up on some rumor's that've reached my ears." Ranma said, waving that off, still looking around for a pink haired woman. But he didn't see any pink hair, and he sighed. _Oh well, Bisca did say she wasn't a regular guild member._ "Say, Bisca and Alzack mentioned a healer that's part of your guild, said she might be able to give me a handle on a little issue I have."

"Having performance issues are ya?" Laxus quipped before his grandfather could respond.

"Hah, you wish, maybe then you could actually beat me!" Ranma retorted, causing Laxus to glare at him angrily. "But no, it's about removing a certain handicap I've run into." From there, Ranma explained about the issue he was running into with his Dragon Slayer magic fighting his own body's ki, likening ki to another type of body enhancement magic.

Neither listener believed that. Certainly many magics had nasty side effects, but two magics actually fighting for supremacy in your body that was highly unusual. No, Ranma's original magic was something else. Still, Makarov wasn't going to press the young Ranger on it. "Well, while I think Porlyusica could help you I'm afraid even if you traveled to her house in the woods she wouldn't be there now. She's gone on a herb hunt, which she does at this time every month. She'll be gone for several days more.

"GRRRR," Ranma growled, smashing his hands together with a speed to ruffle the hair of those nearby. "Any chance I could somehow hunt her down in the woods? I hate waiting, and I've got my Dragon Slayer given sense of smell to consider."

"You might be able to find her, but it certainly wouldn't put Porlyusica-chan in the right frame of mind to assist you." Makarov replied dryly. 'You're human, not dealing with a life threatening injury, and not from Fairy Tail. That's three strikes against you right there, you certainly wouldn't need any-more points taken away if you really want to get her cooperation. While she's good at what she does, Porlyusica-chan hates people, and she'll have no concern about your desires to get stronger."

Just then, they were interrupted by twin shouts from nearby as several other people came in from the back of the hall, including Erza, but it wasn't Erza who had shouted, instead it was two of her companions, Natsu and Happy. Happy leaped upright from where he had been laying on top of Natsu's head. "Carla!" He shouted then leaped off Natsu's head, activating his magic and flying forward like a bullet, his enthusiasm only slightly dimmed by the fact Carla was in her human form at the moment.

Natsu however had also caught sight of the guest and he raced forward, bulldozing through some of the other guild members, magic flaring around his hands into a conflagration. "Ranma! Fight me!"

"Oh god no!" Carla groaned, ducking down behind Wendy, as the male cat closed. "Put some clothes on at least!" Without Carla around, Happy had gone back to just wearing his small pack as his only clothing.

This exclamation didn't stop Happy however, who actually alighted on Wendy's head before leaning in abruptly. It was with a certain sense of shock and dawning horror that Carla realized the blue-furred cat was going for a kiss. With a startled yelp she leaped away, her hand flashing out in a textbook right punch that smacked into Happy right on the lips. This knocked him off Wendy's head ass over tea-kettle as she shrieked, "What the heck were you trying to do you buffoon!?"

"Bu, but isn't that what girlfriends and boyfriends do?" Happy blubbered, shaking his head from where he had hit the ground. "That's what Natsu, Lisanna and Anna are doing!"

"That would assume you are my boyfriend you dolt!" Carla shouted, while Wendy waved her hands, trying to calm her down and play peacemaker.

Ranma nodded in approval of how Carla had used some of her training to deal with the foolish tomcat, before turning his attention to his own issue. By this time Natsu had burst through the crowd of guild members and reached them too, throwing out a punch without any further ado at Ranma. Ranma sighed and dodged it kicking out lightly to trip Natsu, but the boy adroitly hopped over it, nearly muffing the landing thanks to his haste, but it was a decent sign of his basic reflexes. "Have you finished those exercises I gave you?"

"Ha!" Natsu roared, sharing forward the fires on his hands now covering his arms up past the elbow. "Like I need to! I've leveled up in power thanks to surviving that Tower fight!"

"You mean surviving your own stupidity," Laxus drawled from one side.

Sighing theatrically, Ranma gathered water around his hand, slamming it into the side of Natsu's arm, right on his funny bone. No matter who you were, that stung, and Natsu yelped, his magic actually canceling out as he wrung his hand out before he found himself flipped over Ranma's back and slammed face-first into the ground of the guild hall. "Strength is not the same as being stronger, and being strong is not the same as skilled." Ranma said, stepping around the younger boy and over to one of the mages who was holding a pen. "Hey, you mind if I borrow that?"

The rather obese mage, who Ranma felt he might have introduced to but who name he couldn't remember, cocked his head but handed over the pen. With it in hand Ranma turned grinning over at Erza as Natsu slowly got to his feet, growling, his magic flaring up again. "Hey Erza, wanted to ask ya if you were up for a spar later today. Don't worry, this won't take long."

"I am afraid I'm heading into town to spend most of the day with the local armorer, I've lost too many of my armors of late to be at one hundred percent. If you wanted it to be limited spar perhaps, just hand to hand, I would be quite happy to cut my time there short though," Erza replied as Natsu, angry at being looked down on like that, charged forward.

Ranma simply slid aside from the Charge, slipping around the punch like it was in slow motion, which to Ranma it rather was. He could sense that Natsu had indeed gotten stronger, incorporating the magic he'd taken in, but that hadn't effected his speed or skill, which was still far less than Ranma's own. "Hmm, grappling sounds like fun," he quipped, winking at her while tapping Natsu's punch down then around with the pen in his hand, flipping the boy like a top before flinging Natsu into the air to slam into the roof.

Blushing at the implications of Ranma's words, Erza grabbed her courage and nodded, ignoring Natsu pushing off the roof and roaring back down towards Ranma, one of his magical attacks roaring out of his lips. "Ahem, yes, that does sound fun, though you might wish to wait for tomorrow. It is getting rather late today after all."

Nearby, Cana was watching this with one eyebrow raised in interest before smirking at the sounds of many a guildmate moaning about their losses. _Huh, well wasn't that interesting. Someone's trying to get our Titania out of her armor, and she seems to actually understand it and isn't violently rejecting the idea either._

"Damn it, take me seriously!" Natsu roared, really losing his temper now. "I get enough of being treated like I'm just a distraction from Gildarts!"

"Then ya should be used to it," Ranma retorted before his pen flashed out thwacking down so hard on Natsu's wrist it actually deadened the hand for a moment before thrusting to thwack into Natsu's forehead, sending Natsu backwards to land right on top of Lucy who had been sitting at a nearby table.

They both sprawled to the ground with Natsu nearly out of it from the point-blank hit to his head, which found itself lodged between Lucy's large breasts. "Ooogh, what, where, huh, this is a nice soft cushion."

She shook her head pushing hair out of her eye before glaring down at the pink-haired Dragon Slayer currently using her chest as a pillow. "Get off me NatsuuUU!"

She suddenly squeaked as Natsu pushed off her by using one hand on her hip and the other pressing down into her chest somewhat painfully. He grinned at her not even noticing what he was doing. "Oh hi Lucy, sorry about that."

Nearby Lisanna and Anna had been moving through the crowd, hopping to convince Natsu to stop the fight before the guildhall was further damaged, or before he suffered further brain damage, which ever came first. Now they paused as one, staring from the scene with Natsu then down to their own far more modest chests before sniffling and turning away.

Despite being somewhat denser than the heart of a black hole, Natsu knew that sniffling-about-to-cry girls was not a good thing, and he had seen them both looking his way before they started. Even Natsu could do that math and he hurriedly stood up, racing after them, his desire to fight Ranma gone. "Lisanna, Anna, wait, what's wrong what'd I do!?"

Blinking at that, Ranma shrugged. "Huh, that worked out a lot better than I expected, I just thought Lucy would kick him in the fork." With that, he turned back to Erza. "So, sometime next morning then."

"You are evil," Erza said, almost admiringly. "And yes, that would be fine."

Sauntering over, Cana reached down and helped Lucy to her feet, then over to the booth she'd been sitting at, sidling in next to her. "You okay there Lucy?"

"Ugh, yeah I'll be fine," Lucy muttered reaching to her chest and attempting the impossible: touch her own chest to check for bruises while in public.

In retrospect, Lucy realized that had been a pretty obvious mistake given the girl sitting next to her. Cana grinned, looping one arm around Lucy's back, grabbing at her chest with gentle hands even as she went to work. "Here, let me help, pain, pain go away!" she giggled, her fingers flexing and kneading before flicking off Lucy's chest for a moment, like a parent doing a 'spell' on a small child's wounds.

"That's not how Ahh, that works!" Lucy moaned, before trying to push Cana away feebly.

While that was going on and Natsu had actually connived the Strauss twins that he hadn't meant to fondle Lucy and that their chests were just fine, Ranma blushed then deliberately turned his back on Cana and Lucy… _Are they flirting or is Cana just molesting her? But she's not really trying to move away or hit her or anything. Weird._

"…And we are not, dating you foolish tomcat!" Carla growled down at Happy before turning away in a huff, evidently having been in full on tirade mode for a few minutes before Ranma bothered actually listening. "Try to kiss me again and I'll fillet you."

"…So does that mean I should go back to giving you fish?" Happy asked, looking confused and scratching at his head.

"GRAHhh!" Carla growled turning and making to leap at Happy only to be picked up and carried away from him by Wendy.

"Remember what you're always trying to tell me Carla," Wendy soothed.

"What, that whole, 'use words not violence to solve problems'?" Ranma asked, waving a hand. "Tell me how often that's worked out for us Wendy-chan."

"No, I was thinking about how she's always told me you can't cure stupidity by hitting people," Wendy said innocently, save for a glint in her eye as she moved to the bar. Happy had after all used her head as a pedestal to try to steal Carla's first kiss."

Ranma began to laugh at that while the others looked at the young girl in shock at the burn she'd just dealt out, before Carla interjected with, "Indeed, if that worked, we would have long cured you of that particular illness."

Staggering and holding his heart Ranma drew several laughs before he sat down next to Laxus, with Erza sitting on his other side and Wendy perched on the bar between them, Carla sitting rather primly nearby. When the laughs had died down though, Ranma turned to his other, less personal reason to come to Fairy Tail. "Hey, you get my message?" he asked Laxus. When the lightning user nodded, sitting up on his stool and looking at Ranma intently, Ranma began to explain his new mission in low tones, ending with, "So I want to put a team of heavies together, and I figured you'd want to be involved."

"Oh that sounds awesome!" Natsu exclaimed little fires coming from his mouth as he did. "You're talking about me right, you have to be talking about me! I so want in on this!"

"Please runt, you wouldn't even be mentioned, he means me, Mira and Erza," Laxus grunted, waving him off. "But hell yeah Ranma I'm in."

"As am I, if you do want me?" Erza asked.

Natsu scowled while Ranma chuckled. Man, you're still kind of an asshole aren't ya Laxus?"

"Meh, never claimed to be anything more." Laxus grunted.

At that, Ranma turned to Erza. "Heh, and boy, could I take that line the wrong way, you know that right?" Erza blushed and Ranma laughed until she dumped a glass of cold water over his head, turning him into her. Growling, Ranma was about to launch herself at Erza, but then twitched away as Makarov suddenly appeared on the bar next to her, feeling her back and then down to her rear before Ranma's elbow nearly caught Makarov in the side of the head. "Die pervert!"

"Heheh, so firm, so bouncy!" Makarov shouted, and bounding away to the hilarity of much of the guild.

"And you say he's evil?" Laxus asked dryly to the blinking Erza, who watched on, bemused at what she had unintentionally caused.

This was exacerbated a second later when Natsu grinned and raced after the aquatransexual. "Oh yeah! Let me in on this! You smack her rear Gramps, I'll burn it!"

Ranma kicked off the table she'd just landed on in an effort to catch Makarov, who had leaped away, launching herself backwards and her leg flashing back into a spear that caught Natsu in the chest and hurled him backwards. She even did so in such a way that Natsu was flung back into Grey, who had just been about to strip off his pants in his normal absent-minded fashion. "Stay out of this pinkie! And You, stripper, what've I told you about doing that in front of Wendy-chan, huh!?"

The two rivals attempted to push to their feet, but got tangle in one another, and began to roll around, smashing into several other mages, who joined the fight, led by Elfman's roar of "Real Men fight on their feet you bastards!" What had been simply a chase between Ranma and Makarov quickly became a full-bore brawl in traditional Fairy Tail fashion. Ranma however simply used the chaos to close the distance on Makarov, who yelped, and began to dodge in earnest, sweat starting to bead his brow and the alcohol working through his system faster.

Ignoring the chaos Wendy looked around then up to Erza and Laxus. "Ano, I don't see Mira-san anywhere. Didn't she beat us back?"

"Mira was here yes, but she had to leave this morning for a modeling job. She'll also be taking an S-class quest on the way back." Erza replied, turning her head away from the chaos to look down at Wendy. "I believe it was something to do with tracking down and returning a stolen coin template." When Wendy cocked her head quizzically, Erza explained. "Coin templates are what the Royal Reserve uses to create the countries coinage. It magically controls the amount of gold and other, lesser metals that goes into each coin and stamps them with the crest of the country and the amount."

"The thief could somehow change the formula or print their money. Its theft is a major black mark for that branch of the Royal Reserve, though I doubt that they've got anything that would stop an S-class mage." Laxus interjected, standing up and moving towards where Makarov had just gotten smashed into and through a table by a lucky shot from Ranma. "Now Ranma's job, that sounds much more interesting. Still, I suppose it's getting dark out, and I should show you and Ranma the apartment I found for you and my bill for putting down a down payment."

He looked over at Erza and gestured at the chaos. "Would you?"

Erza had started to growl under her breath when Natsu and Gray instigated a general melee. She had no problem with punishing a pervert, even if the punisher was a man turned woman and the punished her Guild Master. A general melee though, especially started by two good friends, that was something she would not stand. Resolutely the armor-clad knight marched forward, her gauntleted hands smashing mages left and right.

Ranma stomped down, hissing angrily as Makarov somehow dodged at the last instant, then leaped away, landing on the balcony nearby. _What is it with little perverts being so damn fast!?_ Ranma actually wasn't holding back much of her speed at the moment, though he had yet to go full Amaguriken. Still, Ranma knew it was only a matter of time, and he crouched down, her hands and arms slowly flickering with magic.

He was interrupted in his leap though by Laxus grabbing him by the back of his shirt and halting him in midair. "Alright, that's enough playtime Ranma, come on. I want to show you the apartment I found you and Wendy."

Ranma tilted his head to look over her shoulder at Laxus. "Laxus, yer my friend, but if you don't drop me right this minute I'm going to kick you in the junk so hard you'll never even be able to pee properly ever again, let alone do anything else."

Shivering at the cold way the redhead had spoken that threat, Laxus dropped her then backed away slightly, but made no other move, glaring down at the redhead. "Them's fighting words bitch!"

Growling irritably Ranma grunted, moving away and grabbing at a glass of water Wendy held out to her, already steaming. Dumping it over her head, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, sorry about that man, my time in my female form must be adding up again, I always get emotional in that form right before and during that time."

"Gah, too much freaking information," Laxus grunted, turning away, though his lips did quirk when he noticed several nearby mages shivering and subtly putting down their bear mugs from where they might have been thinking about dousing Ranma again. "Now come on."

He stopped and looked at Erza where she was standing over the bruised, unconscious forms of Gray and Natsu. Nearby Lisanna and Anna were already dragging the tables upright and generally trying to clear away the debris, including the downed mages. "You want to come with?"

Erza nodded, smacking her hands and making a clanging noise before she stepped over the downed bodies of her friends. "Yes, I'm done here. Besides, I need to head down to the blacksmith, they should have at least my normal everyday chest-plate done by this point."

With Carla coming along, even in her human body, Happy came along, leaving Natsu behind to wallow in his pains. He tried to land on Ranma's head, but Ranma wouldn't allow it, and he was forced to instead use Wendy's head. "If you pull out a smelly fish though, I won't be responsible for my actions," Wendy said, scrunching up her little nose.

"Aye sir," Happy replied, settling in on top of her head to look at Carla.

Carla on the other hand quickly moved so that Ranma was between the two of them. "Ugh, when will that tomcat learn?"

Chuckling at her misery, Ranma ruffled her hair before pulling his hand away before the white-furred catgirl could slash at his hand. "I think you need to figure out a way to get through his head before you lose it utterly Carla. I don't think you actually want his blood on your paws after all."

"Bah, shows what you know you cretin," Carla grunted in reply. "If he tries to kiss me out of the blue again I'll have his guts for garters!"

Laxus led the way, commenting to Erza, "So, when do you think the Old Man will go through with… **That** for Lucy, Natsu and Gray?"

"EEEE!" Happy shuddered, his tiny body going stiff, his blue fur on end. "No, I completely forgot about… **That**!"

"And what's this now?"

Erza harrumphed. "You might not know, but Gray took the mission slip for Galuna Island before we reached the guild. He then convinced first Lucy, then Natsu and Happy, to come with him, breaking numerous guild rules. As punishment, Master Makarov will be doing… **That** to them."

Before Ranma could ask the obvious question there, Wendy did it for him. "What is **That**? It's not something painful is it? I don't think it sounds like something they should be really punished **b** adly for."

"No it isn't painful, merely intensely humiliating."

"Meh, I don't know, you and Mira certainly…" Laxus shut up as a dark haze of red magic appeared around Erza, and he turned to glare at the older S-class mage. Laxus smirked back at her then shrugged and turned away looking at Ranma. "Guild tradition says we're not allowed to actually explain what… **That** is. **That** is a punishment which has to be seen to be believed, just like your curse."

Eyes widening as he made the connection Ranma began to cackle, causing everyone but Laxus to back away from him. "Oh hell yes! I have to see this!"

"That's what I said," Laxus said with a smirk.

"Well, I'm afraid that's not going to happen anytime soon." Erza said, calming down slightly from her reaction to Ranma's bout of madness. "I doubt that he will do anything until we are certain that Phantom Lord has calmed down and backed away from its aggressive actions towards us. Then we'll repair the guildhall and probably hold the normal ceremony to appreciate… **That**."

By that point, Laxus had led them down a street in one of the more affluent sections of the city. There they found an apartment complex and Laxus led them to the rooftop, which turned out to be an apartment too. It was an odd little thing with a huge balcony taking up most of the roof, and a large kitchen but two small bedrooms and no actual sitting room. The balcony was also taken up by a large garden of some kind, with several trees here and there. While Lacus was showing Ranma around, Wendy instantly went outside, looking from this to that plant, while Carla followed her, also looking around with interest.

"Huh…" Ranma mused, looking around and then nodded. "It looks good. We can change that second small bedroom into a sitting room and set up the tent in the smaller room. Laxus looked affronted by that, but Ranma chuckled waving him off. "Don't worry, that ain't a knock on the apartment Laxus, it's just our tent can give us both enough space for bedrooms in a small tent. So, how much do I owe you?"

Laxus named a figure, and Ranma winced, but pulled out his bank card and transferred the amount to Laxus'. Laxus left then, saying he was going to go train and he would see Ranma tomorrow. "I might go with you when you go to recruit Jura. I'd love to fight that man again."

Then, with Wendy and Carla setting up the tent, Ranma went out and did some shopping with Erza for a time before she broke off to head to the blacksmiths. Later, using the kitchen to cook them up some dinner (a large one since neither Dragon Slayer had eaten from the time when they got on the train) Ranma asked, "So what do you think about Fairy Tail?"

"Hmm… I like them. They're fun, kind of crazy, but I like how happy and energetic they are." Wendy replied then giggled. "And I think they are funny too. Mira-san, Bisca-san, Erza-san, Laxus-san, even Natsu-san are friendly, and I thought the chaos earlier was fun!"

"So you've no objection to spending the rest of autumn and winter here?" While Ranma was fine travelling even in the deep of winter, Carla and Wendy didn't like it, even with all their special gear.

"Nope! I even like the apartment." Wendy replied.

Nodding, Ranma smiled and thought that maybe Wendy would make the decision to join Fairy Tail. But that was for the future. Right now, he wanted to get them settled in.

 **OOOOOOO**

With a long-drawn out sigh of relief Lucy closed the door to her apartment complex, shaking her head as Cana walked off. The two of them had left the guild pretty promptly after the fight started, thinking to get home while it was still daylight. She refused to think that Phantom Lord would cause trouble during the day. Nor did Lucy think that they would break normal citizens' property, which considering that she rented her apartment, also included that apartment, making her safe enough to refuse Cana's offer to stay with her despite Makarov's suggestion on how they should be staying in groups. _Besides, I bet it'll all blow over soon. Ultear will deal with it at the moment she gets back to the Council, and they won't be allowed to bother us anymore._

With that said and no evidence to the contrary, Lucy relaxed now, laying down on her sofa, looking down at her chest as it wobbled slightly with the movement then shook her head irritably. _Why the heck does Cana always do that! I mean it's not like_ , she blushed, _I mean if I only…_ she blushed even harder, her mind sputtering to a halt.

Frankly, Cana was beginning to worry her a little. It was like she couldn't keep her hands off of Lucy's chest, and while sometimes it felt good ( **really** good), Lucy wondered if there was well really anything else to it. And she was really wondering if she wanted there to be anything more to it. Lucy knew that she was still somewhat bisexual, possibly even tilting towards the girly side of the spectrum. A few experiences with men that her father had thought were worth her getting to know had pushed her in that direction, and the way Cana touched her sometimes, did make Lucy think along those lines.

Shaking her head, Lucy leaped to her feet. "Right, that's enough of that! Bath, then something to eat I think. Then maybe I can work on my book a bit."

With that she entered the bathroom, and began to strip out of her clothing one piece at a time and was surprised to see that there was water already in the bathtub. Cocking her head she thought to herself, didn't I remember to drain that last night? With a growl of irritation, she finished stripping and moved towards the bathtub. Then as she pushed a hand through the water, Lucy looked down and realized that the cap had indeed been removed, but somehow the water wasn't draining away. "What the?"

That was the last thing Lucy could say before the water reared up, covering her upper body and pulling Lucy down inexorably. She flailed, panicking at the water closed around her head her body being pulled down further and further until her entire body was wrapped in it. Lucy continued to thrash trying to get away, not stopping when she heard a voice say through the water "Juvia is sorry, but Juvia has been commanded to capture you by Juvia's guild master Lucy-san, and Juvia cannot disobey."

The water mage Juvia held Lucy in her grip until the blonde woman stopped moving, then quickly unwrapped Lucy's head to allow her to breathe, keeping the rest of her body locked into the water. She waited a few more seconds, then nodded, and stepped out of the top, her body fully reforming into its human form complete with clothing. To one side, a large column of water held Lucy in captivity, but looking at her Juvia sighed then laid the other woman down on the ground. "Juvia might have been forced to capture you, but Juvia can at least let you retain some of your dignity," she said, moving over and picking up the clothing the blonde had discarded, wrinkling her nose a little at how disorganized the woman was, simply stripping from one step to the next as she entered the bathroom.

She took a moment to glance down at Lucy's breasts and nodded complacently. _They are quite large, but Juvia has at least an inch on her_. With that, she began to dress the blonde, who did not stir from her unconscious state.

Once that was done, another geyser of water erupted around Lucy, picking her up and carrying her after Juvia as she exited the bathroom. Out in the sitting area of Lucy's apartment she found Sol and Totomaru. Sol was sitting down on the sofa enjoying a cup of tea, while shaking his head and looking at a pair of underwear he had found somewhere. Totomaru was over by a desktop settings one corner, his back to her as she entered, but he looked up as she did so. "You two should come and read this. Apparently the blonde girl's a bit of a writer and its pretty good."

Sol looked over at him. "Truly? You do know that I have a very high standard for such things."

Totomaru scoffed at that waving the manuscript as he turned fully to face the others. "Really. The plot is decent, the action is okay, and the characters, at least the lead one, seems interesting enough. Can't comment on the romance, that kind of things a little sappy, frankly, far too much 'eye's meeting across a crowded room' kind of thing."

Juvia rolled her eyes, coughing lightly to regain the men's attention. "As you can see, Juvia has captured the target," she said tiredly. "Perhaps we can leave now before the Fairy Tail guild realizes we have been here, and taken one of their number prisoner?" With Sol to bypass the door, and Juvia to do the capturing, this had been far too easy. Totomaru didn't have to come along at all, but he had just in case they needed some extra muscle.

"Non. It is still too early yet to get out of the city without being spotted," Sol said. "We will wait until nightfall, and then leave the town while Gajeel is causing issues elsewhere."

"Juvia still does not agree to that part of the plan," Juvia said, thoughtfully as she leaned against the doorway. "It will no doubt incense the entire guild." That her friend Anna might be caught up in that activity was also a major concern to Juvia.

"Of course it will," Totomaru said bluntly. "You should know by now that's part of the plan. Capturing Lucy and the money that she'll bring when we turn her over to her father is just one part of it, Master Jose needs to prove that our guild is better than the Fairy Tail, and what better way to do that than through fighting and beating the entire guild down? "

Juvia sighed once more, a melancholy, depressed sound but she nodded and turned away, still carrying Lucy in her Water Lock. "In that case, Juvia will take a rest." _And get Lucy another pair of panties. Juvia doesn't think she would want them back after someone like Sol has been holding them._

The two men looked at one another as Juvia very purposefully closed the door to the bedroom, the only inner door in the apartment. "What's wrong with her?" Totomaru asked. Sol just shrugged unconcern then went back to looking at the panties in his hand.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Bring, Bring!"

Ranma looked up from the meal when the doorbell to the apartment rang, cocking his head to one side. "Huh, now who could that be?"

"I'll get it," Wendy said, hopping up from where she had been looking over a few books on advanced magic and meditation alone, Carla having headed out a few moments ago to a nearby clothing store. Wendy's reading level wasn't quite up to where she could read them easily, but Ranma figured that straining to read them would also help in her understanding them, and he wanted to help Wendy increase her magical reserves. The fact she had nearly completely collapsed after using Dragon Force meant she needed work in that area. _Then again, I can't even use it at all, so what do I know,_ he groused to himself, chopping just a little too viciously at a piece of carrot, hacking through it and the chopping block underneath.

"Now what did that thing ever do to you?" Bisca asked, moving over and into the kitchen to sniff at some of the things Ranma was making. They smelled interesting but not quite like anything she recognized.

Ranma blinked, looked up and smiled at her. "Ah, Sorry, I was someplace else I suppose. What are you up to?" He really meant just to ask what she was doing there, but figured she'd tell them that eventually. Besides, it wasn't like he didn't like the pretty green haired woman's company.

Bisca held up a bottle in one hand, setting it down on the kitchen counter. "It's traditional for friends to come over with a bottle of wine to celebrate someone moving in."

"I thought that was supposed to be for houses, or is that launching ship where you smash a bottle over them or something?" Ranma asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

"Ships for the bottle smashing for certain," Bisca said now also looking quizzical. "Though why they do that I have no idea." They both looked at one another shrugged, and Bisca quickly changed the subject, pointing at some kind of sauce sizzling away on the stove. "It smells good, but what is it?"

"Orange sauce."

"What is orange sauce? I mean, I can see the color, but it doesn't smell very like oranges." Bisca asked interestedly.

You're not going to comment on the pork bits?" Wendy asked, having followed Bisca from the doorway. When Bisca looked at her the youngest Dragon Slayer said, "well, I thought with all those animal friends of yours you'd be a vegetarian."

Bisca laughed. "Not a bit of it. And even if I was, I probably would make a special exception for pork. Pigs are disgusting."

Ranma chuckled at that but answered Bisca's original question. "It's a sauce that comes from Minstrel." Ranma found it ironic that the first country he'd reached had been the one that was most like the countries he was most used to at home, and indeed was one of the few that had a real Asian flair at all to it.

"It's good," Wendy supplied. "Ranma-nii is really good at making food like that. Although the first time he tried to make a waffle, he nearly burned our tent down!"

Ranma twisted around to glare mockingly at Wendy. "I thought we agreed never to talk about that!"

"I don't remember making any such promise." Wendy sniffed, her nose in the air.

Bisca laughed then pulled out another bottle from a large pouch she was carrying, holding it up. "And this is something for Wendy. It's magnolia fruit punch. It's one of our most popular exports, made from oranges, cherries, and something we call passionfruit around here."

Wendy gleefully moved over to grab some glasses from inside their tent, coming out quickly.

"Are you going to want to eat with us, is that part of the tradition too?" Ranma teased, realizing there was more to this than just tradition.

"If I'm not a bother," Bisca said with a chuckle.

Ranma looked at her thoughtfully out of the corner of his eye, and noticed Bisca looked quite a bit more nervous than her tone and conversation would have implied. Still remembering the time he'd sort of kind of flirted with Bisca when she was watching him exercise, Ranma realized this was her attempt to set up some more flirting at the least. "Sure, we've got enough food for one more."

"So," Bisca said as she moved to help Wendy pull out a table from the tent to set up in the kitchen area. It wasn't very heavy to the young girl, but she was having trouble balancing it. "How long do you think you see yourself staying here and Magnolia?"

"The rest of autumn and winter for certain," Ranma said promptly. "Wendy here doesn't like traveling during the winter and given a choice, neither do I. I also want to talk to this Porlyusica you told me about. Hopefully she'll get back soon."

"We can only hope," Bisca said with a chuckle. "But here's a question for you that I don't think any of the others have asked, or if they have, they didn't share your reply to it. Why don't you join Fairy Tail? I understand you like traveling, but it isn't like you wouldn't travel as a Fairy Tail mage. And you'd have a lot more support."

Wendy stayed silent, letting Ranma answer this question first. "I like Fairy Tail," he said at last, setting down the orange glazed pork pieces on shish kebabs. Most of them are fun, and I like your take no shi… um guff attitude for the most part. Mira, Erza, Laxus, Nathan, Elfman, they're all great."

"No Gray?" Bisca asked.

"I'll mention Gray among the guild member's I've met and liked the moment he stops trying to strip in front of Wendy," Ranma replied tartly.

At that Wendy blushed, looking down at her hands and suddenly finding them very interesting. _How do I tell Ranma-nii that it wasn't anything I haven't seen before?_ After all, she and Ranma had been basically living in the same tent for years now, and accidents were sure to happen occasionally.

Most of the time Ranma didn't even notice, since Wendy would squeak, blush, and then hide, but she had seen Ranma in his birthday suit more than once in both forms. His female form made Wendy a little jealous for a time until she remembered that there was an age difference between them. But his male form had weirded her out quite a lot the first few times she'd seen him. But in the last year or so, those feelings had sort of shifted, though Wendy didn't really understand why. It was almost like when she was around the prince from Bosco, but not quite.

Bisca laughed, nodding at that. "So?"

"But… I do have a job, as long as I have that, I can't really be stuck to one place." Ranma said with a shrug.

"And what is your job" Bisca asked, now leaning forward, giving Ranma an easy view down her shirt, but that wasn't the intent and he tried manfully to keep looking her in the eyes. "Both Erza and Mira seem to know something about that, and so does Laxus. Why keep it a secret?"

"Because we're supposed to," Ranma said with a shrug, though he couldn't stop his eyes from darting down to see the nice, light pink and rather enticing flesh on display. "But I suppose so long as you promise not to say anything?" When Bisca nodded, Ranma went on. "I'm a sort of… troubleshooter… for various governments."

"That sounds almost like… but those are supposed to be," Bisca began then stopped then started again staring at him. "Really?"

"Really," Ranma said, tapping the brooch on his shirt and canceling the illusion.

"That's amazing," Bisca muttered, staring at the brooch in awe.

"You don't know the half of it," Wendy muttered, staring at the brooch too. She had started to research further enchantments lately to help her spell work evolve. Even with the Song Silk dress and cloak, she and Ranma had respectively and some of the weapons Ranma used, that brooch was easily the most enchanted object she'd ever seen. "It's got so many functions on it! And they're all tied to the person that it was given to too. It's really impressive."

"I see," Bisca said now leaning back, still staring at the brooch thoughtfully before Ranma's reaching for the food reminded the other two that it was there. "So that is why you don't want to settle down."

"Part of it. Part of it is because of…" Ranma pause thinking about how to put it. "I hate my old man these days," he said bluntly," my father was a pustule on the universe in a lot of ways. But he instilled in me a drive to be the best, to be the best fighter that I can be. And there's only so much growth you can do while being in one place. You have to go out, to experience other places, to see new things, new ways of magic, new ways of fighting, new weapons. Then learn them, add them to your style or how or figure out how to overcome them, becoming stronger. It's why I keep training Wendy and Carla, it's why I keep looking around for different types of magic that I could add to my style. It's why I have such a big bag of tricks."

Bisca nodded, flushing slightly as she looks down at her food, shaking her head at how passionate Ranma was when he spoke like that. _Damn! I wonder what he would sound like if he were speaking about girls like that!_ The idea caused her blush to increase dramatically, and she chomped down on the first pork piece, before blinking, the sensation and taste driving her earlier thoughts out of her head. "Yum! That **is** really good."

"Told you," Wendy said triumphantly, popping a bite into her own mouth.

For a moment, all was silent except for the sound of eating, with Bisca praising Ranma's cooking every third bite. One thing Bisca knew she wasn't was a cook. She routinely relied on the others who lived at Fairy Hills just like Erza, although she was actually good at creating different types of salads and dressings. Mentioning this, Bisca ended up and promised to show Wendy some of them since Ranma wasn't a big salad person.

The orange glaze really interested her, and she tried to wheedle the secret out of Ranma, which turned into a bit of flirting, before Wendy starting to get uncomfortable interrupted them. "Ano, where you come from Bisca-san? You said once you came from Desierto, where in Desierto? We've been there, and a lot of the places are a little…" she paused trying not to sound like she was saying something bad about someone.

"Close-minded, very much against outsiders? Yep, I know those kind of places. Don't get me started on what they think about magic users who can do more than their little cantrips, especially if the individual in question is a woman. My Guns Magic got me in big trouble a few times down there."

"Tell us about it," Ranma said, leaning over to grab the fruit punch and pour Wendy another glassful, before looking at Bisca and the wine.

Bisca nodded, and as Ranma poured her a glass, started one of her own stories. Ranma replied with a few of their own, with Wendy interjecting a time or two as Carla finally returned, joining them at the table.

Eventually though, the conversation shifted back into simply traveling. When Ranma listed the places they'd been and the things they'd seen, Bisca was in awe. They had really been everywhere in Ishgar really, and she said so but Ranma disagreed. "Nope, there's one place I haven't been yet, and it's big, bigger than all of Ishgar."

It took a moment for Bisca to get it, and when she did she gasped. "The Continent?! Are you **insane**?! Not even Gildarts goes there! It's too dangerous."

"Gildarts isn't as good at sneaking around as I am," Ranma said stubbornly while Carla nodded agreement with Bisca and added her own 'listen to her you foolish lout' which Ranma ignored. "I bet I could do it, figure out what's out there. I'd really like to too. That'd be the ultimate challenge."

"And would you take Wendy into it too?" Bisca asked sternly.

"No Bisca I wouldn't," Ranma said with a sigh.

Bisca nodded triumphantly that, before going on. "Well, outside of that crazy notion, traveling sounds like a lot of fun. Especially with the amount of equipment you've got. Though if I was doing it, I'd probably have to get a separate tent for my friends."

"That'd still be better than Erza though," Ranma said with a laugh. "She takes an entire cart just for luggage from what I saw during the job against Eisenwald."

Bisca giggled. "I know! It isn't as if she couldn't carry it in her Requip space, it's more like she's never even thought about it. It's like a big blind spot for some reason, like she can't make the connection between her Requip space and using it for things other than armor and weapons."

"Then perhaps someone should point it out to the poor girl. Especially now that she's going to have to spend so much money on replacing her armor sets." Carla said with a sigh.

Bisca smirked, then looked around conspiratorially before leaning toward Ranma, whispering into his ear, causing a shudder to go through Ranma's body. "Actually she does use it for something else: she keeps some dirty novels Levy finds for her in her Requip space too. You'd think Erza'd be a bit of a prude given how she usually acts, but underneath the armored exterior of hers, well some of the stuff I've seen her read made me blush."

As Ranma laughed, Carla, who had of course overheard that, shook her head, waving off Wendy's quizzical look. _There goes the idea of using Erza as a role model for Wendy. And Mira also ruled herself out with that stunt with Mermaid Heal. Why ever couldn't just one woman in Fairy Tail be normal?_

 **OOOOOOO**

Lisanna and Anna and had stayed late at the Guildhall cleaning up after the earlier fight. All of them were going around in groups now thanks to the Master's suggestions except for Laxus, Natsu, and of course the Master himself and Erza, but the two girls felt they could make it home on their own, where Elfman would be waiting for them. They stood outside the Guildhall for a moment, with Lisanna locking the doors as Anna stared up at the building, shaking her head at the large steel pillars sticking out of it. "I wonder why a Phantom Lord Mage would do such a thing."

"It's not Phantom Lord you wonder about, it's Juvia isn't it," Lisanna asked her twin, linking arms with her and pulling her away from the guild towards the street that would lead them to the house where the two of them lived with their siblings.

But Anna broke away from Lisanna, waving her arms stick hysterically. "I just can't believe she's still with them! Phantom Lord is such a dark place at times. I mean I know there are a legitimate guild, and I know that they act a bit like us in some ways, but surely they're not as welcoming as Fairy Tail! And it isn't like one person changing from a one Guild to another is all that unusual!"

"But it isn't usual either, and usually they have to list the reason why. Besides we know that she is at least friends with someone else there. The same mage who probably was behind the attack on the guild too," Lisanna said reasonably.

"Yeah but even so, I was slowly talking Juvia around, but then Gildarts left and it sort of fizzled out. In fact, I haven't even talked to her since then! That's depressing." Anna said with a sigh.

"Wait, she was talking to you when Gildarts was around but stopped after he left again? Then she must've thought that Gildarts was enough of a deterrent to stop anyone from trying to stop her." Lisanna mused. "And that also means that she doesn't think anyone else is."

"Never let Laxus hear you say that," Anna retorted. "He'd start a war just to prove he's as strong as Gildarts. And Natsu too." For a moment, they looked at one another, then a giggled as one, remembering the numerous times Natsu had attempted to start a fight with Gildarts or Laxus only to get blasted away with no apparent effort.

Their good humor remained until they heard the sound of something metal he having something solid and a scream nearby. "What!?"

Without a word both girls turned in that direction, racing down the street, and found Team Shadow Gear fighting the Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel. Jet and Droy were down, and Levy was high in the sky on a cloud, seemingly dropping Fire Spears- made out of the words and stretched in such a way as to look like a thick spear of fire - and other things down on Gajeel, who was shielding and dodging easily, smirking up at her. "You're better than the other two," he commented as the Strauss twins arrived on the scene "but not good enough!"

Taking in the scene at a glance, Anna wasted no time pulling out one of her larger staves from her expanded pouch and pointing it directly at the man. "Lightning Magic stun bolt!" She shouted, thrusting the staff forward in an intricate pattern of tip movements and activating the magic within.

Anna couldn't use magic. She had no internal magical source unlike every other mage. However, she could use magical items so long as they were routinely charged after use by someone else. It wasn't the most efficient, but it allowed her to use her staffs more quickly than she would have been able to, if she relied on the Ethernano of the word to do the same thing. Erza had proved a big help there, pointing her in the right direction, and getting her an expanded bag to carry all of her staves in. The other Strauss siblings of course agree to charge them up whenever she needed them.

The lightning blast from this stave was akin to one of Laxus' low tier spells. With the element of surprise the attack struck, slamming into Gajeel and sending him skidding sideways.

At the same time, Lisanna had shifted into one of her Take Over forms. "Take Over: Rhino!"

What appeared an instant later was perhaps the most feminine and cutesy-looking version of a rhino that anyone there had ever seen. It was pinkish gray, had lipstick on its mouth in red, long eyelashes and was noticeably a little overweight. But it also had a large horn, and rhino Lisanna had a very aggressive disposition. "Here I come!"

With that she charged forward, her horn down and slamming into Gajeel with enough force to pierce a normal man's body straight through. While her horn didn't penetrate Gajeel's body, her rush did slam him into a building on the other side of the small park where the fight had begun.

To her surprise though, Gajeel simply chuckled evilly, and grabbed her around the head, flipping her to the side to land on her side before bringing down a punch. She gasped in pain, then was kicked away, skidding along the cobblestones and then the ground of the park.

Wincing, Lisanna canceled the Take Over spell as another blast from Levy turned Gajeel's head into a flaming ball. He growled, shaking his head and throwing the fire off, before hurling a piece of debris up at Levy, hitting her directly in the chest and throwing her off of her cloud with a cry of pain. "That's enough out of you!"

Anna charged forward, brandishing another weapon, this time a small forearm sized spear, which she thrust forward in different directions, and suddenly there were more than one of them, and she stopped, putting it over her shoulder and hurling it forward "go! Multiply Hurler!"

Gajeel grunted in pain as the first one nearly took him in the eye, slicing a long cut along his face. But then he activated his Tetsuryu no Uroko (Iron Dragons Scales), and smashed the other attacks out of the way.

But this had bought Lisanna enough time to get her feet under her, and launch into the air shouting, "Take Over: Harpy!"

Unlike most of Lisanna's Take Over spells only the coloration of this form could be described as childish: in the main it looked more like something her older sister would be willing to use. Lisanna's legs were replaced by large talons like a birds, her clothing disappeared to be replaced by downy looking feathers, barely covering her chest to right above her nipples, leaving her shoulders and a goodly portion of her chest bare. Her arms too had changed, becoming large, colorful wings.

Swooping up from the ground, harpy-Lisanna quickly twisted a little, grabbing at the back of Levy's shirt. She then flipped again so that she Levy was below her before flapping her wings mightily over towards a rooftop. There, Lisanna put Levy down, and leapt into the air again diving down shouting "egg barrage!"

These were small explosives in the form of eggs, but they didn't do any damage to Gajeel. Laughing he gestured to the side with one hand, which suddenly shifted into a shiny blade with serrated edges. He waved it in the air, nearly hitting her when it elongated suddenly. But then Gajeel was forced to dodge away hissing in pain as a blast of some kind of greenish energy nearly ate into his arm.

He looked back at Anna who had taken cover behind a tree, and then stuck out at him with another staff. This one looking green almost, with several large curling out bits here and there along its length. "Acid magic, Deadly Stream!"

"Well, aren't you a dangerous little bitch!" Gajeel roared, dodging that attack and closing, ignoring Lisanna but then was hit but from behind as Lisanna shouted "Take Over: Anaconda!"

From midair, Lisanna had shifted into the third form she had taken during this fight dropping down quickly. Anaconda was a giant snake, nearly as large around as the central-most tree in the park. It was also slightly green and pink, and looked like a sort of girly kind of snake with long eyelashes and scales around its mouth that looked like red lipstick. But despite its cutesy looks it could still be deadly, and it wrapped around Gajeel, constricting tighter and tighter. "You won't let you hurt anymore of our family!"

Anna hopped up on to her sister's coils, pointing another smaller wand straight at Gajeel's head. "This is rust magic! I don't know what it will do to you, but I don't think it'll be good. Surrender Gajeel!"

This close, Gajeel could smell them, and paused, before growling further, wrenching this way and that before sending out a blast of energy from his entire body at once, wrenching his arms up and hurling Lisanna away her Take Over magic canceling in order to save her life. If she had stayed in Anaconda form, Gajeel might well have ripped her body in half.

Anna leaped away but before her fit hit the ground, Gajeel grabbed her by the leg, and then twisted, slamming her down face first into the dirt with enough force to break her nose, and maybe give her a concussion too. Regardless, Anna was unconscious when she's bounced off the ground, and Gajeel huffed irritably, looking around. He could literally smell another Dragon Slayer on them, and he knew this was probably a very bad idea, but it wasn't as if he had a choice.

"That was fun," he said, as he conjured up a spike. "But I suppose all good things come to an end. I don't want to do this to girls, especially claimed girls, but orders are orders, and I bet this'll get that flame fool of a fairy and all the rest riled up and even more than just beating up the Shadow Weaklings would have."

Then his instincts screamed at him and he ducked to the side as a flame that was so hot it looked almost white flashed through the space he'd just exited, burning through a tree and then the same damaged house that he had been crashed into earlier without even slowing. The fire was so hot it turned the portions of the tree it touched to ash, searing past and through the side of the building so hot that it slagged the concrete of its construction.

"I'm already so fired up, I'm liable to turn you to slag!" A voice roared, so much like a furious dragon it almost gave Gajeel flashbacks to Metalicana. He had just a second to turn to face the direction the attack had come from before Natsu was on him.

Natsu had been worried, and had woken up and left the house he lived in on the far outskirts of Magnolia to find a Lisanna and Anna, and even maybe spend the night at their house whatever Elfman said. Thinking to catch the twins before they left, he left Happy behind still sleeping and had gone first to the guild and then headed towards her house, only to hear the sound of fighting in the distance, and shifting in that direction. Happy to have found some action Natsu raced in that direction.

When he came upon though banished his normal happy feelings at the idea of a fight instead making him see red, and he was no longer really in control of himself. His fire Dragon Slayer instincts were roused to a fever pitch at this attack on his mates, and they wouldn't slow down until the enemy dragon who had dared to do it was lying dead in his feet.

Fire versus steel should have given Gajeel feel a natural advantage, but the heat Natsu was giving off was so intense, Gajeel felt it even through his Dragon scale armor. The blows they exchanged, quickly began to hurt. Natsu was stronger, a lot stronger than he should've been, his fury and rage and urge to defend boiling within him, and he began to finally show signs of fully amalgamating the magic he had taken in when he ate the magically infused lacrima of the Tower of Heaven.

As one of his punches was sent to the side by Gajeel's defense Natsu headbutted Gajeel, sending him rocking backwards. Then Natsu once more threw his head back again, but this time instead of going for another headbutt, Natsu gathered his magic into his mouth.

Gajeel did the same, shouting out "Tetsuryu no Hoko (Iron Dragon's Roar)!"

At the same time, Natsu shouted "Karyu no Doku Honoo Hoko! (Fire dragon's Poison Flame Roar)"

The poison magic-infused flame attack struck. But Gajeel had concentrated his, more than Natsu had, and the more condensed, and also elementally heavier attack drilled through Natsu's. Hitting the Fire Dragon Slayer, it hurled Natsu backwards, slamming him into another building and through it. But the poison aspect of the attack hovered in the air, and Gajeel had to breathe in despite the fact that he was now completely covered in steel scales.

An instant later Gajeel gasped, shuddering and nearly going to his knees as the poison began to do its work. It was weak, since Natsu's fire magic and the poison were not really able to work well together, but it was enough to weaken him. Then Natsu was back, slamming into him faster than he could move. "Blast magic and Dragon Slayer combination art, Volcanic Fist!"

Unlike the poison fire breath attack, the magic the lacrima had taken from Jiemma simply added to the base destructiveness of Natsu's attack, making his fire cause minor explosions at the same time it hit. The blow hammered into Gajeel, and his steel scales exploded, the impact hurling Gajeel through the tree behind him shattering it. He groaned and tried to get to his feet, but Natsu was on him, leaping on him like an animal, holding him down with one hand and pummeling him with the other.

Gajeel couldn't throw him off for a second and tried to defend himself but each blow was stronger than the last, infused with more of Natsu's magical power. Then Gajeel, now bleeding and with several broken bones he could feel through his adrenaline, grabbed at Natsu hurling him to the side.

But Natsu went with it, and rolled on the ground for a second before blasting out another breath attack. "Karyu no Hoko (Fire Dragon's Roar)!"

This caught Gajeel on the leg, the fire so hot it melted his iron scales and burned the skin beneath badly, sending him crashing to the ground holding his knee and thigh in agony for a moment. That moment cost him, and another punch slammed into his face like a runaway train sending him flying backwards.

He groaned again in agony, pushing himself to his feet to stare at Natsu, who was now stalking towards him his face twisted into an almost inhuman rage. _This, this is the strength of a Fire Dragon Slayer?_ As he watched, the aura of a dragon made almost entirely of fire slowly began to dissipate as Natsu concentrated more and more of his magic power into his mouth.

Desperately Gajeel did the same, but before they could launch their attacks, Laxus showed up, alighting nearby as flash of lightning magic. He then charged forward again, and a chop to the back of the neck sent Gajeel down, the straw that broke the camel's back to send him into unconsciousness. Then, as Natsu showed no sign of stopping his attack, Laxus was in his face, a chop to the front of the neck this time causing Natsu to gag, his magic attacks ceasing as he grabbed his throat, coughing and spluttering. "Enough," Laxus said. "He's beaten. Good job midget."

"G, get out of my way Laxus!" Natsu growled, getting to his feet and rubbing at his throat while glaring at the other Dragon Slayer. He hurt Lisanna and Anna! He's mine."

"No. He's another Dragon Slayer and there aren't enough of us around to just go around killing one another. Besides," he said, grasping Natsu by the shoulder, shaking him, his voice and face both stern and oddly gentler than Natsu had ever seen it. "You're no killer Natsu. Don't start now. Besides," he went on his face shifting back to its normal arrogant and aloof look. "Letting him live knowing that you beat him so badly will be a blow to his pride this Phantom asshole will never recover from. Just like the rest of his guild won't recover from the beating they're going to take soon."

The fight between the Strauss siblings and Gajeel hadn't exactly been quiet, although the proceeding combat against Shadow Gear had been. All around them in the streets people had been woken up, staying put as they heard the sound of magical combat, but now that it sounded like it was over with they were coming out of the houses, and in the distance a few other Fairy Tail mages were also headed in their direction quickly.

Natsu seemed to shudder for a moment, shaking his head this way and that, but finally got control of himself. "All right, I… you're right. I really, that was…"

The younger man now looked a little distraught at how much he had lost control, but Laxus was still holding him by the shoulder and shook him hard. "Don't! Yes, you might've lost control there at the end, but your heart was in the right place, and you protected your ladies and guildmates. Concentrate on that. Don't give in to hate, but don't give into self-pity either."

"When did you become so wise," Natsu groused, pushing the older boy's hand away.

"Asshole I've always been wise! It's just you've never listened before," Laxus said with smirk. Natsu looked at him deadpan, and Laxus smirked back arrogantly at him. Come on he said, gesturing. "I'll get Droy, Levy and Jet, you see to your girls."

The way he said that for some reason set Natsu to blushing. "Somehow, you just made that sound really dirty!"

"It's a talent. You'll learn eventually I suppose. Once your relationship gets to that point anyway, there's no going back," Laxus replied with a smirk.

Rolling his eyes, Natsu moved in the other direction as several other guild members arrived to help with the wounded.

 **OOOOOOO**

Stopping at the entrance to Fairy Hills, Ranma looked out over the city, turning away from Bisca. After eating, Bisca and Wendy had roped Ranma and Carla into playing a board game with them, and it had been pushing midnight by the time Wendy had decided they'd played enough and retired for the evening, letting Ranma and Bisca say the same thing. After that, Ranma had offered to walk her home, which Bisca had accepted.

They had kept talking as they moved along, this time Bisca dominating the discussion with tales of Fairy Tail, and in particular giving Ranma a better idea of Porlyusica's personality than he had before. That personality was best described as hedgehog level prickly, but Ranma was determined to have the woman's help to fix the issue between his Dragon Slayer powers and ki.

"What is it?" Bisca asked noticing that Ranma had turned away. Then she looked out over the city, trying to strain her merely human senses to hear whatever it was Ranma had just heard.

"Lightning, some kind of discharge. Before that I thought I heard something like explosions." So saying Ranma shrugged and turned back to her. "Still, if Laxus is there, he'll handle it, whatever's going on."

Nodding at that, Bisca smiled at him. "Well, I had fun time tonight with you and the others. I hope you had fun too?"

Lips quirking Ranma smiled back, then asked, "Bisca, what exactly do you want here? I mean between us. I'm not so naïve as to think you just wanted to celebrate my moving in, y'know? But I thought that guy Alzack was interested in you, and Mira mentioned the two of you dancing around one another. Is this, are you…"

He trailed off, not wanting to finish the accusation, but Bisca understood and merely nodded, stepping forward and, feeling both daring and rather turned on, put her arms around Ranma's waist. "No, I'm not using you to try and make Alzack jealous. He and I, we tried to kiss in Crocus. It wasn't, well there was no spark there. And I've been getting frustrated and annoyed by how much he and I were dancing around one another."

Sighing she looked down at her feet not backing away but exulting as Ranma's arms went around her in turn. "I'd sort of decided after you and I first met to try and push things between Alzack and I, and he, well he didn't respond well to put it bluntly. Since then, I've come to the realization that what was between us was based on all our similarities pushing us together rather than real romantic interest. So I've moved on."

"Okay," Ranma said slowly, his hands moving up and down Bisca's back almost of their own accord, twitching to explore elsewhere. _Hormones are the fucking devil man!_ That, and Ranma found himself eager to see what it was like to go beyond kissing with a girl, which was the extent of his experience of this particular art. Thanks to the ladies of Melona's he had a lot of knowledge, but no hand's on experience. "So what do you want from me? A relationship, something enduring, or something short term?"

"I just want to see where it goes Ranma. I'm interested in you, and I can tell that you're interested in me too." Bisca said, blushing now as she could indeed tell - physically - that Ranma was interested in her. _Oh my word, that is certainly flattering, makes those comments I made about his rifle when we first met seem much more on target!_ "I'm not going to make demands, I'm not going to try to change you or force myself into your little family, I just want to see if the two of us could be fun, okay?"

"Heh, well, I think I can get behind that," Ranma said, then leaned down startling Bisca with a kiss. Though startled, she quickly returned it, her hands going up Ranma's back to grip at the back of his neck as Ranma crushed her against him, feeling her chest flatten slightly against his own.

Eventually Bisca began to pull away, and Ranma let her, a small, warm smirk on his face that set Bisca's already racing pulse to rev further. "Mmm, yeah, I think I can definitely get behind that idea. You?"

Now with a blush on her face at how quickly that had escalated Bisca nodded, feeling a little giggly. "Heheh, yep, um, oh my word yes, I'd like some more of that later. Just um, nothing to quick okay?" When Ranma nodded, she smirked and leaned up quickly to kiss him again for a brief second then turned and opened the door to the girl's only dorms. "See you later Ranma." she said coquettishly, winking at him over her shoulder as she entered.

Chuckling Ranma stood and watched her go until the door closed behind her rather biteable tush, then, with a jaunty bounce to his step turned and made his way down the small hill back into Magnolia proper. _Huh, that certainly didn't go where I thought it might, but who am I to complain?_

 **OOOOOOO**

Elsewhere Erza too looked up, hearing the sound of distant lightning and staring at the sky. _It doesn't look like we're going to get rain. That must've been Laxus I suppose._ In actuality, that was the first attack Anna has launched at Gajeel, but Erza, like Ranma, could be forgiven for not recognizing from the sound of something so far away that Anna's attack was different from Laxus'.

With a shrug of her shoulders, she continued on her way believing that whatever it was, Laxus would be able to handle it. Lucy on the other hand lived alone, and with the issues between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail at the moment, that just wasn't safe despite what Lucy might think. _I know that Cana said she was going to stay with her, but Lucy and I have gone on two missions, albeit only one legally, and that means checking up on her is my responsibility_.

She turned onto the streets where Lucy's apartment sat, only to stare as three people she recognized from pictures of their descriptions exit the apartment followed by a moving geyser of water carrying Lucy within its watery depths. Her head was outside of it, but lolling in unconsciousness.

Seeing her guildmate trussed up in her watery prison, Erza bellowed in fury and boosted forward, her speed armor on for a moment, as she lashed out with a spear. "Get away from Lucy!"

Totomaru barley had a second to duck away before he would have been skewered by Erza's spear, but he replied with a blast of fire magic as Sol disappeared into a wall, sending out his magic into the cobblestones of the street rising in a wave. "Roche Concerto!"

Erza ducked aside, the butt of her spear smashing pieces of the cobbles into the path of the spike of fire before she was forced to duck away again as Juvia launched a Water slicer. But instead of ducking away, Erza closed the distance, and once more Totomaru had to dodge by the skin of his teeth as the spear nearly took his throat out.

 _Holy shit! She is not playing around!_ He thought, backpedaling and throwing up a firewall between them, which at least for a moment caused Erza to stumble to a halt.

Instead she twisted to one side and in a flash, her spear disappeared to be replaced by an equally large sword that cut through the Water Lock around Lucy. The magic in the water attack disappeared and dumped Lucy, still unconscious to the ground. Then Erza charged, her sword lashing out and destroying several Earth Statues which Sol had just created, sending them crashing back into the ground even as they rose from it.

"Salut Erza the Scarlet! You are as skilled as the tales claim, but surely mademoiselle you cannot think you can fight all three of us, non?" Sol said, his head briefly sticking out from the arch of a bridge to one side of the battle.

"If you had brought along all four of the Element Four, perhaps I would be worried." Erza replied, scowling as she straightened up facing them in front of the still comatose Lucy. "I will give you this one chance to walk away, as fellow mages. Then I will make you pay for the temerity of attacking a guild member with your bodies!"

"Juvia respects Erza-san greatly, and knows well your strength, but this fight is beyond you. Let us take the rich girl, and then depart, or we will be forced to hurt you." Juvia reposted. "You are skilled, Erza-san, but Juvia and her allies know you have lost several important armors in recent fights."

"Ma, my compatriot is correct Mademoiselle Scarlet." Sol said mock-regretfully. "You cannot hope to stand against element magic wielders in such a state.

For a moment, the street fell silent and then there started to be heard a deep almost thrumming sound in the background as a red aura built up around Erza. Her hands clenched, and she growled. "I am getting very tired of people thinking that it is only my armors that make me strong!"

There was a bright flare of Requip magic, and Erza's armor disappeared, to be replaced by the same outfit she had ended the battle with Jellal in, her hand the same sword she had been using then too. She glared at the trio of Phantom Lord S-class mages, and gestured with the sword. "If you think you're so much stronger than me, come and prove it."

Sol sighed and made to wipe a fake tear away from the eye that didn't have a monocle in it, before lashing out with an attack. "Then Farewell, my rose. Platre Sonata!" A giant fist of earth rose out of the ground and shot forward towards Erza.

Still simmering in anger Erza waited, then lashed out with her own attack, following through immediately on its assault by running forward. The attack was simply a forward slash of magical energy, the sword in her hand converting Erza's magical power into cutting force. The attack sliced neatly through Sol's earth fist and would have continued to slice into him, but he ducked down into the earth at the last instant. Totomaru blasted out am magical attack but Erza dodged at the last instant, closing and thrusting out. The sword cut into Totomaru's upper arm, and he walked right into a kick that caught him in the face hurling him backwards.

"Water Nebula!" Two large torrents of water flashed towards Erza, rotating around one another in an effort to enhance their destructive power, but Erza's sword again flashed out, slicing through the attack and dissipating it. Juvia however then created a shield of water, catching much of the end of Erza's attack. She then twisted aside from another attack turning into water to avoid damage from a punch, hammering a geyser of water into Erza's legs, tripping her.

Sol attempted to get around Erza, appearing out of the ground by Lucy, reaching for her. "EEEH!" but then Erza was there, her sword flashing down and slicing into the ground right in front of his head. "Non, non, non! Sables Dance!"

Both Lucy and Erza were caught in the tornado of sand and Lucy woke up with a cry of pain while Erza gritted her teeth. Her earlier moment of ego, forgoing armor to use her magical reserves solely to attack, worked against her now, and she took several hundred small slashes scattered around her body before she could fling her sword around in an attack to break the sand tornado.

Landing lightly however, she charged Sol, slicing forward along the ground sending a blast of magic forward before zooming to the side, dodging three different attacks from the element mages, bouncing off the wall of a house to one side to close. Sol was somehow able to twist his body out of the way of her first attack, but Erza spun, sending another kick into the already wounded Tototmaru, kicking through his desperate fire shield to catch him in the stomach sending him flying.

Having been woken up from the pain of the sand attack, Lucy shook her head groggily as she pushed to her feet. Grasping at a small medallion on her wrist, which Juvia hadn't noticed before, she flared her magic into it, turning it into a whip which flared white and gold. "Celestial Whip extend!" she shouted, turning and flicking the whip out towards the window she knew led into her bathroom. Closing her eyes even as an attack came towards her from one of the attacking mages she concentrated on the feel of the end of her whip, twisting it this way and that magically to grab at the special pouch that contained her keys.

With a gasp she took a blast of water from Juvia, which sent her sprawling, but it wasn't enough to dislodge her hold on her emergency weapon, a whip of Celestial magic that her teacher Capricorn had given her. "Come on!" she gasped out, pulling it backwards. Out of the window came the whip, flinging out the pouch.

Rolling away Lucy pushed off of the ground and leaped into the air, grabbing at the pouch, her hand flaring with Celestial Spirit magic. "Open, gate of anyone!"

Lucy regretted that decision almost immediately since the outward-most key turned out to be Aquarius. Despite her powers as a celestial mage having grown in leaps and bounds since Capricorn had begun to train her, she still had a few… issues with Aquarius, the only woman among her keys, and one who was very opinionated and aggressive. This was shown an instant later as the spirit, a blue-haired mermaid carrying a large run in one hand, appeared in the air above her. "You stupid blonde, I was getting ready for a date!" she roared, lashing out all around with a wave of water.

This monstrous wave smashed several lampposts, hurled sol off his feet, and finished off Totomaru hurling him to slam into a building before carrying his unconscious body into the river and away. Sol was luckier, a desperate attempt to sink into the ground working but still taking a lot out of him. Juvia was unharmed, simply turning into water herself and going along with the attack for a moment before it halted, reforming after.

Erza and Lucy both were also flung around, with Lucy winding up stuck in a chimney head first, her feet kicking and wriggling as she tried to free herself. Erza was simply smashed bodily into a building, leaving a dent in the concrete as she nearly lost her grip on her sword. She leaped up and attacked Juvia and Sol, intent on finishing this fight. _I will deal with that overly aggressive spirit later…_

However, she wasn't the only friendly fire. Having been roof-hopping back to his new apartment Ranma had heard the fight going on to the north of the city away from the first disturbance and decided to go and investigate. He had been just about to leap over the small river wending through the town by Lucy's apartment when the attack from Aquarius took him by surprise, flinging him backwards.

The hit from the tsunami wasn't much, even being crushed against the side of a building wasn't anything Ranma would complain about. But being turned into his female form after having realized earlier that day that she was close to her monthly monster, which bothered Ranma big time.

Ignoring the fight still raging at the far end of the street the furious and drenched redhead marched up to the mermaid growling, "What the fuck is wrong with you, you up-jumped fish attacking both your allies and enemies at the same time!"

"Ha!?" Aquarius snarled back, leaning down and thrusting her face aggressively into Ranma's. What's that huh? All women are my enemies! Don't think just because you're a little bit pretty that you can get anywhere in life!"

"Bitch I will freaking break you!" Ranma roared.

"Oh yeah!" Aquarius growled in return leaning back and then sending another tsunami wave of water at Ranma. "Take this!"

"Don't mind if I do!" Ranma said with a grin, opening her mouth and inhaling the water entirely to Aquarius's surprise, not having realized what sort of mage she was dealing with. Surprisingly the water was somewhat tasty Ranma, pure almost, with a hint of vanilla.

That didn't stop Ranma though from leaping up and grabbing at the urn Aquarius had been using to create her water attack. The blue-haired mermaid's eyes widened when she felt the urn leaving her hands but she had no time to react as Ranma kicked out catching Aquarius in the face so hard as to fling her backwards and then back into the Celestial realm, her physical form having just taken too much damage with that one hit to remain in Ishgar.

Sniffing Ranma flung her hair back over her shoulder looking at Lucy almost irritably holding up the urn almost indolently as she looked into the blonde's wide, shocked eyes. "The bitch can get this back when she learns some damn manners."

'H, hai!" Lucy replied, stiffening. _Oh my god she's scarier than Aquarius! Is this a redhead thing?!_

Ranma then began to heat up her hand, conjuring water in her other before dumping the then hot water over her head and once more breathed a sigh of relief. _Although given how fucking cranky I get I think I'm not going to be the only one who'll be relieved by that before this all ends._

By this point Sol had fallen to join Totomaru, his shoulder and collarbone shattered by a blow from the back of Erza's sword, which would have killed him if she had wished it. The pain finally knocked him out, and then Era turned her attention on Juvia. Juvia, now knowing that they had lost tried to escape flaring a wide-angle attack all around her, but she watched in astonishment as a ponytailed man you already had him turn back up above at the far end of the street crossed the distance between there and where Juvia had been fighting Erza, her astonishment increasing as all the water she'd just created was sucked into the man's mouth as he moved to join Erza. Indeed, she could almost feel her own water form being sucked towards the man.

Ranma skidded to a halt next to Erza, looking as the blue-haired girl raised her hands. "You still want to fight?"

"NO!" Juvia said, shaking and shifting form into her fully human body. "You'll eat Juvia!"

Ranma and Erza both blinked at that, then looked at one another and then back to Juvia. "Lewd," they both stated in a deadpan tone.

Juvia blinked then attempted to glare at them through a blush that covered her entire face. "Juvia doesn't mean like that!" With a huff, she raised her hands above her head. "Juvia surrenders."

"Juvia, why were you doing this!?" Erza said, leaning down to grab Sol by his unbroken shoulder lifting up and shaking him at Juvia. "What in the world is going on?! You three targeted Lucy purposefully, not just our guild as a whole."

As Ranma moved over to staunch the fire user's wounds, Lucy moved to join them and Juvia began to explain, much to her horror.

 **OOOOOOO**

When he heard about the real reason behind the attack, Makarov was furious, along with everyone else in the guild. It was only Juvia's long-standing friendship with Anna that allowed him to rein in his temper in front of the girl, and astonishingly Natsu standing up for her, that kept the rest of the guild from blaming Juvia for what had nearly happened. The Fire Dragon Slayer stood in front of her glaring at a few guild members who wanted to string her up and hand her over to the Rune Knights.

Makarov waved them away. "Enough you idiots! Phantom Lord isn't the kind of guild where someone can get away with ignoring or even arguing with the guild master. Jose's a far different sort than me." Turning back to Juvia, he sighed. "You attempted to argue with Jose didn't you?"

"Of course she did! No way would someone who's a friend of Anna's would ever do something like this without being forced into it!" Natsu said stoutly, followed by a sleepy 'Aye sir' From Happy. He turned to her and crouched to grin into her face, a bright, almost welcoming smile on his face as he faced Juvia. "That's right isn't it? Those bastards threatened you?"

"H, hai!" Juvia replied, stuttering and backing away, blushing slightly. Her friendship with Anna had been a godsend in many ways, helping her to become more emotionally centered, yet she still wasn't used to being smiled at like that. Even Gajeel, who was the only mage in Phantom Lord she would count a real friend, didn't smile like that. "Juvia didn't want to do it, but the master, Master Makarov is correct, one does not argue with Master Jose. And he hates your guild. Master Jose could not stand the idea of you having access to the Heartfilia money. Master Jose is obsessed with proving that Phantom Lord is stronger than Fairy Tail."

The blue-haired girl shivered, still looking at the ground. "The, the last time Juvia did not perform a task well, Master Jose punished Juvia. And his magical pressure, Juvia could not fight it." then she turned her head back up to them, a fierce glare on her face as she looked first to Makarov, then to the crowd around her, and then to Natsu. "Juvia thought that if Juvia went along with things, then Juvia could free Lucy-san after she was handed over to her father. After all, then Phantom Lord would have accomplished its mission and Lucy would once more be free."

"See! I told you," Natsu said turning around even while one hand rested on Juvia's hair, ruffling it messily. "Anna's a really good judge of character you know."

"Then why the hell is she going out with you?" shouted one mage, possibly Loke though he had tried to disguise his voice.

"Oy, come 'ere and say that to my face you bastard!" Natsu roared back, removing his hand from Juvia's head, much to her blushing disappointment. Then he turned back to her while Makarov was still shaking his head at Jose punishing one of his guild's members like that. "But what do you mean Lucy's money? Lucy's always complaining about having enough money to get by, and she yells about needing more whenever we're looking over missions at the guild."

Juvia blinked, but it was Makarov who answered. "She ran away from home of course." Makarov smiled down at Juvia somewhat sadly. "She ran away from home with only her Celestial Spirit keys and the clothes on her back. Lucy's never been back there, and wouldn't have anything to do with her father if she could help it."

"Juvia had thought that after seeing her apartment, but there would have been other ways to use Lucy-san to get money if, like Master Jose, you are unscrupulous." Juvia replied.

Makarova growled angrily turning away from her to look around at his guild. Cana stood by Lucy, who seemed shocked, but the rest of the guild had already begun to support her, making her realize they didn't care about her past or her money or anything: she was a Fairy Tail mage, and that was all that mattered. To one side Gajeel and the other two members of the Element Four which had come into Magnolia were tied up already.

But the fact that Phantom Lord had lost four of its five aces didn't matter. Makarov would have ignored the attack on the guildhall. He would have laughed at any attack on his dignity or person. He would have waited for the Magic Council to intercede if the attacks on the hall continued. But this, actually hunting down his children, hurting them, nearly killing five of them, trying to kidnap another, that was too much for him to ignore.

He was about to bellow that this meant war and rally his guild to march on Phantom Lord's main guildhall in Oak Town, but then he paused. "Wait, I don't see Laxus anywhere. And where is Ranma? I know he was here a few minutes ago."

Lucy also began to look around, somewhat reluctantly removing herself from Cana's hug to do it. When Cana wasn't attempting to grope Lucy the lush could be a surprisingly good listener and her hugs were nice too. She tried not to think about that at the moment though as she looked around, frowning as she realized someone else was missing too. "And where's Levy-chan? She was hurt too right?"

Sitting nearby and being seen to by Wendy, Jet heard this and leaped to his feet to look around wildly, as did Droy nearby, though he collapsed right after, not having been treated yet. "What!? Levy-chan's missing! Where'd she-UUrk!"

Wendy's little fist had just thumped into his stomach lightly right above his privates, causing him to double over, whereupon Wendy grabbed his head and pulled it down to stare at it. She was rather irritable, since she had only gotten about an hour of sleep, and healing the wounded had taken it out of her for. "Sit down! I am not done healing you yet, and if you wreck all my good work I will not heal you again!"

As Jet obeyed Wendy went on, pouting as she channeled her magic into healing spells. "Ranma-Nii, Uncle Laxus and Elfman-san took Levy-san with them, they said they needed her cloud magic."

Immediately understanding what this meant Makarov rolled his eyes as Natsu shouted about being left behind. "Damn brats, jumping the gun like that. Still, that doesn't mean the rest of us are going to let them do all the work." With that, Makarov turned to the crowd of mages around him. "Fairy Tail! We are not going to allow this assault on our mages to stand! If Phantom Lord wants a war, we'll give them one!"

After the resultant roar ended, Makarov had to simply assume everyone could hear his orders to head to the train, to take it to as close to Oak Town as possible, because he had just become deaf.

 **OOOOOOO**

"Why did I let you talk me into this!?" Levy moaned, thumping her head against the cloud below her, ignoring the fact her face was covered by a few black and blue marks now. Since, despite the fact it was carrying her, Ranma, Elfman and Laxus all comfortably, it was still cloud, this didn't actually do anything.

"Because even a bookish girl like you wants some payback?" Laxus grunted.

"It was most manly of you to agree to help us get to Oak Town quickly. I would never have been able to keep up with Ranma on land, and Laxus would have tired himself out before he arrived." Elfman said, to which Laxus just scoffed, as if the idea he would tire himself out was unthinkable.

Levy twitched. Of all the girls, she was the one who most took those comments about being a man to mean more than they really did given her figure. "I'm a girl darn it!" Then she sighed, putting Elman's oddities to one side. It was true after all that once Ranma had asked, she had agreed to helping the three mages easily. While Levy had fought back as best she could, that hadn't been enough to do anything but inconvenience Gajeel.

So she too wanted some payback, it was just… "Why the heck did we not wait for everyone else?!"

"Because this was faster, and because the fights last night will have brought the Magic Council running," Ranma replied. "This way we don't have to share."

While Levy sweatdropped at that, Elfman nodded and Laxus grunted, which she took as agreement with Ranma's statement.

But then Ranma went on and this time he actually said something she agreed with. "And besides, when you have an advantage over an opponent of equal skill you don't let them get their feet under them again. You keep the pressure on. "And you're a lot faster than one of those damn death traps on wheels anyway."

 _Okay, so maybe I agreed with some of that._ Levy thought ruefully.

"On top of that," Ranma went on, "we can't assume that Master Jose doesn't have some way to figure out what's happened to his strike team. If he does, what he will do with that information is too unpredictable to allow him time to be the one to react."

Levy looked at him quizzically. "How can you sound so smart at times and yet be so stupid too?"

"Combat junkie doesn't equal stupid girly," Ranma said with a grin.

For a few moments, the large cloud flew through the air in peace. They covered several hundred miles, proving that yes, Levy's cloud was indeed faster than the train. But when they crested a mountain Levy gasped and canceled her wind technique, the current word of 'Air' dropping from her hands as she gawked at what was revealed on the other side of the mountain.

In front of them, striding on two large, yet somehow gangly legs, was a robot. It was simply in design, a monstrous square that almost looked like a castle or guild, from which the robot's legs sprouted, along with large heavy shoulders. Each joint was a ball shape of various sizes, and its hands were also ball-shaped for the most part, with stubby fingers sticking out. Here and there pipes jutted out of the robot in places, and steam came from a large backpack-like structure. On top there was an odd helmet shape, with three large, spike-like structures sticking out here and there.

The three young men also stared at what was coming towards them in awe and Ranma suddenly started to cackle. "A mech, a freaking giant mechaform robot is marching towards Magnolia. I wish I could say 'now I've seen everything', but I'd bet Lady Luck would take that as a challenge." Inside Ranma was leaping for joy. _Oh hell yeah! Magic versus robot or martial artist versus giant robot, I don't care what you want to call it! This is_ _ **awesome!**_

"How is it moving?" Laxus asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully, though his eyes too were alight with amusement.

"And how do we break it?" Elfman asked contemplatively crossing his arms over his chest. "As manly as a giant robot is, this one happens to be in the hands of our enemies after all."

"They must have some kind of magical power source, probably in its main body or head I'd wage look out!" Ranma shouted interrupting himself as from the face of the giant robot suddenly appeared a large magical circle out of which a beam of power flashed, searing through the sky toward them.

Levy yelped but then Ranma grabbed her up in his arms and leaped off the side of the cloud, with Laxus grabbing Elfman and teleporting them down to the ground in a flash of lightning. The cloud was utterly destroyed a second later the beam of magical power then going on to cut into the mountainside they'd just passed over, blasting it into chunks of debris, which scattered everywhere.

Landing lightly on the ground, after using a Water Dragon's Boosted Step to slow his descent, Ranma let Levy down, then stared up as the giant robot made its way towards them, clanking forward on heavy feet. From it came a loud voice, angry and wrathful. "You may have defeated my Element Four, Fairies, but you are no match for the true might of my guild! Behold, Super Mage Giant Phantom and our mighty weapon, the Jupiter Cannon! Once I am within range of Magnolia, your guild will be destroyed! Not even Makarov could stop this power!"

Laxus growled, and dropped Elfman on the ground disappearing an instant later. Ranma watched as a beam of lightning traveled towards the mech, to crash into its side, smashing a hole through its armor. "Laxus has the right idea," he said to the others, cracking his neck and shoulders. "We have to get in there and stop that thing.

 _And I'll be damned if I let Laxus find Jose before I do._ Ranma thought then turned, gathering his magic under his feet again. "Soryu no Takameru Ho (Water dragons Boosted Step)!" he shouted, and pushed off of the ground explosively, flinging himself towards the giant robot. The robot tried to punch him out of the air, but that served Ranma's purposes very well. He lightly tapped the fist coming towards him, flipping his body up and over to land on its wrist, where he raced forward.

"They are real men!" Elfman muttered, transforming into his single flying Take Over form, Roc. He nodded to Levy then gestured back towards the woods, which had settled down after the attack from Abyss Break. "You might want to hide in… what is it?"

Levy shook her head and kept pointing over his shoulder and Elfman turned. Coming out of the giant robot were hundreds, thousands of odd-looking flying things. They looked almost like shades, dark purple and black shapes with no legs to speak of, but claws for hands. Grumbling, he canceled his transformation, and then shifted into his most versatile combat form, the Beast.

It'd taken Elfman years to get over the fact that this was the form that had nearly taking his sisters' lives. But with their help, he had done so, and had eventually mastered a full body Take Over of the Beast's soul.

Once transformed, Elfman looked back at Levy about to order her away but found her using her Solid Script magic to send blasts of fire and magical energy at the enemy. Each of them were of course created from written out words, twisted and shaped into attacks made of the elements the word described, but they were no less dangerous for all of that.

The extremely short blue-haired girl glared at him defiantly, and Elfman nodded. "What a man!" he bellowed as he charged towards the incoming flight of shades.

"I am a woman, darn it!" Levy shouted after him, even as she sent more Solid Script projectiles towards the incoming shades.

Ranma paused as he reached the robot's shoulder, staring down at the shades to trying to attack Elfman and Levy, then almost negligently destroyed a few of them coming towards him, before bringing a foot down hard on the steel plate under him and shattering it. With that done, he dropped inside the robot. _The two of them seem to be handling themselves okay, I need to stop this thing and find Master Jose._

Elsewhere in the giant robot Laxus had much the same idea, but he thought the power for the robot, and thus Jose, would be somewhere in the chest, considering it was the largest part of the robot and he couldn't think the power source they were using could be small. He was soon proven somewhat correct in that, and Laxus soon found himself in a room containing practically every guild member of Phantom Lord, including all of the smaller subsidiary branches. There were literally over a thousand mages in one huge room, working together in groups of ten to push magical power into lacrima set into the walls around the room.

In the center of the room was a far larger spherical lacrima, but rather than being a solid crystal it was a container created from lacrima in that shape. Laxus took a single glance and could see the magical energies roiling within it. _Yep, destroy that thing, and I'd bet the robot stops moving._

An instant later Laxus came under attack from several hundred mages. But he simply ignored most of them, or lashing out with a little barely formed lightning attacks, shouting "Small fry should know their place!"

The next instant he was next to the giant lacrima construct, his fist lashing out with a purely physical punch that shattered it, sending the magic within exploding in every direction an instant after he had flashed to the side of the room. Around him, the mages of Phantom Lord were flung about smashed into the floor or sides of the room by the explosion. Most of them fell unconscious, though several hundred were far enough halfway to avoid that fate. Others were closer and embraced unconsciousness to get away from the burns and broken bones they sustained in that explosion.

But instead of feeling the robot judder to a halt, Laxus heard a voice shout, "The Jupiter Cannon is offline! Repeat, Jupiter Cannon is down! Gun room, what are you doing?!"

Hearing that, Laxus tsked as around him the mages who remained conscious attacked him with a roar. "Fuck. That didn't work."

 **OOOOOOO**

Wendy and a few other Fairy Tail mages who had volunteered to help her with the wounded looked up as Juvia gasped from where she had been sitting between Anna and Lisanna, hunching forward. Wendy rushed over to her, noticing at the same time that Sol and Totomaru had both grimaced, as had Gajeel, the only one of the three men to be awake at this point. They were the only ones in the guild at the moment, "What's wrong?"

"SS…the guild, the Phantom has awoken." Juvia replied with a grimace, before explaining what she meant. "Our guild can transform under Master Jose's directions into a mobile battery in the shape of a human. Its movement and main weapon takes a tremendous amount of magic however, and Juvia and the other Element Four had to create pacts with Master Jose and the main Phantom Heart to power its movement, as did Gajeel."

Her listeners had various reactions. The girls simply gasped in shock, realizing what this meant for Juvia's health. Most of the others were just wondering what kind of magic could draining their magic away like this when they all, even Juvia, had anti-magic bracers on. Gajeel though set them straight. "Idiots, these things just stop us from using our magic, it doesn't do anything about our magical cores, the spell isn't coming from us, it's coming from Master Jose."

Jet and Droy had the loudest reactions, both amazed and horrified: amazed at the idea of a mech being real and horrified at the idea of Levy facing it. They shouted and screamed about how Levy might die until Carla rounded on them, hissing angrily. "Enough of that you two male sissies! As much as I hate to say it, Levy is probably safe as long as she is around Ranma or that other idiot Laxus. We'll just have to trust they can do something about this before the magical drain becomes too much for Juvia and these three louts."

 **OOOOOOO**

High above where Laxus was stuck dealing with the small fry, Ranma found the entrance to the head of the robot, where he figured he'd find the control room. He too had heard the earlier announcement and smiled at how much damage Laxus seemed to be dealing and the fact that it was him who found the control room first. Still smiling he raised a fist and brought it forward to smash into the hatch in front of him, smashing it off its hinges.

Inside, he found what looked like a bridge of a sci-fi ship, with about eight mages scattered around controlling the robot and a tall man in a wannabe-vampire kind of outfit only done in purple and black instead of just black. Ranma looked at him and decided this must be Jose, though he'd never gotten a description of the man before this. _That look of smug superiority and affronted rage though, that's the look of a leader who's day has not gone the way he wanted it to._

Stepping over the Threshold Ranma took up his normal lazy stance in order to further infuriate his opponents, his hands in his pockets as he looked around with a wide dangerous grin on his face. "A giant robot, transformed from your Guildhall I suppose? That definitely gives you some point for style my man. Seems a little fragile though."

"The robot is simply a container for the attack spell within," Master Jose admitted. "Its outer armor cannot be all that effective or else it would weigh the robot itself down and it would be even harder to move. But who are you? You are no Fairy Tail mage I know. I know all their more powerful members and you are not among them."

"Ahh, I suppose I should tell ya who I am before I beat you down." Still smirking Ranma tapped his broach causing the illusion over it to disappear for a moment. "I am Ranger Ranma, and I arrest you in the name of the King of Fiore and the King's Conclave. Please resist," he added with an even more dangerous glint in his eye, resembling more the look of a shark than any human's and he moved forward on light feet, still smirking at Master Jose.

Jose's eyes widened at that then narrowed. "So, the rumors that weakling Juvia heard about there being a Ranger in Fiore were real. Still, this seems to be more happenstance than anything else is. Why are you interfering with a guild versus guild issue? Do you have specific orders to do so?"

"No," Ranma said with a shake of his head. "But I was going to stop by and talk to you… well more punch you really," Ranma said correcting himself. "Your guild's made quite a nasty name for itself in other countries you now. You can't really have expected to get away with some of the extortion and other things you've been doing for so long did you?"

"Those were simply business arrangements. Phantom Lord prides itself on always giving the client what he or she wants, and we demand no more than they can afford."

"That is a laugh," Ranma shot back, starting forward another few steps, as his hands began to glow with magic. "And then there's this latest escapade. Starting a fight between guilds is forbidden, it has been forbidden throughout all of Ishgar for years, centuries even! And you thought you could get away with it somehow? You're both insane and stupid then!"

Master Jose growled and stood up, his magical aura flaring. Some of it was sucked into the magic lacrima beside him, which seems to protect his bridge crew members. The rest of it reached out for Ranma in a black miasma. "You dare! You might be a Ranger, but all that means is that you are good at sneaking around, and possibly a decent fighter. I am a **Wizard Saint**! You think you can fight me?! You think I will go with you quietly!? Dead men tell no tales Ranger!"

"We won't know what'll happen until we try," Ranma said, and then disappeared flashing forward faster than most could track. Claws of water magic energy covered his hands up to his elbow as he slashed at Jose.

Jose dodged back, shouting out a spell and lashing out with a beam of dark energy that Ranma had to duck away from, almost getting hit by a second but he blocked that one with one of his water covered fists, redirecting the energy. Several dozen shades appeared all around Ranma and began to attack as well, but he battered his way through them, then launched a long-range attack at Jose, forcing him to Dodge.

Jose returned a punch landing on Ranma's jaw staggering him backwards, but Jose was astonished that the boy was even still upright and then even more astonished when Ranma simply moved with the blow, and returned one that caught Jose in the chest. He blocked it with some of his magical power, but even so, it sent him skidding backwards. The boy was good, Jose had to admit. Despite that though, he knew he would win.

He raised his magical energies further, his eyes going entirely black as he did. An instant later he lashed out with a wide-angle beam that smashed Ranma back out through the doorway and into the corridor beyond before the younger man could dodge. Once the boy had disappeared for a second, Master Jose nodded to a corner, and then raced out the door after him.

Behind him, his bridge crew breathed a sigh of relief and pushed themselves back up from where they had collapsed under the pressure of his magical aura, shaking their heads in looking at one another. But then they went back to controlling the mech against the two mages on the ground, smashing Elfman out of the sky with a punch, and then nearly stepping on the other one before she could get out of the way.

Ranma rolled with the magical attack, ignoring the fact it had flash-fried the front of his shirt, shaking his head a little. "Okay, that one rang my bell a bit." Launching forward, Ranma caught Jose just as he exited the bridge room. "Soryu no Taitan Panchi! (Water Dragon's Titan Punch)!"

"Darkness stream!" the Wizard Saint shouted, gathering his magical aura around him and creating a huge gout of energy that cut through the fist, as he continued on, landing on the ceiling and then launching himself downwards along with several dozen attacks. It almost looked as if his magical aura had suddenly shifted into some kind of jellyfish shape with nasty looking hooks on the end of its tentacles, but Ranma blocked, dodged or dissipated them as he could.

He was nearly caught though a second later by another spell called Dead Wave. This one was a large purple beam of energy that came from Master Jose's other hand, and when Ranma dodged it drilled straight through the side of the mech and out into the air.

And then hundreds of smaller shades appeared which attacked Ranma from all sides. He dealt with them but he couldn't close with Master Jose, and was forced to rely on another long-range attack to try to dissipate Master Jose's assault. This worked when he aimed at Jose's foot rather than his body, sending Jose stumbling backwards. His type of magic wasn't very good at shielding, and Ranma was faster than he was, able to catch Jose on the bounce despite his own movement if he was tricky about it.

But when Ranma closed, Master Jose grabbed his arm in a decent arm lock, before bringing him close and hammering a punch into Ranma's face. To Jose surprised however Ranma just blinked, rocking his head backwards for a second. Then he kicked out hard, sending Jose back into a wall with a grunt of pain.

"Now Aria!" Jose shouted, and suddenly, two of the shades Rama had thought he had dealt with shifted form into an entirely different mage. He was a large man, almost as tall as Master Jose was, and wider in the shoulders, with a blindfold over his eyes. He cupped his hands to either side of Ranma, thumbs facing inwards as a magic circle appeared around them both. "Metsu!"

The magical attack flared and suddenly, Ranma could feel his magical energy draining away.

Both the newcomer and Jose began to laugh, staring as Ranma stumbled. "Airspace magic, Metsu! How tragic, you have been caught in a space I have created, which will drain you of all your magic, how sad!"

The magic around Ranma began to drain upwards, and the newcomer gasped at the sheer amount of it. _That is, that is more than I have ever seen before! It is almost as much as I would have expected from a Guild Master!_

Fearing what would happen if the magic kept on accumulating above the now shuddering Ranma, Aria began to dissipate it quickly, thrusting forward another hand and creating a second air space, with which he funneled the magic out into one of the cracks in the mech's hull nearby.

But Ranma hadn't stumbled because he was feeling weaker. No, he was feeling something all together different because thanks to Aria, the conflict within his body had finally been resolved. And indeed after Aria dissipated the magic he had siphoned off of Ranma, both he and Jose felt it, like a heavy thrum in the air.

It was as if the floodgates had been opened, or rather as if two competing forces that had been fighting for so long, pressing together with all of their might. Now one of them had disappeared and the other was left to roar on, full of power. Ranma's ki burst out of his reservoir, and flooded his entire body with energy. His body began to glow like a blue sun his eyes even more so as he pushed himself to his feet, the plate underneath him buckling as if under some great weight.

Looking down at his hands and body Ranma began to chuckle shaking his head as he felt the amount of power roaring through him.

Covering his eyes from the blue light Jose stared in shock. "Aria you fool, did you perform that spell accurately!?"

"I, I did!" Aria said, frowning and staring at Ranma. "But…could he have somehow discovered his Second Origin? I could not have drained that ifFFF!"

Before he could finish speaking Ranma disappeared. Not even Jose could follow his movement, until he suddenly appeared in front of Arias face, his punch a bare centimeter away from connecting. With no time to even set himself Aria found his body being flung backwards, his jaw not so much broken as simply destroyed, his teeth and jawbones almost completely shattered into a million pieces as he was flung backwards.

The pain caused Aria to scream, which caused them even more pain, and then Ranma's foot came down slamming into his chest in a stomp kick as Ranma flipped in the air, shattering ribs and sending Aria straight through the floor they had been fighting on and through several dozen more below.

Staring in shock, Jose barely dodged a punch that would've done the same thing to him as Ranma came back at him, laughing evilly.

Everything was so… so **weak**! _It was as if I was fighting for so long at less than fifty percent, I can barely understand what a hundred percent is anymore! Somehow, that guy must've used some kind of magic to drain my magical core away from me. And without it, the Dragon Slayer poison or whatever you want to call it is no longer fighting my ki._

All that Ranma had known before this, but now, standing in a cascading nimbus of blue power he understood something else. It wasn't exactly a moment of clarity since it was kind of obvious at this point, but it was no less world shaking for all of that. _But the fight between them, between my Dragon Slayer magic and my ki, has caused my ki to grow! To grow a lot more than I thought it had, or ever really imagined it ever could have!_

With a laugh somewhere between a guffaw and a mad, power-drunk cackle, Ranma launched himself towards his opponent. Jose could barely even see him disappear before Ranma was in his face, coming so fast he could only bring up his magic in an effort to block it.

The wind of the punch coming from Ranma was so fast it created a shockwave that broke through even Master Jose's defenses. This dissipating Jose's magic and then breaking his nose so badly it looked as if it had been crushed, and he stared at the Ranger, as he dodged backwards out of a hole in the side of the mech, hovering in the air outside. Once he had some distance, he shouted "Dead wave!"

This attack caught Ranma, but he smashed it to one side, his upper body glowing with blue energy, which seemed to shake off the attack easily and prepared to leap out after them.

But Laxus suddenly appeared behind Master Jose, a Rairyu No Hoko (Lightning Dragon's Roar) slamming into the man's back and sending Jose plummeting to the ground. He glared at Ranma, ignoring the fact his old frival was glowing bright blue and then gesturing to the robot. "You deal with that, I'll deal with Jose! He attacked **my** guild after all, it should be a Fairy Tail mage who deals with him."

Ranma growled, but nodded. "Fine, just don't blame me if the Magic Council complains about how much damage I do to the surrounding area when I do it!"

Both Elfman and Levy were hurting now. Levy had protected herself by using solid script to create a barrier of steel around her, but it had still been battered near flat on top of her, and she was out of the fight for now, trapped under her own construction. Elfman had taken by far the worst of it, unable to change from one form to another quickly enough to use his more defensive form. Elfman had been planted into the dirt several times, and then kicked like a ball to roll away a time or two.

Ranma took all this in at a glance, and then flipped himself up and out of the robot, racing up the side of it as if it was solid ground, his hands thrust out to either side as he began to gather ki. "Massive Moko Takabisha!" He shouted, thrusting out to either side as one of the fists came in.

The beams of power seared through the fist the robot attempted to smash him with, almost as if it had been like a plasma torch causing the fist itself to drop to the ground below them. The other fist disappeared entirely, along with a large portion of the arm, up to its elbow.

Then Ranma was leaping up and facing the robot head. Another blast of ki flashed out, and the people there barely had an instant to duck into cover behind their control stations before the head of the mech disappeared.

With that Ranma flipped himself backwards through the air, and then plummeted down, landing so hard he created a crater, but not even noticing it, stepping out of it and staring up at the robot before staring out over to the East, where Master Jose had been running , with Laxus in hot pursuit. "Dammit! I think I got jipped there!"

Then a shadow loomed over him, and he stared up at the foot coming down towards him. "Oh, it can still move. Awesome!"

The control point Ranma had found actually wasn't in the head, rather it was in the neck, which was now wide open to the sky, and filled with terrified but also very angry people who wanted to punish the mage who had just nearly killed them a second ago.

Ranma flung his hands up, and caught the thousand ton plus mech foot, and held it there for a moment before slowly bending his legs and arms, then thrusting them both upwards, hurling the giant mech not just off its feet but into the air for a few seconds before it plummeted down onto the foot which hadn't been trying to step on him, which began to buckle. Ranma laughed, then dashed forward, and punched the side of that leg, sending it skidding out under the main body of the mech and the mech collapsed onto its side.

He then grabbed the foot, and with barely any effort tore it loose in a flash of magical energies and to the sound of tortured metal and stone, tossing it to the side and cackling as he began to dismantle the mech uncaring that most of the wizards inside had now begun to run away.

Freed by Elfman from her self-made prison Levy did notice this, and quickly conjured up her cloud. Once aboard her cloud Levy raced forward and created a barrier around the area to corral the Phantom Lord Mage, with Elfman helping by pummeling any mage who attempted to attack her into the dirt. "Ranma, they're getting away!" Levy shouted.

At that, Ranma turned from his destructive fun and saw the escaping mages. "Make a corral not a barrier Levy. I'll get them," he shouted gleefully, still quite power-drunk at the moment.

With that, Ranma leaped from the rubble that had formerly been the Phantom Lord guildhall mecha. Landing he then concentrated and flashed forward. He moved so fast it was almost as if he created afterimages, each image grabbing a different mage and tossing them backwards towards Elfman or to where Levy had created a cage for them.

Once they were all in a pile, Ranma wagged a finger at them, and then said "stay put!" before leaping up onto the giant mech as it feebly tried to raise the stump of its arm. He grabbed that and then with a roar tore it out of its socket, hurling it over the cowering mages heads. He then turned to them and shouted "Or else!" Needless to say they all sat quietly, even putting their hands under their rears.

With that the final few mages in the control center surrendered, and Ranma quickly captured them too, tossing them over to join their fellows.

 **OOOOOOO**

Master Jose might have felt great pride in Phantom Lord, but it was a pride that he had held up to a mirror. Master Jose believed that he, personally, was Phantom Lord. _As long as I survive I can rebuild Phantom Lord, I can rebuild my guild, dark or not, and come back and have my revenge!_ He thought, stanching the blood flowing from his flattened nose as he flew through the air. But before that he thought, finally satisfied with the distance he had put between himself and Ranma and the fight going on back there _, I will kill Laxus! Sending his grandson's body back to Makarov will be a good start to reclaiming my pride from this humiliation!_

"You finally stopped running I see," Laxus said dryly as he came out of one of his teleportation lightning spells to land across from Jose in a small clearing in the forest. Cocking his head, he listened to the sound of the fight going on in the distance and smirked at Jose. "I don't think Ranma's going to leave you much of a guild, either in its members being conscious, or your guild itself being in one piece."

"Guild halls can be rebuilt, mages can be recruited. Perhaps this time after I am forced to be a dark mage, I will find mages strong enough not to fail me. But you won't be alive to see it boy." Once more Jose's eyes slowly shifted to a solid black, and even more magical power began to roll away from him than there had been previously. "Your corpse will be my final parting gift to your grandfather!"

Laxus cracked his neck, then for the first time today flung off his large fur coat along with his headphones. With that done he brought his hands in front of him, in a traditional martial arts stance as his own power began to thrum from all around him in a widening nimbus of crackling electrical energies. "If you think you can take it bring it on, you pansy-faced gothic bitch!"

The two of them roared towards one another, exchanging magical assaults and then physical ones, punching kicking, lashing out with lightning and darkness magic. Jose conjured shades around them to attack Laxus from different angles, but Laxus dissipated them with almost lazy blasts of lightning from the rest of his body concentrating on taking the fight to Jose in no uncertain terms. Jose landed the first real blow, Laxus losing a tooth to the punch, but Laxus returned it with a kick that sent Jose stumbling backwards.

"Shade entangle!" Jose shouted, conjuring up a far more solid shade out of the ground grab at Laxus' lower body. "Pain overflow!"

Laxus gritted his teeth at the pain, this cost him, their touches seeming to flare along his nerve endings like someone had set them on fire. But that wasn't enough, and Laxus pushed out his power from his body again, in a wide Nimbus that destroyed the shades. This opened him up to an attack from Jose, a Dead Wave that caught him in the center of his chest flinging him backward. But he rolled with it, smashing the attack into pieces with his own magic, and launching a "Rairyu No Hoko (Lightning Dragon's roar)!" back at Jose.

Jose barely dodged in turn, and then lashed out with another attack, which Laxus leaped away from, creating another spell that attacked Jose from multiple angles. "Rairyu no Gyomou (Lightning Dragon's Fishing Net)!"

This time Jose couldn't block or dissipate all of the attacks coming at him, and his body suffered. Several portions of his clothing were fried away by the lightning, taking damage.

After the attacks dissipated the two of them slowly circled one another, at a distance as they readied their next spells. "Such admirable strength of magic, yes, you are truly a man worth killing! All of you fairy mages, all of your willpower, I want to break it all, I want to force you to see sorrow and despair as I crush everything around you!" Jose said, nearly ranting. The fact he had been brought so low, his entire guild broken by so few mages had finally started to get to him mentally.

"I hear a lot of talking," Laxus said, thrusting his hands out to either side as lightning magic appeared around them, little tiny scales appearing on his face and arms. "If you think you are strong enough, to overcome my will, think again!"

The two of them continued the exchange with fervor sending smashing blows one another that shook the very air around them, but to Jose's astonishment and growing rage, Laxus seemed to be his equal. His lightning magic was an excellent foil for Jose's Shade-based magic, as well as his Death based Dead Wave school of spells. A Dark Pulse nearly got Laxus, burning his shoulder and arm somewhat but he kept on fighting, ignoring the wounds and staring at Jose with the same grim, determined gaze that he'd had the entire flight.

The two of them disengaged again and Laxus stood across from Jose, who was now breathing hard, glaring at him, while Laxus stared back resolutely. "One chance!" he said, the first words he'd spoken since the second engagement had started. "I will give you one chance to surrender. After that, I will deal with you as a Fairy Tail mage should." With that, he kept his hands one above the other in front of his chest and began to concentrate his magical energies into creating a spell he had learned from his grandfather.

Jose's finally snapped at that, the twitching vein on his forehead nearly bursting as his magical power, which had begun to fade, flared up once more around him, fueled by his rage and fury. This dark miasma filled the clearing pressing down towards Laxus. "You think, you think you have the right to judge me! You, a mere fairy! Die in the abyss of despair!"

Laxus didn't budge, his magical aura defending him from the attack of the other's magic, as she continued to concentrate more magic into the spell forming between his hands. _Concentrate_ he thought, _concentrate, create the image in your mind, and let the magic fill it, fill the reserve until you are brimming with it, until you can't take anymore._ "One."

"Very well, let's see which is stronger! Your so-called will, or my power!" Jose shouted back. Gathering his own power again, that the miasma disappearing from around Laxus, as he to concentrated all of his magical energies into his palms, crossing them in front of his face as he did so. The darkness in his hand becoming so black it seemed to suck in the light.

"Two." Laxus growled, gritting his teeth at the power of the spell he was creating.

Jose snarled, and lashed out with his own attack. "Shade style Secret Art, Well of Darkness!" This spell took the form of hundreds of tentacle like beams of power each of them so solid with purple and black energy they looked as if they were almost tangible rather than simply magical energy. They all lashed forward like whips, coming towards Laxus so fast that even at he wanted to, Laxus couldn't have dodged them.

But before it could hit, Laxus finished his own attack. "Fairy Tail Secret Art: Fairy Law!" he intoned slamming his hands together and crushing the golden sphere between them.

The golden light lashed out in every direction, burning away Jose's attack and not even stopping before it slammed into him and all around him, destroying the shadows around Jose. Jose flinched, holding up his hands in front of his face, but this didn't save him, and he screamed as his body was inundated by light.

When the attack finally finished dissipating several minutes later, Jose was unconscious, his eyes lolling back in his face, his chest barely moving. His skin had been turned into a pasty white color, his hair had been flash-fried off his head, along with much of his clothing, and the pressure of the attack had shattered his arms and numerous ribs from what Laxus could see. On his pasty chest, lay his Wizard Saint broach. The man was still alive, but Laxus doubted he'd ever be able to use magic again.

Laxus grunted, and took a step forward before shaking his head tiredly. That had taken a lot out of him, and he growled. "More training I suppose." Laxus knew he could have won that fight without resorting to the guild's secret magic, but he had learned about why Phantom Lord had been started from his grandfather. After that, he'd wanted to rub their guilds primacy into the body of the fool. With a grunt he reached down and grabbed Jose by his belt, which had miraculously survived, and began to drag him away, too tired to use his normal teleportation spells. He also pocketed the Wizard Saint badge. _I figure I've earned this now._

Arriving back where the main fight had occurred, he was not surprised to find the rest of Phantom Lord already captured, with Ranma sitting on the remains of the former Guildhall. He looked at Ranma, cocking his head thoughtfully as he took in the sight of his still blazing blue friend. "Can you do something about that? You're kind of conspicuous."

Ranma Looked down at himself, then closed his eyes for a second and concentrated. It was hard, like trying to push down on a spring the size of a city that had finally unwound after thousands of years. But he was eventually able to push it back into his reservoir, the glow around him disappearing though his eyes still glimmered a little. "So it turns out that if you drain my Dragon Slayer Magic away, it acts like releasing a spring on my other magic without so much of an issue as the other way around."

Giving him a deadpan look Laxus shook his head before smirking. "That makes no sense at all. But then again a lot of shit around you doesn't, so I'm not going to comment. Are you calling this in?"

Ranma nodded. "I kind of have to," he said apologetically. "Phantom Lord started this, but this," he gestured around at the destruction of the area around him. Luckily, the mech and Levy had both been traveling on the straight line from their opposite starting points, and had met well away from any human habitation. "This is too big for just me to deal with. The Magic Council will have to come in and take possession of these guys, and disposition from us and those back in Fiore."

Laxus nodded, then grunted and threw Master Jose over towards his fellows, who began to mutter in shock, staring at Jose's unconscious form. Ranma also looked at him, one eyebrow rising at the odd damage done, and the fact he felt like a barely alive baby in terms of strength. "What the fuck did you do to that guy?"

"Used one of my old man's spells," Laxus said with a shrug, then looked over at one of the mages he hadn't seen before a large man, whose face looked as if it had been stepped on by the mech, to say nothing of the fact his chest had been literally caved in to one side. Several of the other Phantom Lord mages were around him trying to keep him alive. "What did you do to that one?"

"Hit him twice once the idiot draining My Dragon Slayer magic away. One punch to the face, one kick to the chest." Ranma supplied.

Hearing this Laxus slowly nodded, while internally cursing angrily. It looked as if once Ranma was able to freely use both of his internal magics that he would gain a massive power up, to say nothing of his weapons, which he hadn't used at all in this fight. That was not good for Laxus, who still thought of himself as Ranma's rival. _Still, there are a few ways to gain more strength, and I bet my grandfather knows about more_.

The two of them moved over to Elfman and Levy, who both threw the two of them thumbs up from where they had been standing guard over the rest of the mages. The four of them talked for a time while watching the prisoners until a squadron of Rune Knights arrived, double marching from the nearest town after taking a train there.

As the Rune Knights were taking charge of the prisoners handcuffing them using anti-magic locks and loading them into carts, Natsu and several other Fairy Tail mages arrived from the same town having taken a different train to there as best they could until they saw a few Rune Knights who had been left behind to organize that end of things. Makarov had questioned their commander, and then he and the others had followed after the other Rune Knights.

Makarov used his magical aura somehow to fly through the air almost as fast as Natsu could with Happy on his back. Carla and Wendy were also there. Wendy immediately went to work seeing to Levy, Laxus and Elfman first and then healing the Phantom Lord Mages while Carla guarded her back just in case.

To her surprise, Ranma was uninjured. In fact, he was almost obscenely healthy, and he'd spent the time waiting for the Rune Knights in constant movement, never once standing still. Indeed even now he was moving around doing jumps, push-ups, anything to get rid of some of the energy he was feeling.

Makarov scowled, looking around and in particular Jose's comatose form and the shattered remains of the mecha. "Tsk, you brats didn't leave anything for the rest of us huh?"

"Yeah man! Kicking Rusty the studded maiden's ass wasn't enough for me!" Natsu whined, staring at the mech then actually pouting over at Ranma and the others. "I mean come on, how often are you going to be able to say you got to fight a mech! And you four hogged it!"

While Levy sweatdropped and just shook her head in total incomprehension and Elfman nodded commiseratingly, Laxus rolled his eyes and Ranma shrugged. "Sorry, you snooze you lose. And it really was an awesome fight," he said, rubbing it in a little. Despite not being so much of a social incompetent anymore, Ranma was still little bit of it an asshole to some people, and occasionally Natsu rubbed him the wrong way. "I mean, what man wouldn't want to fight a giant robot?"

As Natsu growled angrily at that Levy was nearly bowled over by Jet then an instant later Droy too plowed into her, the two boys hugging her tightly. "Levy! Oh my god we're so happy you're okay! Why'd you go off with those combat junkies?! Were you hurt at all, if any of those bastards hurt you point 'em out and we'll take care of them!"

Their words were so jumbled together and further distorted by their tears Levy could barely make them out, but she could get the gist of it, and rolled her eyes. She liked her teammates, but sometimes their desire to treat her like a glass doll bothering the heck out of her. _Especially since I've started to realize Laxus was right all those years ago: I really was selling my magic short by thinking it couldn't be used well in combat._

Minutes later the rest of the guild arrived, and Levy found herself happy that none of the others were in a rush to join the group hug. "Darn it you two, let go already, I can't breathe!"

Staring at her bookish friend, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll still have to apologize though," she said to herself morosely, not noticing that Cana had moved to her side and heard this. "It was my fault that Phantom Lord decided to attack Fairy Tail."

"Oh no you don't babe!" Cana said, startling Lucy out of her funk. "Phantom Lord hated Fairy Tail practically since its creation and Master Jose hated the old man since they got into it at a guild master meeting once. You can't blame yourself for that, and even if your presence was the final straw, it wasn't you who put a target on your back, but your asshole father."

Not part of this minor drama, Ranma turned to Makarov, holding Natsu away with one hand on the younger boy's head, ignoring the boy's attempts to light his hand on fire. "Did you bring the other prisoners?"

"No, we left them with some Knights in Magnolia," Makarov replied, looking bemused, staring at Natsu and the fact he'd lit his head on fire in an effort to get Ranma to let go, achieving nothing.

Both Ranma and the Guild Knight Commander nodded at that and went back to talking, staring into a communication Lacrima as they waited for the Magic Council to tell them what to do with the prisoners.

Makarov shook his head and grabbed Natsu in a Titan fist, pulling him away from Ranma so he could do his work in peace. Then he stared around the carnage the fight against the mecha had created of this once pristine area before shouting, "All right you idiots, enough sitting around. Let's clean up this mess a bit. The more we do now, the less blame we'll fall on our shoulders for all of this."

In actuality, thanks to Ultear having warned the Magic Council that Phantom Lord was looking to provoke Fairy Tail, Fairy Tail got off scot-free, much to their detractors on the council's annoyance. But with Ranma there giving a statement on what had happened and why, as well as the attempted kidnapping of another Guild's mage, Phantom Lord was swiftly labelled a dark guild and officially disbanded.

All of the Guild mages would be imprisoned. For many of them it would only amount to a few months in jail and then they would be forced to do some civil service. But for others, including the majority of the elements Four, Master Jose and Gajeel, it would amount to more than several year's worth of jail time. Aria and Master Jose in particular would be staying in jail for the rest of their lives, not that either man was in a position to complain. Ranma had stopped Wendy from healing them, and it would be many months, perhaps years before either of them was up to eating solid food, let alone doing anything more strenuous.

Gajeel would serve out a year in jail before being released. He and Totomaru had no other charges against them beyond what they had done during the attack on Fairy Tail, and both had professed they performed the attack out of loyalty to the guild. Sol was somewhere between them and Jose and Aria, having many other crimes that could be linked back to him and his actions as a Phantom Lord mage, and having a sadistic streak a mile wide.

The only one not getting any jail time was Juvia Lockser, who at the request of Anna and with Master Makarov also pleading her case, was released to Fairy Tail for observation. Ranma supposed that the girl would soon join the guild and was happy for her. Even if they hadn't interacted much she had seemed like someone who had been stuck with a bad crowd.

All this talking of course took several days. Ranma had to give statements in front of the Magic Council and had to do a professional write-up for them and for the king. He'd even had to get Laxus to do the same thing about his own fight with Jose, given Jose's Wizard Saint Status. Whether or not Laxus had earned his own Saint title in that fight against the original one, what's up in the air, but Ranma rather thought he had.

Finally though they were let go, and allowed to return to Magnolia. There, Ranma turned Juvia over to Anna. The silver haired girl gleefully hugged her friend, who hugged back just as tightly, actually weeping happily.

"What is it with happy tears anyway?" Ranma asked as an aside to Laxus as the two of them moved around the two girls, Laxus taking a moment to ruffle Anna's hair before following Ranma.

"Dude, you're a girl half the time," Laxus said with a smirk and an eye-roll as he fiddled with his headphones. "If you don't understand how the hell am I supposed to know?"

"You have a lot more experience with girls in a dating sense than I do," Ranma said dryly.

Laxus just shook his head at that, and the two Dragon Slayers moved through the town, heading towards the Guild Hall. The damage from the two fights had been repaired relatively quickly thanks to Fairy Tail mages.

Even their Guild Hall had been repaired and work was going on to expand it slightly. A pool would be added to one side of it, and an enlarged second floor with wraparound balcony, sticking out over half of the backyard and housing the pool along the left side of the hall. A third floor would then be added to be a sort of S-class hangout/sitting area, smaller and more richly accoutered than the rest. Makarov had been thinking about making these changes to the hall for a while, and had used the damages done by Gajeel's attack on it as an excuse to get it done.

Pushing the door to the Guild Hall open Laxus shouted, "Hey old man, we're done with the Council."

"I heard over the lacrima," Makarov shouted from his familiar perch on one of the bars, waving a tankard as large as his own head. The rest of the hall however had been reorganized slightly, with a stage set up to one side in front of the small hospital and office wing, with the tables replaced by lines of seats. "And you're just in time! Gray and the others still have to be punished for taking an S class mission without permission and we're just about ready for the ceremony!"

"Oh yes!" Ranma said slapping her hands together. Ranma had decided to bite the bullet and get his female body over her monthly during the enforced downtime spent doing reports. She was still somewhat overly emotional, but had gotten a handle on it. "I have been waiting for this moment."

"Given how we had to wait to punish them I decided to make it even worse," Makarov said to the two Dragon Slayers as they sat near him at the back of the crowd. I got Mirajane and her two sisters involved in choosing outfits for them all! This is going to be epic!"

"I should've bought a camera," Laxus said with a smile, leaning back against the side of the bar, nodding thanks to Reedus, who had seemingly taken over the bar duties for the moment. Everyone was talking, chuckling quietly, and staring at this stage and the curtain closing off the back hall.

"I take it Mira's calmed down from missing the action?" Ranma asked, wincing. Mira's initial response to Gajeel's attack on her sisters while she had been on a modeling gig - which had turned out to be bogus, set up by Jose to get one of Fairy Tail's S-class mages out of the way - had been practically apocalyptic. Makarov had needed to physically restrain her from breaking into the prison housing the Dragon Slayer for the express purpose of killing him.

"Yes, Anna and Lisanna were eventually able to talk her down," Makarov replied dryly, looking down at his palm with a rueful look where Mira's magic had actually singed his hand when he grabbed her in his Titan-sized fist.

Wendy moved out of the crowd with Carla in her human guise next to her moving over to Ranma, who had moved to sit a table in the back of the crowd, whereupon Ranma pulled the younger girl up into her lap, looking at Carla quizzically. "You look like you're looking forward to this nearly as much as I am Carla."

"Oh you had better believe I am Ranma! Hehe, let that idiot tomcat see how it's like to be on the other side of things for once!" Carla said, actually rubbing her hands together.

"Mou, that's not very nice," Wendy said and then smiled somewhat sheepishly. "Although, I am kind of interested in seeing what they all look like."

Bisca, Cana, Erza and Alzack moved to join the Dragon Slayer siblings, flushing out the table as Cana set down a few drinks around for the others. ""You're not the only one short and cutey." The lush said.

"Oh?" Bisca asked, smiling as she sat next to Ranma and felt Ranma's hand find hers under the table, squeezing once before moving away. But her main attention was on Cana as she went on teasingly. "I think I can guess who you're interested in seeing in a new form~," she trilled.

Cana surprised the others by not replying instead simply raising a keg to her lips from beside her, resolutely turning away from the others to look at the stage. The others then turned to look at Bisca, who shook her head winking at them.

Setting that minor mystery to one side, Erza looked over at Ranma. "Since Porlyusica hasn't returned yet, will you go ahead with your idea of clandestinely recruiting from other guilds?"

"Yeah, I might, after, well, you know…" Ranma gestured down at herself. "After this wears off. I don't exactly have a problem with my female body anymore, but this time of the month, that I've got a major issue with."

The women around the table nodded commiseration while Alzack looked a little uncomfortable.

"Although I seem to be putting off a smell that's keeping Natsu away from me, so there's that." Natsu had attempted to fight Ranma the other day before he left for the Council's meeting that day, only to take one sniff and back off, his face so pale it was like he'd seen a ghost.

"Ha! I wonder why?" Cana said, slapping her keg back down on the ground and waving a finger at Erza. "Could it have anything to do with someone at this table having taken her first womanly time very badly and nearly beating every boy in the guild into a coma?"

Erza huffed while Ranma threw an arm over her shoulder. "Don't worry about it Erza, it's perfectly understandable. The first time it happened to me I spent about an hour screaming and running around shouting about…"

"Yes well!" Alzack interrupted, looking very green while the girls at the table smirked at him. "So, did the council tell you more about how the interrogations of that dark guild we captured were going?" He asked, desperate to change the subject.

"Nope, not yet. They are taking it slowly, questioning them one at a time, and of course most of that work was interrupted by this pile o' crap with Phantom Lord." Ranma replied, moving away slightly from her fellow redhead though Erza had seemed to have no objection to the contact, something Ranma noticed, just as he had earlier noticed Bisca giving Ranma's hand a squeeze despite his current female form.

At that moment one of the many guildmates Ranma hadn't been introduced to yet hopped up onto the stage and began to speak into a microphone. "Hey everyone, this Max Alors, and I welcome you to the show! As you all know, the Master instituted a special kind of punishment a few years back for infractions against Guild rules. Today, we have not one, but four people who broke Guild rules Harshly enough to be punished with… **That!"**

This cause many hoots and hollers as side conversations ended or shifted in focus and everyone looked to the stage. Max nodded at that response and then waved grandly at the sheet covering the entrance to the hallway beyond. "Now, without further ado may I present our first guilty party, Happy!"

"No!" shouted Happy, in a far more feminine, almost pure alto, voice than normal. "This is not cool! Carla's out there, she'll laugh at me!"

"Good gracious yes I'm going to laugh at you! Now get out here and give me my entertainment tomcat!" Carla shouted, causing further gaiety amongst the crowd, especially from those who knew the female Exceed. Most of the guild was still coming to terms with how much more mellow Carla since having left the guild so many years ago.

Despite Happy's protests, he was pushed out by a laughing Lisanna to show the Guild his new form. In point of fact, Happy was now a she: a blue-furred little female Exceed rather than a male. She was dressed in a dress that must've been loaned them from Carla, had some pearls dangling around her chest, and a bluebonnet on top of her head. "This itches and isn't comfortable!" Happy shouted at the top of her lungs. "You're all meanies!"

"You knew the rules!" Makarov shouted, over the guffaws of the crowd. And Carla was indeed among those laughing, a sight that caused Happy to moan in despair. "You can't then turn around and say you don't want to be punished for it."

Slouching to one side, fem-Happy crossed her arms and stared out over the crowd.

As the announcer talked up the crowd for Happy, Ranma leaned in and asked Erza, "Do you know where Makarov found that potion?"

"According to Master Makarov there was an old member of Fairy Tail who specialized in odd potions like that, and the two of them hit on this idea years before Master Makarov became guild Master."

Ranma nodded, then turned her attention back to the stage, where Natsu had just been pushed out. He too into had been turned into a woman, momentarily anyway the potion according to Makarov would only last about two hours.

Unlike how Natsu normally dressed Fem-Natsu was dressed in a tight fitting shirt and jeans, showing off a rather impressive chest, which made Ranma wonder if there was maybe something inherent in the male to female transformation that caused female bodies to grow like that. Natsu's hair had also been tamed, into some kind of girly bowl-cut that reminded Ranma of Nabiki, which was all they could do with it given its length. She even wore lipstick, and rouge on her cheeks.

Despite all that though, Natsu made for an **ugly** looking girl. There was just something un-feminine about his face that carried over, and the way he moved was still that of a guy. This was made worse by the snarl on her face, showing outsized incisors.

While many of the boys in the Guild clapped or jeered, Ranma shouted, "Know my pain and feel my suffering!" Then he and Laxus from his position at the bar began to take pictures.

"Why you!" Natsu made to leap off the stage, but Makarov had moved into the crowd when Natsu had come out, and grabbed him with a large Titan-sized fist, holding him still and then pushing him to one side.

"Right, let's keep it going folks!" Max said, sweatdropping as Natsu growled and Happy began to make dire threats to do with fish and where they could be thrust. _Where the hell did Happy learn to speak like that!?_ "Here's our first originally female victim everyone. Lock up your daughter's people, because here comes Male Lucy!"

Lucy stepped out from behind the cover, stalking forward confidently and smiling out over the crowd and a lot of the girls watching went crazy, hooting and shouting in amusement. Much to the dismay of several of the members of the Guild, Lucy made for a rather handsome man. He was dressed in jeans, a loose blazer, and a good undershirt, which showed off some muscles that were normally hidden under her large chest. Her legs were long and tight with muscle, and even his face looked good, almost as pretty as Loke's. Lucy had his hair also down in a long braid that fell down her back.

Smiling around Lucy took it like a trooper, having decided that this was recompense not just for breaking the rules but also for putting the guild in danger. Lucy even posed a bit, smiling at the crowd this way and that. "I don't know what the fuss is about," he said, "this is kind of interesting. So long as I don't have to go to the bathroom anyway. My back doesn't hurt me in this form anyway, which is nice too."

There are a lot of laughter at that and claps for Lucy being a good sport, while Cana promised herself that the two of them would be talking in a few moments. The sight of Lucy as a guy was… interesting. But not as interesting as Lucy as a girl.

The final one to come out was Gray, and he had to be pushed out by Mirajane. Despite his protests though, Gray was easily the best looking in his alternate form. While his hair was just as short as Natsu's, it had been combed back into a rather nice short style, which parted to one side, with a little bow placed there. Fem-Gray didn't wear rouge on her cheeks, though her lips were slightly pink with an understated amount of lipstick, and her face had shifted into a quite cute female version of Gray's normal face. Gray also wore a cocktail dress, which showed she didn't have as much up top as Natsu, but also showed a lot more of her leg than Natsu's clothing had.

At the sight, the whole guild fell silent for a moment before one wag said "Damn, where's Gray's stripping habit when you need it?"

"Yeah Gray!" shouted Wakaba. "This time when you show your pale ass we might enjoy the sight rather than be sick because of it!"

Ranma and the others at his table joined in the laughter at that while Gray catapulted herself off the stage and into Wakaba, baring the older man to the floor with a scream of feminine fury. Swiftly another full scale brawl had developed, while Ranma leaned back watching in amusement reflecting that Fairy Tail was one hell of a fun place to be. _Maybe, just maybe I might have found a place to come back to from my wanderings._

At that, the unnatural redhead's gaze flicked from side to side as he watched Bisca and Erza laughing and clapping along Wendy, Erza in too good a mood to bother with ending the fight. _Yeah this place could be a lot of fun._

 **End Chapter**

* * *

Hmm… I feel as if Ranma really didn't have much of a chance to shine in this, but that was due to the power up he got all of a sudden, making the fight rather anticlimactic. Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter regardless, and can see that Ranma might be changing his mind slowly about settling down.


End file.
